Viking Alpine skiers had a great time at the CEC Invite at Spirit Mountain. The boys’ team won! Above: Freshman Ezra Lunde lit up the slopes, winning a top 10 finish! Left: Senior Co-Captain Melanie Stoddard crashed but didn’t break any bones. Tests will be done in Duluth to see if she has a meniscus tear in her knee, said her mother Diane. If all is a go, Melanie still plans to go to Peru this winter.
It is really busy for the Cook County Alpine Vikings this time of year. On January 8, the team traveled once again to Giants Ridge for the Hibbing Invite. It was pretty cold on the hill, -15F when we arrived and the daytime high only reached 3F. It snowed lightly throughout the whole race. We had been training hard on very similar terrain and temperatures at Lutsen throughout the holiday break so I was hopeful that the kids would rise to the occasion.
Reilly Wahlers looked fast carving her way down the steep headwall of Helsinki, but blew out and lost most of her speed. Ava McMillan skied great, completing both her runs ending up in 11th place followed by consistent skier Alyssa Martinson (18th) and smooth skiing by Silver Bay’s Haley Yoki (22nd). Sela Backstrom is really trying to get faster, she looked fantastic on the top of the course but the new speed she is creating caused a miscue resulting in a crash. Morgan Weyrens Welch skied two solid runs and was our fourth scoring girl of the day (23rd).
On the boys’ side, Will Lamb skied fast in his first run (3rd) but another miscue fouled up his second run. Jack Viren put two solid runs together and broke into the top 10 for the first time in his high school alpine racing career winning 7th place! Damian Zimmer aka “Red Ligety” skied his way to (13th) followed by “young gun” 7th grader Will Surbaugh (22nd). Eric Lawler and Ezra Lunde both crashed in one run or the other. But, without a doubt this day belonged to Logan Backstrom. Skiing in the second seed he put together two fast and fantastic runs, winning 4th place!
At the end of the day our boys’ team won 2nd place falling once again to Hermantown by 7 points (the equivalent of ½ second) and our girls’ team finished in 4th place out of the nine teams in the race.
Viking boys take first at CEC Invite
Flash forward five days and our team is loading up the bus at 5:30 a.m. to travel to the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton (CEC) Invite at Spirit Mountain on January 13. Skiers from Hermantown, East, CEC, Marshall, Denfeld, Hibbing, Virginia, Brainerd and Eden Prairie were on hand to see who could ski two runs of Slalom the fastest down Gandy Dancer and Blue Ruin runs.
The weather was still cold, -5F during course inspection under sunny skies, light winds and the temperature finally reached about 10F for once. First seed skiers Will Lamb and Ava McMillan were placed 1st in the run orders and would run “bullet” on this day, no course report for either of them. The start ramps at Spirit for the boys and girls courses are right next to each other so it was cool to see both our racers in the gate at the same time.
Ava skied fast and landed (9th) place after her first, but scrubbed a little speed in her second, finishing (16th). Will put the pedal to the metal and smoked two nearly perfect runs winning 2nd place! Reilly Wahlers made all the right moves and threw down two awesome runs finishing 7th. Logan Backstrom had a great run going but straddled the exit of a hairpin three gates from the finish line (DNF). Sela Backstrom skied fast completing both her runs (19th), close behind her was Alyssa Martinson (20th).
Senior Co-Captain Mel Stoddard pushed it to the limit and crashed hard at the bottom of the first pitch. There was a course hold for over 30 minutes while the ski patrol transported her off the hill. Damian Zimmer completed his first attempt but blew out in his second run. Jack Viren had a stellar first run and was looking great in his second, but he blew out in the same place Damian did.
Haley Yoki was skiing fast but a gate broke her chin bar giving her a fat lip and cost her some precious time. Ezra Lunde put together the best two runs of his life and cracked the top ten for the first time finishing in 9th! Santina McMillan continues to improve and finished 30th.
Eric Lawler put his previous race crashes behind him and completed two nice runs (12th). Our fourth scoring boy once again was solid skiing Will Surbaugh (17th).
Other Viking skiers competing were Lauren Thompson, Madysen McKeever, Hanna Borson, Halle Lamb, True Nies, Elsa Lunde, Isak Terrill (who skied his personal best) and Masen McKeever.
Both our teams have solid depth within them which we always hope will make up for the attrition rate from all the miscues and crashes that are sometimes a reality of ski racing. The team score is made up of the top four times of each team. I was proud of the fast and consistent skiing by our girls on this day, they took home 3rd place falling only to Brainerd and Hermantown who both have excellent teams and big numbers in their schools.
Anticipation was high and the room was noisy from all the kids as they started with 9th place and read off the boys’ team results. They got to third place and announced Brainerd, then they announced Hermantown in second place. Coach Rick Backstrom elbowed me and asked “Did I miss something, where did we finish?” I replied, “I think we won.” Then they announced Cook County Alpine as the winner topping Hermantown on their home hill by only 2 points!
The next race for the Alpine Vikings will be on January 19 at Mont Du Lac and mark your calendars for the Moose Mountain Invite on January 23.
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