New St. Michael's head coach Annika Martell knows she's stepping into a Nordic ski program with significant momentum. Once an Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association bottom feeder, the Purple Knights have risen to become regular top-5 carnival contenders with consecutive years of NCAA championship representation. Martell will have a couple Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athletes helping to keep the energy going this winter.

"The athletes are excited, they want to be here, they want to be skiing and working hard. That's something that really attracted me to this place — just to keep this train going," said Martell, an assistant at Williams College the past four years. 

Keely Hendricks returns for her sophomore year while her former SSCV teammate, Andrew Lombardi, is headed to Colchester, Vermont as part of the six-athlete incoming class of 2029.

"Annika seems awesome and it will be good to have another teammate there," said Hendricks.

Martell takes over for 13-year head coach Molly Peters, who is staying in the building as the head cross-country and track coach. Martell said her predecessor has been helpful in the transition.

"I feel like we're going to work really well together," said Martell, who is leading 13 women and 12 men into action this winter. She lost 2025 NCAA-qualifier Declan Hutchinson to graduation, but inherits fellow qualifiers Oliver Miatke and Norwegian Henrik Wist.

Lombardi is coming off a season which saw him place 10th in the U20 individual classic start race at Junior Nationals last March in Soldier Hollow, Utah. Hendricks, meanwhile, competed in 11 races at six carnivals in her collegiate debut season. At the conference opener, limited snow forced organizers to hold an 8-kilometer race on a 1-kilometer snowmaking loop. But the intimate setting only enhanced Hendricks' "welcome to the EISA" moment.

"I was coming up the hill and there was just music blaring and everyone cheering. It was literally rows of people watching the race," she said. "The energy was crazy. The races definitely live up to the name 'carnival.'"

"There's a serious aspect to it where everyone wants to do well, but they make it so fun," she continued. "The music, parents come and bring us food, all the teams get ready in the lodge, talking and having fun with each other. There's definitely those little rivalries, but it's not like when we did the college races in the West."

Former SSCV Nordic program director Dan Weiland went out East for the race to watch some of his former athletes in action. Izzy Glackin is at Bates; Emma Barsness is at the University of New Hampshire; Haley Brewster and Rose Horning compete for the University of Vermont, while Emma Reeder and Adele Horning are at Dartmouth — just to name a few.

"There are so many ski club kids racing on the East coast — Alpine and Nordic," Hendricks said. At St. Michael's, SSCV alumna Kyleena Lathram also returns for her third season on the Alpine roster.

Hendricks' best showing — a 39th in the 20-kilometer freestyle — came at the St. Lawrence Carnival in Lake Placid on Jan. 17. The cold, snowy conditions were quite a bit different than the wet slop she endured the last time she raced at Mt. Van Hoevenberg as an SSCV skier at the 2024 Junior Nationals.

"There were people crashing all over the place," Hendricks said, recalling her first visit to the 1980 Olympic venue. "But when the snow is perfect, I think it's my favorite venue."

Lake Placid will host the U.S. senior national championships this January. That event is expected to be well attended since the best skiers on the planet will return for the World Cup Finals in March. Martell knows a thing or two about the top circuit: she served as a Trail to Gold fellow with the U.S. Ski Team in 2022 and 2023. The opportunity tapped the Colby College alumna into the U.S. Ski Team staff — both from a coaching and ski tech side — at multiple European World Cup stops.

"Some of that has really influenced where I am today because of the opportunity to work with high-level athletes and learn from them and work from high-level staff and learn from them," she said. One takeaway from shadowing U.S. coaches Chris Grover, Matt Whitcomb and the like was learning to be "adaptable to each athlete."

"Hearing how they speak to different athletes," she said. "They're able to adapt their language, their analogies on technique, their energy or softness, the number of words."

When it comes to working with Hendricks, Martell said she's eager to see her pupil continue to improve as she adjusts to college life.

"Sometimes the first year can be hard because every single thing is hard. It's really difficult to make that transition and feel super satisfied with the ski season," Martell said. "She seems really ready to go and excited to get back at it with the team."

Hendricks said she's amped up the duration and intensity in most of her workouts this summer. While she broke her collarbone in an August mountain bike crash, she's optimistic about preserving the fitness until she's cleared to rollerski again.

"I think it's going to be a really good year," Hendricks said. "The coach brings a lot of good energy and I think the team is really excited."