Above: Madysen McKeever, Haley Yoki, Reilly Wahlers, Natassja Sheils, Alyssa Martinson, Halle Lamb with “team mascot,” Rosy and True Nies proudly pose with the Cook County Invite 1st place team victory plaque. Left: Speedy Logan Backstrom made all the right moves on both his runs, earning a silver medal and a well-deserved trip to the podium.
It was a near perfect winter day in Lutsen for the rescheduled Cook County Invite held on January 22. Bluebird skies, temps in the teens and breathtaking winter scenery greeted the racers and fans for two runs of exciting Slalom action on Koo-Koo.
All eight teams from the Arrowhead Conference returned to Lutsen for a re-match of the Moose Mountain Invite the previous week. We set two courses side by side on Koo-Koo and ran the boys’ and girls’ races simultaneously using two separate micro-gate timers. Don and Tina McKeever are so proficient at timing you can watch the timing of our races live, via smartphone on www.live-timing.com.
For the first run, the boys dropped in on the steep pitch of Upper Koo-Koo and the girls raced off the normal high school start at the top of lower Koo-Koo. The boys and girls switched courses for the second run.
First up for our girls, Reilly Wahlers skied a nice fast line on both her runs 1:02.24 landing 4th overall. Next up junior Alyssa Martinson skied two lightning fast trips through the difficult courses edging out her teammate 1:01.56 and leading her team to victory, snagging 3rd and her first trip to the varsity podium! Hermantown’s McKenzie Bremel won 1st. She has won every race this season by a decent margin and Kendra Winberg, also from Hermantown, also won 2nd.
Haley Yoki had the best finish of her career (6th) going after her first attempt, but blew out on the tricky course in her second and finished the day at the back of the pack. Eighth-grader Halle Lamb continues to improve, landing a personal best 15th, followed close behind by strong, consistent skiing Madysen McKeever 16th who was our fourth team scorer.
Also racing and having a blast on such a beautiful day were True Nies, and Natassja Sheils. Absent for final exams and Rotary were Morgan Welch, Santina McMillan, Sela Backstrom, Hanna Borson and Elsa Lunde.
Out of the gate first for our boys, junior Will Lamb flew down the steep pitch of Upper Koo-Koo and had a great run going but blew out of the double hairpin, (a tricky spot that led to more than one untimely exit) on the lower headwall of the course, he hiked and finished the day at the back of the pack. He had the fastest second run time of the day (23.69) faster than the overall winner Hermantown’s Austin Danelski (24.17), but it was just for fun and too little too late.
Next up, Logan Backstrom arrived just in time for the race after taking a final exam at school, and with no course inspection for his first attempt, (except by viewing it from the chairlift) skied two wild, fast runs, winning 2nd place and a well deserved trip to the podium. We managed to get him a course report for his first run about the tricky double hairpin thanks to friendly forces, veteran starter Mike Larson combined with our team’s two-way radios provided by the Grand Marais State Bank.
Next Erik Lawler skied a very fast personal best to 5th, almost crashing during his second attempt, followed by speedy Masen McKeever in 12th, and Will Surbaugh close behind in 13th. Young gun Kevin Viren continues to push harder and won gold in junior varsity. Kevin edged out varsity teammates Masen McKeever (28.73) and Will Surbaugh (28.42) with a stunning fast time of (28.32) in his second run! Ezra Lunde and Lynden Blomberg were also absent for final exams.
When the numbers were all tallied and the DQs sorted out, the Cook County girls’ team won first place edging out Duluth Marshall by 5 points and our boys’ team ended up in second place falling to Hermantown by 6 points.
The team had the best practice of the season on Saturday, January 23. Former U.S. Ski Team Coach Scott Ransom from the Duluth Superior Alpine Club brought up four FIS athletes from Duluth and we had a double practice on Koo-Koo, utilizing both steep pitches of Upper Koo-Koo and Split Rock.
Fast and furious at Spirit Mountain
The pace has been fast and furious, so fast forward to Monday, January 25 in the early morning darkness and with snow falling, the racers met the bus at Cook County High School at 5:30 a.m. to travel to the Cloquet-Esko- Carlton ski meet at Spirit Mountain. It is our last regular season race before sections, 137 racers were in the field from the Arrowhead Conference, Brainerd and Eden Prairie.
When we arrived at Spirit Mountain it was about 28F, snowing pretty hard and we were in a cloud of fog. We were disappointed to see that our first seed boy and girl would be the first racers out of the gate, but someone has to go first! There was at least a 30-minute timing delay after course inspection closed and snow was falling like crazy, stacking up on the track.
Will Lamb pushed out of the gate and looked slow on the flat, top part of the course in the wet heavy snow. He skied a decent run with one minor bobble, finishing 3rd but .07 off first, this time by Hermantown’s Tyler Winberg. The snow let up quite a bit after lunch and Will threw down the fastest second run time of the day on a faster track, but it was not enough to close the gap, finishing the day in 3rd. Once again, fast consistent skiing by Hermantown’s hard working Austin Danelski won 1st by .03 seconds, with Winberg falling to 2nd place.
Logan Backstrom skied two fast, clean runs on a cleaner track to 6th, followed by Erik Lawler who had a nice 8th place going in for lunch but suffered a major miscue in his second run, crashed, hiked and finished the day at the back of the pack. Will Surbaugh was on his “A” game and skied two very nice runs for 16th, followed by hard charging Ezra Lunde in 20th and close behind him Masen McKeever ended up in 22nd as our fourth scorer, followed by freshman Lyndon Blomberg.
On the girls’ side, I put Senior Captain Haley Yoki in the first seed to reward her for working hard and being so dedicated to our team. With the heavy snow stacking up on the girls’ course it wasn’t much of a reward! She had a great run going, breaking trail for the rest of the field when she hit a gate and her ski popped off, she hiked and finished the day at the back of the pack. She kept her head up and threw down a fast second run for 10th place but just for fun.
Next up Reilly Wahlers did her job skiing fast through the bad visibility in both attempts for 6th, followed by Alyssa Martinson who bobbled in her first but was soundly in the top 10 going in for lunch. She pushed hard out of the gate down the steep icy pitch of Blue Ruin and slid out on the third gate sliding head first into the next gate, she hiked and finished the day at the back.
Sela Backstrom put the pedal to the metal in both her runs finishing 11th in the big field followed by Madysen McKeever at 25th, and Halle Lamb 26th who was our fourth scorer. A bobble cost Santina McMillan precious time in the same place Alyssa crashed and finished 31st followed by Elsa Lunde, Natassja Sheils and True Nies.
It was a rough and tumble day for Cook County Alpine, we leave it all on the hill and will go back to work at Lutsen to prepare for sections. Our boys finished the day in second place falling again to Hermantown and our girls ended up in fifth place. You can’t stop this group from having a good time, which is one of the reasons it is so fun to be their coach!
The next race for the Alpine Vikes will be the Section 7 championship race on Tuesday, February 2 at Giants Ridge. Twenty-two teams spanning the Northland to North Twin Cities Metro, including Stillwater make up Section 7, the toughest section in Minnesota Alpine Skiing. We will all be battling for approximately 15 boys’ and 15 girls’ individual state slots with the top two boys’ and girls’ teams advancing to the state meet. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned!
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