Having started in November, the Orono Alpine and Nordic ski teams have just finished their three month season with great records and strong appearances at State.
As for Nordic, the team had a total of around 50 skiers this year, both boys and girls in grades 7-12, and has performed very well despite its tough section.
“I think a lot of our success this season has come from having a strong pack of seniors as well as some incredible breakout underclassmen,” senior captain Dan Wall said. “While our section is arguably the hardest in the state, I was always confident that we would have a great season this year.”
The team had its first official 5k race on January 10 at the Mesabi Invitational up north in Biwabik, MN. Despite the vast competition from all over the Midwest, the team was still able to do well in such a tough race as well as get a little bit of an idea of what the season may have in store for them.
“The varsity invite is the largest high school nordic meet in North America, but we were still able to get some good results from our skiers,” senior captain Cabrini Winkels said.
In addition to the varsity invite, the team has also competed in a number of short relay races, the Highland 5k, the Elm Creek classic race, conference and section races and has just finished cheering on some of their players at state.
Besides having quite a few solid skiers in their arsenal, the nordic ski team also has very strong team chemistry, which makes the sport a lot easier.
“The nordic ski team is an extremely close-knit group, which not only makes the season more fun, but actually helps us all do better in races,” Wall said. “It’s nice having such a large, supportive team always cheering you on.”
As for the Alpine Ski Team, they too had a slow start to their season due to poor skiing conditions at the beginning of winter but have managed to really make the most of their season and as with Nordic got to cheer on a few of their skiers at state.
“We lost a lot of phenomenal skiers this year and the start of the season was slow but we really managed to pick it up,” senior captain Mac Bendickson said. “We have a lot of young talent and everyone put a lot of effort into making this a successful season.”
The team has had two conference races at Buck Hill, a conference race at Afton Alps, an all-team race at Hyland and the Wild Mountain Invitational. All of which they ended up doing fairly well in.
“We’ve been doing pretty well this year and have a lot of good skiers, said senior Catherine Fraser. “We were hoping to return both of our teams to State this year and are happy that we were able to accomplish this.”
As with the Nordic ski team, Alpine is also a very close-knit group of skiers which makes the sport even more fun.
“We all get along very well and have a lot of fun hanging out during our team trip to Lutsen and on the bus and at practice everyday,” said Fraser.
Although both teams had a slow start to their seasons due to the lack of snow this winter as well as having a lot of team members battling illnesses, they both managed to send a few of their skiers to State and finished their season with a lot of success.
