Looking snazzy in their “retro” cross country ski uniforms, the Nordic skiers from Cook County High School pose for a picture at the most recent race in Two Harbors. The meet was held on trails built with an axe and grub hoe by the late Charlie Banks, a legendary promoter of winter sports in the Northland. From L-R: Danny Berka, Josh Prom, Malin Anderson, Trent Spry, Robin Henrickson, Louise Ramberg and Linnea Henrickson.
Four Cook County High School cross country skiers traveled to Giants Ridge on Saturday, January 6, to participate in the Mesabi East Invite. With around 900 skiers, it is one of the largest and most competitive Nordic high school races in the Midwest.
Cook County and Two Harbors compete together as a team. Two Harbors brought five skiers to the meet.
Because of the extreme cold, the race had to be delayed for two hours. Once the thermometer climbed to a toasty -4 F, the meet could begin.
“By the time our racers went out,” said Coach Bartol, “it was a balmy 3 degrees above zero.” But she added, “As the temperature rose, so did the wind.”
The 5K freestyle or classic, varsity or JV trails were the most challenging to date for the CCHS skiers.
Giants Ridge has some of the steepest hills around on their Nordic trails. The freestyle (skate) racers skied the gold trails with the steepest hills (Andy Kern, Josh Prom, Malin Anderson). Lance Bartol skied the classic race on the Silver Trails. He said, “It was basically 2.5 kilometers of solid uphill, followed by 2.5 kilometers of downhill.”
Josh Prom completed the varsity freestyle race in 21:04.1, which earned him a 123rd place. Andy Kern wasn’t far behind with his finish time of 21:08.7. Ken finished in 125th place.
Lance Bartol competed in the junior varsity classic 5K, finishing in 49th place with a time of 24:28.
Malin Anderson placed 46th in the junior varsity freestyle, finishing in 25:53.
“Given the technically challenging course and frigid weather we are satisfied with the results. All of the skiers are first-year Nordic racers, and they gave it everything they had,” said Bartol.
A Race Back in Time
On January 16, Two Harbors/Cook County Nordic Team attended the Two Harbors Invite at the historic Korki Nordic Trails. Korki Nordic is a step back in time, preserving the old style, narrow single-track ski trails. All races were classic (or diagonal stride) technique only and many racers wore “retro” ski suits. Cook County racers turned back the clock about 25 years and wore the flashy blue/yellow and blue/red Cook County High School team ski suits from the past.
The junior high racers skied a narrow, undulating, approximately 4km course. Danny Berka skied hard from start to finish, passing a couple skiers on the tight course. His excellent time of 18:32 minutes resulted in 14th place out of 57 racers in the junior high boys’ race. This was his second race this season and Danny showed a large improvement. Typically, skate skiing is a faster technique, but Danny’s pace in this classic race was substantially faster than his pace in his first skate race.
Times for other junior high racers included boys Cyrus Keithly-Meyer, 20:24; Chance Hanel, 20:17; Tae Kosmo, 22:14; Noah Wastman, 25:06; and Ethan Maas, 30:42. Girls’ times included Amanda Haveri, 24:03; Janie Suomi, 24:06; Aspen Huddleson, 18:28; Autumn Smith, 19:17; Mar Marinez-Gabas 24:22; and Taylor Pepper, 25:22.
Although the 6K Girls Junior Varsity racecourse did not have as many big hills as racecourses at other venues, it was deceptively challenging. Freshman Malin Anderson was in excellent form, finishing in 30:01 minutes. This earned her 13th place out of 45 racers. Sophomore Robin Henrickson finished in 30:05 and placed 15th. Freshman Cedar Gordon finished in 30.17 minutes; senior Linnea Henrickson, 30:44; junior Leah Christensen, 31:33; and freshman Claire Esse, 36:34.
In his first race of the season, sophomore Trent Spry finished the 6K boys’ junior varsity race in 33:37 minutes. He stayed strong through the race including the surprise large hill near the end of the race and finished in the middle of his teammates. Teammate Ian Thorpe finished in front of Trent at 32:47 and behind Trent was Noah Smith, 32:47 and Ian Thorpe, 43:44.
This was Josh Prom’s first classic ski race, finishing the 6K boys’ varsity race in 26:25 minutes. Josh, who is new to Nordic skiing, has had to learn both classic and skate skiing technique. This race was an opportunity to test his classic skiing skills and for much of the course he used the double-pole technique, which requires more upper body strength. Teammate Brooklyn Smith finished the 6K girls’ varsity race in 37.17 minutes.
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