Up top, Reilly Wahlers carves out around a gate as she speeds to first place in the Cook County Invite. Above: The Cook County junior varsity boys swept the podium! Elijah Blanck placed third, Ray Dressely placed second, and Cy Oberholtzer topped the podium with his first place. Photos courtesy of Jenny and Charles Lamb
The Cook County High School Invite was held on Dec. 15 at Lutsen Mountains on Koo- Koo.
With perfect weather, a daytime high of 28F, sunny skies and awesome snow conditions, the 124 participating racers skied two runs on a challenging Slalom course.
There were seven teams from Section 7 including; Hibbing, Virginia Area, East, Marshall, Hermantown, CEC, Denfeld, plus Brainerd from Section 5 was in attendance.
Will Surbaugh threw down an awesome first run, edging out Blaine Walli from Hibbing by one tenth of a second for first place, said head coach Charles Lamb. “He pushed a little too hard in his second and bobbled, pulling off a great recovery and finished the day in 5th place.”
In the boys’ division Blaine Walli won 1st place and Duluth East tied with Brainerd, but East was awarded the team title because their fifth scorer placed ahead of Brainerd’s fifth racer.
Senior Reilly Wahlers stepped up in this first race of the season. Wahlers skied a flawless first run, Lamb said, and pushed really hard in her second and just about lost it exiting a tough flush, but she had a great recovery and won 1st place!
Sela Backstrom skied fast and solid (7th), followed by Halle Lamb (10th), and Elsa Lunde (12th).
The Brainerd girl’s team won the day, edging out Cook County in a very close race.
Cook County young guns in the junior varsity (JV) field overcame first High School race nerves and skied really well.
Cy Oberholtzer put the pedal to the metal and won first place, followed close behind by Ray Dressely (2nd), and Elijah Blanck (3rd) for a clean sweep on the JV podium!
Both Weston Herron and Andrew Hallberg skied tough finishing (6th) and (8th) respectively. Ben Obinger blew out in his first attempt but had a fast second run (3rd place) and finished at the back of the pack.
Fast skiing seventh-grade student Kalina Dimitrova put two great runs together, landing 2nd place in the girls’ JV.
“I was really proud of our team, they all did their best,” said coach Lamb. “It’s been fun working with an eager hard working group of new seventh-graders this year.”
Commenting on the competition, Lamb said, “As always, the competition out there is tough. We had three girls in the top ten and couldn’t pull off a victory. The Brainerd girls have a deep team and had all four of their team scorers in the top ten.”
To pull off a ski race, there has to be a lot of help, and Lamb made sure to acknowledge them.
“We would like to thank all of the 23 parent volunteers for their help in hosting another great race at Lutsen,” he said.
The next race for Cook County Alpine is Friday, Dec. 21 at Giants Ridge.
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