Cook County racers traveled to Mont Du Lac on January 19 for the Denfeld Invite. Left: Jack Viren battles the race course. He suffered a minor concussion at the Denfeld invite. Above: Morgan Weyrens-Welch prepares for her next turn.
The Cook County Alpine Vikings traveled to Mont Du Lac ski area on January 19 for the Denfeld Invite. Due to the USSA races at Lutsen there is a smaller field at this race and it is always a blast!
First up for the Vikings was three sport athlete and starting varsity football player, sophomore Jack Viren. Jack looked confident racing in the first seed as he stood up on the start ramp, he gave a big push out of the gate and looked fast as he skied out of view over the pitch. I knew something was up when they put a course hold on the boys’ side and the girls kept running. Jack pushed it to his limit and T-boned a gate down near the finish, spun out and crashed ringing his bell pretty hard. He had a smile on his face (which was a good sign) as the ski patrol hauled him off the hill to an ambulance which took him to the hospital. I missed most of the first run action attending to Jack.
Next up was smooth skiing Erik Lawler coming off a recent 12th place finish at Spirit Mountain. On this day Erik threw down two awesome runs landing a personal best 7th. Next up was Ezra Lunde who after landing in 9th at Spirit looked to me like he was in the hunt for the podium. His first run was fast but a couple mistakes in his second cost him dearly (14th). Damian Zimmer rose above some of the crashes that have plagued him this year and skied two solid runs also earning a personal best 8th. Will Surbaugh looks really comfortable in the new gear he has shifted into and stunned everyone breaking into the top 10 landing in 10th place!
Over on the girls’ side, Ava McMillan bobbled in her first attempt but skied a beautiful second run finishing 8th overall. Alyssa Martinson continues to improve and also landed a personal best (9th), followed Morgan Weyrens-Welch (14th), Haley Yoki (15th) and Santina McMillan (16th) just 1/10th of a second separating Morgan, Haley and Santina! Close behind was Madysen McKeever finishing in 18th.
Other Viking skiers competing and completing both their runs were Hanna Borson, Elsa Lunde, Greg Howe, Isaak Terril and by Lynden Blomberg.
Without our USSA skiers, the loss of Jack Viren and the top 6 places belonging to East, Hermantown and Hibbing, it wasn’t looking good for a boys’ win. On the other hand our girls all skied really solid on this day. This race was too close to call by ball parking numbers off the score board at the finish line. When it was all said and done our boys’ team won a second conference victory in a row edging out Hibbing for the win and our girls landed second place just two points behind Duluth East! Hard work does bring good luck and the depth of our team is helping us greatly.
The next race for the Alpine Vikings is the Moose Mountain Invite on January 23.
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