NJRS Team Lutsen shines at January home meet

Team Lutsen took over Koo- Koo in Race No. 5 of the Northland Junior Race Series at the end of January. Top: Reilly Wahlers sets the pace in girls 10-11 and claims first place. Above left: Anna Heeren pushes herself toward the finish. Above: Jack Viren puts up a solid performance against a very competitive field at the Lutsen meet. Left: Teammates Halle Lamb, Sela Backstrom, Elsa Lunde and Bianca Zimmer were all smiles despite the cold, windy day.

Race No. 5 of the Northland Junior Race Series was held on Koo-Koo at Lutsen Mountains on January 29. Forty-eight racers from the Lutsen Junior Alpine Club attended the event competing in a field of 114 area Alpine skiers from Team Duluth, Giants Ridge, Brainerd and Mont Du Lac.

Unseasonably warm temperatures prevailed all week during practice, which made the morning low of -12 F with winds blowing 15-20 mph at 7:00 a.m. feel like a slap in the face to the course crew and athletes alike. As much as we look forward to challenging the racers by launching them off the steep headwall on upper Koo-Koo it was not meant to be on this day, the two runs of Giant Slalom would have to be moved to the limited protection of the high school slalom start ramp at the top of lower Koo- Koo.

In 6-and-7-year-old boys and girls Riley Goettl and Genevieve Silence competed in their first-ever Alpine ski race. Cayden Zimmer made all the right moves putting together two great runs and earned himself a second place. In 8- and-9-year-old boys and girls, Halle Lamb skied great (1st) followed by teammate Dellia Barrett (3rd) and Lutsen colleague Anna Heeren (6th). Masen McKeever continues to go really fast. He defended home turf throwing down two fantastic runs winning another well-deserved first-place finish followed by Riley Tarver (2nd).

 

As the day wore on, Mother Nature became two-faced, with sunlit skies, single-digit cold temperatures and brutal wind gusts reaching over 30 mph. In 10-and-11 boys and girls the weather had little effect on Reilly Wahlers. Skiing in her back yard, she flew, clung tenaciously to her line and fought to take a tuck anywhere she could on both runs, easily winning first place posting the third fastest combined time of the day with (47.31).

She was followed by teammate Sophie Robinson (2nd), Claire LaVigne (3rd) and Sela Backstrom (4th) for a near clean sweep of the top five. GS ace Will Surbaugh squeezed into (4th) followed by best friend Lynden Bloomberg (5th) and newcomer to the team Isak Terrill (6th). Caleb Phillips gave it his all, crashed and was hauled to the ski patrol shack with a nonserious knee injury.

 

In 12-and-13 boys and girls, team veteran Madysen McKeever must have gone to bed early, she had a rock solid lead after her first attempt and held on in her second run, winning first place.

Will Lamb had a great first run and for the first time in his racing career went in for lunch with the fastest time of the morning just 3/100ths over teammate Luke Fenwick. “I think the biggest mistake I could make right now is to take it easy,” he said before his second run. “If I charge it and put everything on the line, good things will happen.”

He was right. Coming into the lower section of the course he dug in a deep cut and was so loaded going into the turn that his momentum sent him bouncing off the camber of his skis, launching him several feet into the air. “Typically that’s not supposed to happen,” said Cook County High School Alpine coach Jim Vick after watching him go airborne. “But it is an indicator of how much speed these athletes are carrying.”

 

Barely making the next gate and crossing the finish line, he breathed a sigh of relief earning first place with the best overall combined time of the day (45.82). Logan Backstrom also skied fast and sped his way to the podium (3rd).

In 14-and-15 girls, Ava McMillan held a tight line and landed in second place. Charlie Lawler put the pedal to the metal and won second place in this very competitive age group. In boys and girls 16 and over CCHS Alpine standout Megan Lehto dominated her rivals winning first and Luke Fenwick laid it all on the line winning first as well with the second fastest time of the day (46.13).

Our Lutsen racers swept this event with 16 podiums and the top three combined times of the day! Chief of timing Paul Nordlund of Lutsen Mountains said, “Forty-eight kids is a record number of skiers from our program in attendance at a race and it is great to see.”

Actually there are 55 kids signed up for the Lutsen Junior Alpine Club. Watch for great things from this hard-working group of outdoor fun seekers who are well on their way to becoming lifetime skiers!