Accepting their medals and plaque for finishing third place at the state Alpine ski meet are from L-R Head Coach Charles Lamb, Masen McKeever, Will Surbaugh, Will Lamb, Ezra Lunde, Erik Lawler. Not pictured: Logan Backstrom.
The Minnesota High School League Boys’ and Girls’ Alpine Skiing State Meet was held at Giants Ridge on Feb. 15, 2017 and the Cook County boys took home some team hardware, with senior Will Lamb earning an 8th place medal in the individual results.
Eight boys’ and eight girls’ teams qualified for state from sections 4, 5, 6 and 7. There were 89 boys and 88 girls in the field.
The weather was perfect for ski racing; the day started out at 3 degrees with a high of 18 degrees, light wind, and partly sunny skies.
The race hills were in great shape, icy and fast, said Viking coach Charles Lamb.
Both boys’ courses were very difficult FIS level sets. The girls’ courses were also tough, but not as technical and more wide open, noted Lamb.
Will Lamb started 11th based on his 3rd place finish at sections. Tensions were high on the boys’ start ramp with a lot of radio chatter regarding course reports, four fast kids ahead of Will in the run order either hiked or DNF’d (did not finish) on the challenging course.
Reilly Wahlers, on the edge of her skis carving snow and bending gates as she makes her way down the hill at the state championships.
“Will skied an exciting solid run in his first run (11th), and came back strong in his second and threw down an awesome, fast run and ended his high school racing career with a (8th) place finish at State,” said coach Lamb, who happens to be Will’s father.
Up next for the Vikings was Reilly Wahlers, who ran 15th in the field order.
“Reilly attacked the steep Helsinki course finishing 14th in her first run, 19th in her second, finishing the day in 16th overall in a very competitive girls’ field.
“Senior Erik Lawler skied two edge of your seat, full throttle runs; he ended the day in 35th and did an outstanding job for himself and his team.
“Senior Logan Backstrom had a great run going in his first attempt, but he carried a little too much speed coming out of the flats and was late exiting a very fast flush, he straddled a gate (DNF).
“Freshman Will Surbaugh also had a quick run going, but down near the bottom of the course he skied on the wrong side of a delay gate, he hiked, earned a second run which was a good one, and he finished the day in 59th place.
Trying to pick up speed, Will Lamb kept his tuck and powered around the gate, heading for the finish line where he would place 8th when his two runs were combined.
“Ezra Lunde skied his best in both his attempts 43rd and Masen McKeever was right behind him in 44th place; both boys skied tough, stayed on their feet for the team and went home with valuable State experience.
“Sela Backstrom skied two solid runs and ended her season in 66th place,” said Lamb.
Elliot Boman from Northfield and Nellie Ide from the Blake School were crowned state champions.
“I told the boys that they needed to ski absolutely the fastest they could get away with, and nothing ever comes easy at State. I told all our kids that I didn’t expect them to be the best, but I did expect them to do their best,” said Coach Lamb.
“It was impossible to tell where our boys’ team would finish after the race from the results board, but with the loss of Logan Backstrom combined with Will Surbaugh’s hike, it wasn’t looking good for the Alpine Vikings. It took longer that usual for the results to be tabulated and posted on the wall of the timing building.
“The boys’ team champion was Minnetonka, second place went to Edina, and to our surprise, The Breck School, Stillwater, and Cook County all tied with 141 points for third place!
“At normal high school races including ections, a tie breaker is used, but at State all ties stand per the executive director of the MSHSL.
“But here is the story behind the story which is pretty significant,” said Lamb.
“When tabulating the team results, all individual skiers who didn’t qualify with a team (53 racers) are removed from the results, and the top four scorers of each team (eight six-man teams) are used to determine the winning teams.
“So team wise, Will Lamb (2nd), Erik Lawler (14th), Ezra Lunde (19th), Masen McKeever (20th) scored Cook County 141 points. Had a tiebreaker been used Cook County would have owned the 3rd place.
“Cook County freshman (5th scorer) Will Surbaugh’s outstanding sportsmanship with his fast hike, followed by an excellent second run, earned him 31st place, the 5th scorer for Stillwater was 32nd! And both the 5th and 6th scorer for St. Thomas Academy were disqualified.
“Thirty-five boys DNF’d or hiked at State this year, which speaks to how brutal the course sets were and how competitive the race was,” Lamb said.
Cook County High School was by far the smallest boys’ team to qualify for State, but Lamb had high hopes for his squad.
“Even being up against Edina and Minnetonka, we traveled to State looking for a team win. I was very impressed with the outstanding effort the kids displayed at the race earning the third place trophy.
“Our goals have never been for individual success, they have always been for the team.
“We are going to miss our five outgoing seniors, Madysen McKeever, Jack Viren, Erik Lawler, Logan Backstrom and Will Lamb. Ski racing, training, and traveling have been a fun ride with these great kids,” Lamb said.
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