Above: The Cook County/ Silver Bay Viking Section teams. The girls are (L-R) Sela Backstrom, Reilly Wahlers, Morgan Weyrens Welch, Haley Yoki, Madysen McKeever, Alyssa Martinson. Boys are (L-R) Ezra Lunde, Masen McKeever, Logan Backstrom, Will Lamb, Will Surbaugh, Erik Lawler. Left: Reilly Wahlers carved her way to a 4th place finish and led the girls’ Alpine Team to a Section 7 Championship!
The Cook County/Silver Bay Alpine Vikings traveled to the Section 7 Championship Ski Meet on Tuesday, February 2. Twenty-two teams and 242 racers from the Northland and North Twin Cities Metro including Stillwater make up section 7. Two teams and approximately 15 individuals of each gender were competing to advance to the State Ski Meet.
Both our boys’ and girls’ teams were underdogs to advance to State, but in every sport anything is possible at a big game. The only way our teams could advance is if each of our four fastest scorers of the six-member section team threw down his or her fastest possible run and didn’t fall. Our teams are not as deep as the bigger schools, so our fastest kids needed to come through in a big way and hopefully more of our competition would crash than our racers.
The stage was set with near perfect weather conditions and temps in the low 20s and clear skies for the first run, turning overcast for the second run. Both race hills were in excellent shape from an early evening groom and a nice frosty night to set up.
Freshman State Meet veteran Reilly Wahlers pushed out of the gate in the 9th position and attacked the steep pitch of Helsinki with a fantastic run snagging 5th place. She skied really fast and kept her head in the game in her second attempt, landing 4th and finishing the day in 4th, bested only by Mahtomedi’s Berit Thorson (3rd), Chisago Lakes Ellie Frischmon (2nd), and Hermantown star McKenzie Bremel who won the section title.
Next up for the attacking Vikings, junior Alyssa Martinson listened to our advice about stepping up and doing her best and took a wild, edge of your seat, verge of disaster trip through the steep, turny course landing an impressive 14th in her first run. She skied a solid second run 18th, stayed on her feet and finished in 14th place.
Third seed speedster Sela Backstrom also stepped up and did her best with solid skiing finishing 23rd in her first attempt. Everything clicked in her second run with an attack from the back and the fastest run of her career, an 11th place finish. She ended the day in 12th place! With a combined time of 1:22.04 she tied Stillwater’s Kirsten Anderson down to the hundredth.
With our three quickest girls all completing fast runs, tensions were high (on the inside) for us coaches when fourth seed Senior Captain Haley Yoki approached the start gate for her second run after throwing down a solid 26th place first attempt. With her team cheering her on she pushed out of the gate and took a wild, fast trip down the Innsbruck course landing in 24th place. I breathed a sigh of relief when Rick Backstrom reported on the radio, “Haley complete.”
She was followed by Captain Morgan Welch who bobbled precariously more than once and stayed on her feet for 67th and two solid runs by Madysen McKeever, 50th in the field of 118 girls.
On the boys’ side, State Meet veteran junior Will Lamb was the third racer out of the gate. The two boys that ran before him were pretty slow so Will’s run was the course report for the top seeded boys. He skied a solid fast run (34.62) going in for the break in 2nd place. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Freshman Thomas Heren stunned the crowd with the fastest first run of the day and his career (34.62) proving my earlier statement that anything can happen in a big game.
Will was poised for a great finish as he kicked out of the gate in his second attempt. He had a great run going but looked too far ahead, hooked a gate in the middle of the Helsinki headwall and straddled, bringing his high school ski season to an abrupt end with a DNF.
Second seed State Meet veteran Logan Backstrom skied a clean, fast, first run landing 8th. He kept a cool head and threw down a wild, exciting, all out attack in his second run, finishing the day in 6th place!
He was followed by solid, smart skiing by Erik Lawler in 26th place after his first run. Eric survived a major bobble in his second, staying on his feet finishing the day in 25th place. Rounding out the scoring for our boys, Ezra Lunde did a nice job for himself and his team with two solid, fast runs finishing the day in 32nd place in the big field of 128 boys. Will Surbaugh made some mistakes in both his runs but somehow held on, finishing 36th overall. Masen McKeever slid out in his first attempt but finished; he T-boned a gate in his second run, losing a ski and finished the day at the back of the pack.
It was a full day of surprises on the boys’ side as two of the three podium spots were to newcomers to the top of the results sheet. The new section 7 champion was Ryan Nordin from East, followed by CEC’s Thomas Heren (2nd) and Hermantown’s Austin Danelski in (3rd).
During the lunch break I waited at the timing shack for the DQs to be posted. I was only able to spend about 10 minutes back at the chalet to grab a snack, fire up the team and push them out for the second run. Looking at the scoreboard and with a little help from Don McKeever and Mike Larson who ran some rough numbers, it looked like our boys were on the edge of, or barely in second place and our girls appeared to be in second. I kept that information from the team and told them if it was a football game that we were down by one touchdown at halftime and if everyone did their best and believed in themselves, both teams had a chance to advance.
Flash-forward to the awards ceremony about 500 people were packed in the main chalet for the presentation. They started with 22nd place and read off the girls’ team results. When they got to 5th place the room pretty much went silent. Next, they announced Hermantown in third place (one of their top girls blew out), Stillwater second and the Stillwater contingent went crazy with applause as they went and accepted their section runner up award. The look on our girls’ faces while they wrapped their heads around what was about to happen was priceless and when they announced Cook County/ Silver Bay as the girls’ team section 7 champions our group exploded with cheers and applause! The team eagerly accepted the first place plaque and easily smiled for the pictures.
This year 15 individual girls would punch their ticket to the State Meet. Called up to the stage a second time, Alyssa Martinson and Sela Backstrom just made the cut and joined this exclusive club finishing 14th and 12th respectively and Reilly Wahlers led the team to victory with her 4th place finish!
For the boys, Logan Backstrom also punched his ticket to State with an impressive 6th place overall finish. Reilly and Logan were the only two skiers from our team that we knew for sure were surviving the cut. Our boys’ team finished the day in 5th place. The Hermantown boys’ team won 1st place followed by defending state champions Forest Lake taking home the 2nd place plaque.
When the snow dust settled for Cook County/Silver Bay at the 2016 Section 7 Alpine Championship, it was just like the old saying on ABC’s, Wide World of Sports, “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” all in one day!
The State Alpine ski meet will be held at Giants Ridge on Wednesday, February 10, first run 10:05 a.m.
Go Vikings!
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