CCHS foreign exchange student Emma Sexauer placed 78th at state. Photos courtesy of MN Prep Photo
Reilly Wahlers left everything on the hill in her sixth straight appearance at the Minnesota State Alpine championships, finishing in 10th place. Reilly placed 17th last year.
The senior from Grand Marais made the podium for the first time. The top 10 earn medals, and according to her coach, Charles Lamb, this was a medal well deserved.
After years of hard work and dedication, Lamb was thrilled for his skier’s hard earned success.
“That was huge. Reilly really stepped up and left it all out there. She did really well and made the podium,” he said.
Wahlers’ time for her two runs was 1:14:88. Peyton Servais of Lakeville North took first place with a time of 1:11.18. Wahlers was within one second of the four girls who placed just ahead of her.
The meet was held on Giants Ridge’s Helsinki and Innsbruck hills. According to coach Lamb, the snow was perfect, a high of 25F, with snow coming off the trees from the previous day’s sixinch snowfall making the whole area look like it was in a snow globe.
CCHS senior Elsa Lunde finished 69th in the state alpine meet.
“Overall it was a great day for racing,” he added.
Wahlers wasn’t the only skier to represent Cook County.
Will Surbaugh was the lone boy from Cook County to qualify for state. Will placed 38th.
“Will finished in the upper middle pack,” Lamb said. “There were a lot of boys crashing in the second run. A lot of DNFs. I was proud to see Will stand up and finish.”
Meanwhile the small Cook County/Silver Bay girls’ team, which was a surprise to qualify for state, placed eighth out of eight teams, but they were only one point behind Stillwater with 2,595 kids, the largest high school in Minnesota.
Edina boys and Lakeville South girls won the team titles.
For the girls Sela Backstrom placed 53, Kalina Dimatrova 68, Elsa Lunde 69, and Emma Sexauer finished 78.
“Sela skied fast, she finished in the middle of the pack,” said Lamb. “The other girls skied their best races of the season. Kalina, a seventh grader, was the youngest skier in the field. Emma is the first foreign exchange student we could think of that has skied at state for us,” said Lamb. Emma is from Germany.
Kalina Dimatrova finished one place ahead of Elsa in 68th.
All told the boys’ and girls’ ski teams this year consisted of a total of 14 kids, only one coming from Silver Bay.
Although Will Surbaugh is a junior Lamb said that rumor has it he will graduate this year and head to college. Next year Halle Lamb, his daughter, will return for her senior year. Halle was hurt mid-season and ended up helping her teammates by radioing instructions to them about course conditions from the bottom of the hill as the races were being run.
As for the seniors graduating, Reilly, Sela, Elsa, Emma, and Will, coach Lamb said he had a really good time with this group of kids and he will miss them.
Reilly Wahlers, low and cutting the gate to the bone, placed 10th.
Sela Backstrom took 53rd, qualifying for the second time as an individual and with her team.
Will Surbaugh was the lone boy to qualify this year. He placed 38th.
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