As snow alternated between heavy and wet to light and fluffy on Thursday, January 14, the Cook County Alpine Vikings showed off their Slalom skills on Moose Mountain. Santina McMillan, Alyssa Martinson and Madysen McKeever are all smiles on the 10th Mountain chairlift at Lutsen Mountains.
The Cook County Alpine Vikings hosted six teams from the Arrowhead Conference plus Brainerd at the Moose Mountain Invite held on Thursday, January 14. The weather for the longest slalom venue in the Midwest was cloudy with a high of 15 F with snow falling on and off throughout the day, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. Caribou had been recently prepared for a Giant Slalom FIS race and was in perfect condition.
First up for the boys, Logan Backstrom charged through the course looking good on this first attempt finishing in 6th. He stepped it up a notch in his second run snagging 4th place overall.
Next up for the Vikes, Will Lamb threw down a fast time in his first run—46.05 for 3rd place just behind Hermantown’s speedy Austin Danelski 45.93 (2nd) and Hermantown’s Tyler Winberg 45.90 barely claiming 1st. All three pushed it to the limit in their second attempts, Will was looking very fast as he went by us on coaches’ knoll but pushed it a little too hard on the lower waterfall, got late and scrubbed precious time but pulled off an exciting recovery holding on to 3rd place. Winberg won 1st and Danelski held 2nd place.
Above: Eighth-grader Halle Lamb maneuvers to block a gate. Left: Consistent, fast-skiing eighth-grader Masen McKeever crushes a SL gate.
Next up junior Erik Lawler nailed the top three-quarters of the fast, turny course but also got late on the lower waterfall and tumbled out of control and crashed. He hiked and earned a second run, throwing down an impressive 8th place finish.
Ezra Lunde continues to go faster and showed it, pushing his way into the top 10 in 9th followed by consistent, fast skiing eighth-grader Masen McKeever who was our fourth team scorer. Will Surbaugh crashed in his first attempt and hiked, finishing the day at the back of the pack.
Seventh-grader Kevin Viren and ninth-grader Lynden Blomberg both skied two solid fast runs and would have won gold and silver in junior varsity, but I accidentally fielded them in the varsity race.
Lucky day for two boys from Hibbing who went home with their hardware!
Our varsity boys’ team finished the day in 2nd place once again losing to a fast Hermantown team.
After the lunch break, the wind off Lake Superior picked up and blew straight up the hill and it started snowing hard. On the girls’ side Reilly Wahlers skied a fast, smooth run, landing 4th in her first attempt. Reilly pushed out of the start in her second attempt and nailed the top section of the course but she T-boned a gate and broke her ski pole exiting a fast flush. She scrubbed some time and finished the day in 6th place.
A couple of nerve-wracking bobbles didn’t stop Alyssa Martinson on the long course. She finished 7th followed close behind by senior Tri-Captain Haley Yoki who lit up both runs and broke into the top 10 club for the first time placing 9th! She was followed by freshman Sela Backstrom (10th) who was our fourth team scorer on this day.
Madysen McKeever has been pushing hard lately and showed it on Moose finishing 14th. Morgan Welch skied a clean first run but pushed a little too hard in her second attempt (18th), followed by Santina McMillan who had similar problems in her second attempt and actually tied Morgan (23rd), eighth-grader Halle Lamb has been steadily improving (24th) followed by Elsa Lunde in (32nd).
True Neis put the pedal to the metal and won gold in junior varsity followed by Natassja Sheils who won bronze.
Our varsity girls team finished the day in 2nd place falling to Hermantown.
We want to thank all of the 20-plus parent volunteers who help host this race. They work as starters, timers, gate keepers, bib collectors and help set and smooth the race course. It takes 190 gates and 500 feet of fencing to host the longest Slalom venue in the Midwest and just because we make it look easy doesn’t mean that it is. Without the fantastic parent support we wouldn’t have two alpine ski programs in Cook County.
The next race for the Alpine Vikes is the re-scheduled Cook County Invite that will be held on Koo- Koo at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, January 22.
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