In his lengthy tenure, Alpine Head Coach Jim Vick indicated he cannot recall a full field meet where any regional team, boys or girls, took six of the top 10 places in a given meet. Matter-of-fact, having an eighth-grader placing first may also require some research for it too may be for the record books. Well, welcome to your stellar... READ MORE >
When this edition of the paper hits the newsstands, your Alpine Vikings will be at their first race of the season at Lutsen Mountains. The Alpine Vikings serve as hosts for the Cook County/Silver Bay Invitational with nearly 160 regional ski racers hitting the racecourse Friday morning, December 14. And with the advent of the first race, there are self-imposed... READ MORE >
The Cook County/Silver Bay Alpine Vikings came off a successful season and they are already looking forward to next year. The girls’ team finished fourth in the section behind Mounds View, Hermantown and Duluth East. The girls battled all season long with Hermantown and Duluth East and Hermantown advanced to win the state meet. That alone demonstrates the competition in... READ MORE >
The Section 7 Alpine ski meet at Giants Ridge served host to 18 high schools and 216 racers on Tuesday, February 7. Individual and team results throughout the season become suddenly irrelevant. Unlike most other sports, a ski team is not given a bye, a higher bracket rating or cumulative points for earlier season success. If that were the case,... READ MORE >
The Duluth East girls and Cook County/Silver Bay Alpine Vikings have been sparring all season, trading first and second place finishes on a routine basis. Last week at Spirit Mountain, the Alpine Vikings girls took first place in the largest field of racers yet this year edging out Duluth East by another slim margin. Team Captain Katie Smedstad finished 4th... READ MORE >
Just before the Christmas break the Alpine Vikes swept their last meet of 2011 at Giants Ridge, winning the varsity boys’, girls’ and junior varsity races. After completing an aggressive practice schedule over break, the team was anxious to move forward in 2012 starting with the January 5 Hibbing Invitational at Giants Ridge. The results were not as sweet as... READ MORE >
Call it the perfect storm, Trifecta, clean sweep—pick any descriptive adjective. Short story, the Alpine Vikings took first place in varsity boys’, girls’ and junior varsity slalom at the Virginia Invitational at Giants Ridge on December 16. Jack Viren won the boys’ JV race followed by Damian Zimmer, 3rd and Roman Schnobrich, 5th. Coincidently, Jack’s combined time would have earned... READ MORE >
We were aware the boys’ Alpine ski team was going to be deep this year but how it played out at the first meet exceeded expectations. Our Alpine boys took fourth place of nine regional teams at Lutsen Mountains on December 9, the first race event of the year. Yet, our fourth place team finish was absent our top four... READ MORE >
It’s hard to imagine Cook County without a high school alpine ski team. We have the largest and best ski area in the entire Midwest, historically the most snowfall anywhere in Minnesota, and we have produced NCAA, Olympic and World Cup champions including many Minnesota, state meet and junior Olympic participants. In light of tight school budgets, many other high... READ MORE >
Eleven years ago the Alpine Ski Team had four participants and three coaches (three seventh graders and a ninth grader). Each year thereafter, the team grew in the number of participants. And during that time, the Alpine Vikes have delivered seven State Meet individual participants, a girls’ section champion team and a girls’ team state participant. Fast forward and the... READ MORE >
