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Mass start at Pine Valley Ski Area in Cloquet. Photos courtesy of Baylee Johnson
Saturday, January 7 brought nearly perfect skiing conditions to Giants Ridge for one of the biggest Nordic ski meets in the Midwest. 57 teams arrived for a full day of classic skiing in the morning and freestyle or “skate” skiing in the afternoons.
The North Shore Storm Nordic ski team represented the north shore well.
Four girls raced JV: Ava Oswald-Swenson and Signe Myers (Classic) and Emma Crook and Quincy Hurth (Freestyle). Three boys raced JV: Eli Smith (getting 7th in the Classic race), Keean Selin (Classic), and Ethan Fish (Freestyle).
Three boys raced Varsity Classic: Cyrus Myers (26th with 16:41), Ben Wermter (51st with 17:36), and Eddie Erickson (127th with 21:34). Three boys raced Varsity Freesyle: Ian Thorpe (56th with 16:50), Everett Hurth (90th with 18:00) and AJ Mattson (128th with 21:57).
Two girls raced Varsity in each race. For the Classic race, Lamar Gordon placed 65th with 21:21 and Valerie Hurth placed 112th with 24:35. For the Freestyle Race, Olya Wright placed 12th with 17:35 and Jocelyn Carr placed 72nd with 19:56.
Times are not necessarily good markers of improvement or accomplishment for skiers as conditions vary so dramatically from meet to meet. Placement is a better judge of how individuals, and teams, have performed. Both the Boys and the Girls Varsity teams placed 25th out of 57 teams, which they were all pleased with. Given the size and resources of some of the teams around the Midwest, this was considered a great outcome for a small team like ours. Northern Minnesotans were happy to see that Duluth East, as a team, won both Girls and Boys varsity, edging out large teams from the Cities area like Stillwater, Highland, and Wayzata.
Katya Gordon is a Lake County resident and reporter for the Lake County Press. She may be reached at kgordon@cherryroad.com.
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