Displaying items by tag: Nordic Skiing

[Photos provided]

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Alex Fragomeni, a junior at Saratoga Springs High School, just celebrated his seventeenth birthday on the slopes in Utah during Junior Nationals. Fragomeni has been Nordic skiing for the last three years, through the school and club skiing, having just competed in his first Junior Nationals competition two weeks ago.

“It was a really exciting event. It was my first time going to a big race like that. I had a lot of nerves, a lot of excitement, and it was also my first time at altitude, so races were really tricky. When you’re at altitude, if you’re going as hard as you can, and you just don’t have any oxygen to breathe, it’s a whole 20 minutes of being in the pain cave, and it just hurts,” Fragomeni laughed, “other than that, the races were amazing. It was a great venue and great weather.”

Fragomeni was encouraged to try Nordic skiing by his "nana" and "poppy."

“My nana and poppy had a daughter and she was really into skiing, she made a lot of noise in the community with her good results, and she saw that in me. I kept getting older and older and she was like, ‘maybe I can get him into it and make him have some noise and get crowds going.’ After that, she told me I should join the Nordic Ski program at Saratoga Springs High School and ever since then I’ve been so hooked on it, just wanting to do it more and more,” he explained.

Before Fragomeni became hooked on Nordic, he was a competitive rower for five years, but since Nordic has taken over, he trains for that year-long. In the offseason, Fragomeni trains with a lot of roller skiing, running, and biking.

“I went on a really exciting roller ski one day. I decided, I’m just going to get up and go for a super long time. I ended up going for eight hours straight and covered over 100 kilometers at SPAC. I just went around in circles,” he laughed.

Fragomeni went to Junior Nationals and went to the Eastern High School Championships in Maine with friend and fellow skier, Michael Halligan.

“We’re really close. Over the summer I didn’t have my car, so I’d bike to Mikey’s house with all of my roller skis on my back and then he’d drive us to SPAC and we would just go for really long roller skis together,” Fragomeni said.

The boys met through Nordic skiing.

Fragomeni cites the races in Maine as, “best couple races of my life. Amazing results, amazing races, amazing experience!”

In the off-season, Fragomeni trains with assistant club coach Brian Halligan, Michael’s older brother.

“My biggest inspiration is Brian Halligan. We’ve become really close,” he explained.

Fragomeni says his biggest supporters are definitely his mom and grandparents, and he’s also very close to his three sisters: Olivia, Bella, and Francesca.

“I have three sisters, they’re always at every race cheering me on. We always go together anywhere, even if it’s just to the grocery store,” he explained.

In his off time, Fragomeni enjoys rock climbing and hanging out with his friends.

“I really like to get outside,” he explained, “I don’t like being stuck inside in the dark.”

As far as his academics go, he says his “grades slip a little” during the season but he knows that he has to stay on top of them if he wants to get into a good college. While he says that his school ski team is like a small supportive family, he prefers club skiing to school skiing.

“Definitely prefer club skiing over school skiing. It’s a different level of competition, a lot more competitive, and there’s also a lot more travel,” he said.

Fragomeni has decided to take a couple weeks off now that the season is over, but he intends to go back to training around Mid-April. Over the summer he will be intensely training to return to Junior Nationals next year, where he wants to be one of the top athletes. Still, his favorite part of skiing is the sport itself.

“Just being at the race, being in the moment, and just having the crowd cheer you on while you do what you do best,” he said.

[Photos provided]

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Michael Halligan, an 18-yearold senior at Saratoga Central Catholic High School has been Nordic skiing since he can remember. He cites his dad as his introduction to skiing.

“When I was born he put me on skis,” Halligan laughed, “as long as I can remember, I’ve always been on skis.”

Halligan just got back from the Junior Nationals Competition in Utah. In order to qualify, he had to ski two races in Rochester and two in Lake Placid.

“It was a pretty good season, I wasn’t really expecting to do that much better than I did last season. After the first couple races, I kind of just started getting into the groove of things and got progressively better. I’m really pleased with how all of it turned out. It was really something that I’m never going to forget. That was one of the best experiences that I’m ever going to have. Just going to Utah and skiing with such a good team and also racing with different competitors, I couldn’t really ask for anything better. Getting there was really hard, but it was definitely worth it,” Halligan explained.

Halligan’s aforementioned father, Sean, is his Nordic coach at Spa Catholic, and his brother is his club coach.

“Both of them together really paved the pathway for me to do the best I can, and I can’t thank them enough,” Halligan said.

Halligan was satisfied with his results in Utah.

“My outcomes in Utah were okay,” he laughed, “I didn’t really expect to do that well considering the fact that I was skiing against some of the top athletes in the country, but I was definitely toward the bottom of the list. I am pretty happy with my results though, I didn’t come in last in any of the races so that’s good.”

Aside from skiing, Halligan also runs cross-country in the fall and track in the spring. Halligan transferred to Spa Catholic in seventh grade after being a Maple Avenue student. He is an honor roll student with grades in the high nineties, and enjoys his creative writing class the most.

“I just recently put my down payment on St. Michael’s College and I will be skiing for them, they’re a Division II school,” he explained.

He intends to major in Digital Media and Journalism.

“I’m really into making music, too. I play bass, and I’m really into audio production. I helped a couple friends out with making songs for them. It’s a side hobby,” Halligan said, explaining how he spends his free-time.

Halligan is also a part of Peer Ministry, a religious community service club that runs retreats for the lower classmen to spread the Christian value.

“We really like to help out the community as much as possible, our school community but also the Saratoga community as a whole,” he explained.

Halligan will be wrapping up his Nordic season on March 16 – 18 in the Eastern High School Championships, taking place in Maine.

“I think that’s going to be really good. The altitude [in Utah] took a lot out of me during Junior Nationals so I feel like in Maine, I’m going to have way better results. I’m really excited about it,” he said.