Racers from Cook County, Brainerd and Thunder Bay had a great day on the slopes in the Lutsen Invite on Friday, December 11.
The Cook County/Silver Bay Vikings Alpine ski season is under way with 22 great young people on this year’s team. They began on dry land back in November, hiking and running up and down hills in Grand Marais including everyone’s favorite, summiting the old city ski hill. The highlight of dry land was a team hike and jog up the steep pitch of Grizzly Run at Moose Mountain, followed by a surprise tour of the new gondola summit terminal and a fun ride back down after dark in the new Doppelmayr gondola. Cook County kids were among the first people to ever ride the gondola!
We switched to skis and snow training on schedule during Thanksgiving break and have been practicing at Lutsen three times a week, mainly under the lights on a decent man-made snowpack. The team has trained in the rain, snow and bluebird spring-like weather so far this season, with no cancellations. We had one practice on Koo-Koo right after they opened the run in early December and used the experience to make a decision about hosting our first race, the Cook County Invite scheduled for Dec. 11.
Elsa Lunde made all the right moves and skied her way to a 3rd place junior varsity finish.
The condition of Koo-Koo was good with ample snow depth. But due to the unseasonably warm temperatures, the overall width of the run would not accommodate the entire Arrowhead Conference field plus Brainerd, whose girls are last season’s defending State Champions. Jim Vick of Lutsen Mountains Corp. and I decided to postpone the full conference Cook County Invite until January 22 and reduced the size of the field to just Brainerd, Cook County and a small team from Thunder Bay, (63 athletes in all) renaming the event the Lutsen Invite.
The weather the day before the race was very depressing, it rained constantly from noon until dark and in the gloomy twilight, the ski hill looked more like late April than early December. On a positive note, the overnight forecast called for the rain to switch to snow with a low of 26F with NNW wind sustained at 15 mph gusting to 35 mph. So we rolled the dice, crossed our fingers and it paid off in spades. The forecast was very accurate and the temperature combined with the high winds froze Koo-Koo into a nearly solid block of ice and the race was on!
First up for Cook County, freshman Reilly Wahlers skied fast and solid, landing 1st in her first attempt, but was edged out by Thunder Bay’s Sophie Robinson in her second run and finished the day in 2nd place.
Next up was Sela Backstrom who has been working very hard while adjusting to an adult ski (8th). Three-sport athlete Alyssa Martinson could be finding a new gear and skied the best two runs of her career (5th), close behind her senior Tri-Captain Haley Yoki who nailed two fast completions (6th). Next for the Vikes was senior Tri- Captain Morgan Weyrens Welch who missed the top 10 by 2 tenths (11th) followed by solid skiing from Santina McMillan (12th) and Madysen McKeever (13th). Hanna Borson pushed a little too hard near the finish and crashed, finishing the day at the back of the pack (DNF). Senior Tri-captain Natassja Sheils was (19th).
Brainerd Head Coach Mike Stone said, “The first course skied very well and it was absolutely amazing that after 30 girls skied their first run, not one rut was visible on the firm surface of Koo-Koo.”
On the boys’ side, first out of the gate for Cook County was Will Lamb who didn’t appear to hold back, winning 1st place in both runs, eight-tenths ahead of Thunder Bay senior Alex Robinson (2nd).
Next up was State Meet veteran Logan Backstrom who pushed it to the very edge, bobbled precariously, pulled off a great recovery and ended the day in 3rd. Racing in our lowest seed, 8th grader Masen Mckeever threw down two fantastic, edge of your seat runs and cracked the top 10 for the first time (7th), followed close behind by Erik Lawler (8th), Will Surbaugh (9th). Ezra Lunde was sitting in 8th place after a great first run but blew out in his second attempt and hiked (17th).
By the end of the boys’ afternoon run the temperature warmed up and the race course was deteriorating. Everyone was very happy with our decision to run a smaller field and keep the event alive for the kids. After the race was over, all the racers were included in joint gate training.
We have a small awesome group of junior varsity skiers this year. Kevin Viren dominated the field finishing (1st), followed by Lyndon Blomberg who crashed (DNF). Halle Lamb straddled and hiked and then crashed (DNF), Elsa Lunde has been improving at a fast rate this year (3rd) and True Neis had a nice (5th) place finish.
When the team score was tallied, Cook County girls edged the Brainerd Warriors by just two points winning the day, and our boys won first place by a decent margin. We are really looking forward to another great season of Alpine action!
The next race for the Alpine Vikes is the Virginia Invite on December 18 at Giants Ridge.
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