The Cook County Viking Alpine team traveled to Mont Du Lac on Monday, January 20 for a great day of racing. Captain Charlie Lawler skis his way to a podium finish.
The Cook County Viking Alpine team traveled to Mont Du Lac on Monday, January 20 for a two-run Slalom race against Virginia, East, Hermantown, Hibbing, Marshall, Cloquet- Esko-Carlton and Denfeld. The weather was cold with a forecasted high of -2 degrees F and NNW winds up to 15 mph.
The track was rock hard and icy just the way we like it. Course setters from CEC and Denfeld set nice open fast courses. This is typical at the colder ski meets, less crashing and hiking tends to move the pace of the race along and get everybody through faster.
Our team would have to make no mistakes on this day for a decent team finish as our USSA racers Sela Backstrom, Logan Backstrom, Reilly Wahlers and Will Lamb were absent competing at the Lutsen Super G.
Megan Lehto skied fast and could have made the top 10 except for a miscue on the last gate in her first run (DQ). Ava McMillan pushed it to the limit and finished an impressive (12th), followed by Morgan Weyrens-Welch (19th) and Alyssa Martinson (20th). Danielle Hansen has been working hard this season and threw down a personal best (23rd) with Madysen McKeever close behind (25th). Santina McMillan normally skis Junior Varsity but also raced a personal best in Varsity (29th), followed by Sophie Honeder, Lauren Thompson and Melanie Stoddard, who crashed in her first run.
Ava McMillan was up to the challenge of the icy course and pushed it to a 12th place finish.
In Junior Varsity action Hanna Borson squeezed her way onto the podium (3rd); True Nies (4th), Elsa Lunde and Natassja Sheils also skied well.
On the boys’ side, Senior Captain Charlie Lawler has been improving at a fast rate. He charged out of the gate and smoked through the top half of the course. A gate was missing and he skied out. He was awarded a re-run and continued to ski fast laying down two fantastic runs and ending the day with a personal best third place! Next for the Vikings were Damian Zimmer (10th), Ezra Lunde (13th) and Erik Lawler (18th). All the boys I just mentioned skied personal bests. The icy course took its toll on Jack Viren and Joe Borud who both crashed.
Denfeld coach Jeff “Zippy” Zahaur said, “It’s great to see Cook County skiing with such confidence.” I noticed the same thing and am really proud of these kids. We have been training in some brutal conditions. After the final score was tallied our girls ended up in 4th place (losing Megan was unrecoverable) and our boys went home with the 2nd place plaque losing once again to powerhouse Hermantown.
Our race against the Holy Angels Academy at Lutsen Mountains was canceled due to the extreme cold. The next race for the Alpine Vikings will be the prelude to sections Centennial meet which will have taken place by press time of this article.
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