Anders Zimmer capped a great career of Alpine skiing for Cook County High School by placing 17th at the Minnesota State Meet. The boys’ team placed 5th overall and enjoyed its best season in many years.
The perspective is interesting. Alpine skiing is made up of four statewide sections. Each section averages 15-20 participating schools with an average of 10-15 participants per team (individual boys and girls). With that being said, at the beginning of the season, there are 60+ schools and likely over 1,000 individual participants all gunning for the same goal—make it to the big stage, the state meet. Only eight teams make it along with 88 of the best individual racers.
Your Alpine Vikings not only made it to the big stage, but they also placed 5th! That’s impressive.
And even more, Anders Zimmer placed 17th overall. Top 20 in the state of Minnesota is an accomplishment that many only dream of and very few accomplish.
But the day was not only about Anders, the individual, but your Alpine Vikings as a team. Luke Fenwick followed Anders next in team scoring with 8th graders Will Lamb and Logan Backstrom. Luke (38th), Will (43rd) and Logan (51st) were all within 3 seconds of each other which rounded out a great team score. Colin Berglund and Kyle Martinson rounded out the state team.
Senior Colin Berglund had an excellent season for the Cook County Vikings with several great finishes at meets.
And like all sports, it’s a game of what ifs. The Vikings were sniffing a podium finish after their morning run (2nd or 3rd with 1st not totally out of the question). It was that close in scoring points.
This is a sport where you don’t wish others to finish poorly – you want everyone to ski their best. But, it’s also a sport where attrition is common…..falls, slips, disqualifications happen in ski racing; it’s expected. With four of our six boys in scoring position after the second run we needed help/attrition from other teams. It did not happen on this day. And that’s great for the other teams.
The 2nd, 3rd and 4th place teams were separated by only 3 points. That comes down to the hundredths of a second by individual racers. While the Vikings were very close to a higher finish, they ended the season on a solid note.
Luke Fenwick shows the fine form that helped him place 38th at the State Meet. Luke was the second boy to score for the CCHS team at State.
And it’s on this good note we say goodbye to our senior boys Anders Zimmer, Colin Berglund, Luke Fenwick, Dexter Yoki and Kyle Martinson. Most of these boys have been with the team since 7th grade and what a way to end their high school racing careers. Congrats and good luck!
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