Will Lamb bends the gate in half as he makes his slalom run down the hill. Lamb was the Vikings’ second-placing skier at the Hibbing Invitational where the team placed second in an eight-team meet.
Just before the Christmas break the Alpine Vikes swept their last meet of 2011 at Giants Ridge, winning the varsity boys’, girls’ and junior varsity races. After completing an aggressive practice schedule over break, the team was anxious to move forward in 2012 starting with the January 5 Hibbing Invitational at Giants Ridge.
The results were not as sweet as the last meet, but the team learned that depth is critically important and “how deep it is” really showed.
The boys’ team took second place in the eight-team field. Anders Zimmer, Will Lamb, Kyle Martinson and Charlie Lawler served as our top four finishers placing 9th, 12th, 15th and 18th respectively.
In team scoring, this demonstrates that it’s not critically important to have skiers in the top three or five or 10, but it is critically important to stay bunched together in the top tier of the field. And three Alpine Vikes in the top 15 followed by an 18th place enabled a 2nd place team finish.
On any given day Anders Zimmer will lead the deep boys’ slalom team. Anders placed ninth at the Giants Ridge meet to lead the team to first place in that competition.
Our earlier meet had Colin Berglund, Dexter Yoki, Will Lamb and Kyle Martinson serving as our top scorers. This demonstrates that the boys can mix it up and still score high.
Luke Fenwick was fresh off a firstplace finish at the NJRS race on January 1 and was maybe too anxious to do the same at Giants Ridge five days later. Luke did not score as a team member. Dexter Yoki was solid in the December meet but was tripped up on his first run. Joe Borud continues to sneak up the ladder with a 24th place finish and Logan Backstrom came in 25th.
It appears that when we can get all our racers to put together two solid runs on any given day, the boys will be tough and should continue to be near the top of the leader board.
The girls’ team too showed depth, but their day was fraught with race hiccups. Team Captain Katie Smedstad had an outstanding first run (5th fastest) and fell victim to a course miscue her second run.
Conversely, 9th grade standout Ava McMillan fell on her first run, then followed up with 5th fastest time for the afternoon run second run.
Haley Yoki pushes the pace as she flies down the hill. Haley placed 39th at the Hibbing Invitational.
Megan Lehto put together two consistent runs and was the Vikings’ top scorer placing 17th overall. Morgan Weyrens Welch did the same and placed 23rd. Madysen McKeever and Haley Yoki placed 36th and 39th from a field of nearly 70 racers. Our younger skiers are now starting to sneak into the top half of the field.
Lauren Thompson, Danielle Hansen, Alyssa Martinson and Melanie Stoddard continue to gain race experience each week.
The Alpine Vikings will have five meets in January with Cook County serving host to the Moose Mountain Invitational January 12. Stay tuned!
Madysen McKeever slashes her way down the hill on her way to a good run. McKeever recently placed 36th at the Hibbing Invitational
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