Above: Although he’s only an eighth grader, Logan Backstrom displays the technique of someone who has raced for years. His sharp attention to detail and his skill earned him first place in the team’s first meet of the season held at Lutsen Mountains.
In his lengthy tenure, Alpine Head Coach Jim Vick indicated he cannot recall a full field meet where any regional team, boys or girls, took six of the top 10 places in a given meet. Matter-of-fact, having an eighth-grader placing first may also require some research for it too may be for the record books. Well, welcome to your stellar boys’ ski team—that’s exactly what they did last week at the Cook County Invitational at Lutsen Mountains; claiming first place out of eight teams in the first meet of the season.
Eighth-grader Logan Backstrom ripped two clean runs to stand on the podium as the fastest racer of the day. Thereafter, the team remained solid. Seniors Luke Fenwick and Collin Berglund, 4th and 5th, eighth-grade standout Will Lamb with 6th, were followed by Seniors Dexter Yoki 9th and Kyle Martinson 10th. Team Co-Captain Anders Zimmer said, “Our boys’ team is aware we will be in the cross-hairs all season long. Other teams will be gunning for us. I’m hopeful I can help keep the team focused one meet at a time and remain focused on the very basic fundamentals of ski racing. If we can do that, it’s going to be an exciting season.”
Left: Senior Signe Larson placed third in the girls’ slalom race and led the Viking girls’ team to a third place finish out of eight teams. Above: Anders Zimmer had a great second run but missed a gate on his first run and had to go back and go around it, losing precious time. Although he had an off day, the deep boys’ team still had enough firepower to place first in the eight-team meet.
For a very young team, the girls finished with an impressive 3rd place from eight regional teams and 73 racers. The girls were led by team Co-Captain Signe Larson with a 3rd place overall finish. Following Sig was Megan Lehto in 11th, Ava McMillan 15th, Madysen McKeever 23rd and Alyssa Martinson 31st. “The girls’ team is very young. Signe is our only senior with Megan our leading junior. There is a swarm of underclassmen led by 10th-grader Ava McMillan, 9th-grader Morgan Weyrens- Welch and a deep and impressive young group of ski racers thereafter,” said Head Coach Vick. “As this team develops through the year, I’m looking for them all to climb up the leader board.”
The girls’ team is fielded with 16 skiers and any of the 16 girls are capable of running in the Vikings’ top 10 racer order. That’s what is impressive. The boys are deep up top while the girls are deep through the mid-section. And both combinations can provide notable results.
The Alpine skiers compete at Giants Ridge on December 21, the last meet before the Christmas/New Year break. Stay tuned!
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