OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. – When Tahoe Endurance launched four years ago, the mission was simple: support young athletes’ access to the mountains and let them play. The sports would change with the seasons, Nordic skiing in winter and adventuring in the mountains in summer, but the philosophy would stay constant: work hard, have fun, and trust that athletes who move through the mountains in many different ways will become well rounded happy people.

That philosophy, born on snow, just delivered the defining team performance of the inaugural Nike Trail Nationals at the Broken Arrow Skyrace weekend. 

Competing against the top youth trail running programs in the country, Tahoe Endurance claimed the overall team title with athletes taking the podium across multiple categories. For a program that identifies primarily as a Nordic skiing club, it was a statement moment for the team and for the broader idea that the mountains produce generalist champions.

A Nordic Powerhouse Takes a New Line

Tahoe Endurance is coached by Quinn Lehmkuhl and Julien Bordes, who serve as co-head coaches, alongside coach Etienne Bordes and Devo team coach Zack Karas. With a roster of roughly 25 junior and devo athletes, the program has already made a remarkable mark on snow: 33 All-American titles and 5 National Champion titles in cross country skiing. 

When Nike announced the inaugural Trail Nationals was taking place at Palisades Tahoe, practically in the team’s backyard, the athletes were eager to race it and the opportunity was impossible to ignore. Applying the same framework that had worked on skis: distributing volume across multiple sports, not over-specializing, and making sure the process is rooted in fun and enjoyment, the athletes began to prepare for NTN. 

While the results speak for themselves, it is more the smiles that were seen on course, and the athletes counting down the days until they can do it again next year that is the true win.

The Results

The scope of Tahoe Endurance’s performance at Nike Trail Nationals was striking across every age group.

In the Kestrel U14 race, Syrus Hansen came in tenth for the boys, and Ave Adriani took sixth for the girls.

In the U18-U20 Eagle women’s race, Raegan Czeschin crowned herself the overall junior women’s national champion, taking gold. Teammate Hailey Gordon came in 18th for the U18 women’s field.

The U20 women’s podium was a Tahoe Endurance sweep. Britta Johnson took first, Aili Scott finished second, and Niki Johnson claimed third.

The U18 men showed similar depth. Elio Adriani finished second, Luka Karnickis placed fourth, Reed Higerd finished 14th, and Xavier Layh crossed in 18th. 

In the U20 Men’s race, Pierce Bolen added a fifth-place finish to the team’s total.

Combined, it led Tahoe Endurance to take the overall team title.

The Philosophy Behind the Performance

What makes Tahoe Endurance’s approach distinctive, and what makes this result worth paying attention to, is what it says about how to develop mountain athletes.

In an era of early specialization, the Tahoe Endurance programs double down on variety. Athletes ski, run, hike, bike, and swim. Training blocks are designed so that no single sport or sport type dominates the load. The goal is to build a complete mountain athlete whose aerobic engine and movement efficiency transfers across disciplines. Nordic skiing, with its full-body demands and high volume of non-impact work, is an exceptional foundation for trail running. The transition is not a stretch but a natural expression of the same fitness.

The team culture reinforces the approach. Tahoe Endurance athletes are known for pushing each other hard and recovering even harder, jumping in alpine lakes after big training days, spending time in the mountains outside of structured workouts, and building the kind of genuine camaraderie that makes a team more than the sum of its parts. Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area with its trails, peaks, and tight-knit community of mountain athletes, is the perfect environment for it.

A Community Effort

The coaches were quick to acknowledge that a performance like this doesn’t happen in isolation. The Tahoe community who share a love of the mountains is part of what makes the program possible. That connection runs deep: every year since the program was founded, Tahoe Endurance has volunteered to run aid stations for the Broken Arrow races, the event series that Nike Trail Nationals is a part of. The team doesn’t just compete in the community — it shows up to serve it.

A special thanks is owed to Brendan Madigan, the race director who brought Nike Trail Nationals to life in its inaugural year. Creating a brand-new national championship from scratch is no small feat, and the event gave young mountain athletes a stage worthy of their abilities. If the first edition is any indication of what’s to come, this race has a bright future, and so does the sport.

For Tahoe Endurance, this is not a pivot away from nordic skiing. It is proof of concept. The same athletes who will line up on snow this winter just stood on national podiums in trail running. That’s the point. That’s always been the point.

And the program is not stopping there. Tahoe Endurance is expanding into the broader community, bringing what has been built for junior athletes to masters athletes through a newly launched masters program. The team is also exploring the creation of a community mountain running team built on the same philosophy that drove this success. The vision is simple: more people, more mountains, more fun!