What a great winter weekend. The snow forecasted for Thursday night and Friday night did not happen so I was able to get all the grooming done on Friday and left a small window open to head to Giants Ridge to catch the big Mesabi meet that features over 1200 skiers.
I left about 5:30 since Jake was racing at 10:30 and got there about 9:45am. Heading over saw the most incredible sunrise. For just a few minutes, the sun was shining through and lighting up the frosted trees and they looked like they were on fire. I didn't get a shot like I wanted to capture the moment but it was incredible.
The race was awesome. Kasey Basco, (photo above) the #2 ranked skier in the state started 30 seconds behind Erik Fagerstrom, the #1 ranked skier in state and was absolutely flying. Basco worked his way up to catch Fagerstrom and I watched them on the long downhill after coming down the Gold trail. Basco was pretty much the only one to double pole the downhill while others were in a tuck. He caught Fagerstrom and put 6 seconds on him to put. I talked to Basco is when he was up with Wayzata and he was waiting out the bus drama and putting down some cookies big time. Super nice kid, focused and I bet he wishes Joe Dubay was racing at state cuz he was only 6 seconds off yesterday.
Fagerstrom moments before catching Jake. He looked smooth but didn't have that fire like Basco. Jake was hoping for a higher finish but things are extremely tight and just 20-30 seconds he would of been where he was hoping to place. Great experience and he was the 4th 9th grader. But possibly the story of the day was Jack Hinkens who placed in the 50's. First year skiing after playing hockey, and did classic and had an incredible race. The hockey players that convert to skiing usually make a nice transition for skating but classic is generally harder. Jack came on nicely the end of the season mountain biking and did well on the cross scene. Very cool. All in all it just recaps my feelings on HS Nordic skiing being pretty much the coolest sport out there. One of the biggest reasons is the single class. You have someone like Conrad Roberts (who was fourth in the skate) coming from Battle Lake, battling against the big city schools. The atmosphere is great with everyone cheering and a most positive environment. It still amazes me the number of jr skiers in the state of MN. In Jake's race alone, there were 200 skiers!! Some bike races don't even have that many riders in all the classes. It is encouraging, in the position I am in, to see those numbers. About 3/4ths of those skiers will be lifelong skiers and the future of the "sport". After the race Jake, Dylan and I skied the Silver trail which was tracked best line and was fantastic skiing. It is always interesting to observe other grooming and after skiing it, I thought about where I might set that line !
We all went out for a moonlight ski tonight. Some high clouds but still plenty good light to see. Was a great ski. Jake logged a big day on the trails, knocking off about 65k. Not to long until sections and now is the time to crank it up before tapering off. Jon's team lost to PR which they killed earlier in the year but rebounded with nice wins over Little Falls (which they lost last week to) and beat the Fargo Flyers which is always good. Jack had bb ball tourney and lost first game but Jack is happy so all good. Jens running wild with kids of guests from South Carolina. They came in with us to watch Jon's game and was fun to have them along.
I left about 5:30 since Jake was racing at 10:30 and got there about 9:45am. Heading over saw the most incredible sunrise. For just a few minutes, the sun was shining through and lighting up the frosted trees and they looked like they were on fire. I didn't get a shot like I wanted to capture the moment but it was incredible.
The race was awesome. Kasey Basco, (photo above) the #2 ranked skier in the state started 30 seconds behind Erik Fagerstrom, the #1 ranked skier in state and was absolutely flying. Basco worked his way up to catch Fagerstrom and I watched them on the long downhill after coming down the Gold trail. Basco was pretty much the only one to double pole the downhill while others were in a tuck. He caught Fagerstrom and put 6 seconds on him to put. I talked to Basco is when he was up with Wayzata and he was waiting out the bus drama and putting down some cookies big time. Super nice kid, focused and I bet he wishes Joe Dubay was racing at state cuz he was only 6 seconds off yesterday.
Fagerstrom moments before catching Jake. He looked smooth but didn't have that fire like Basco. Jake was hoping for a higher finish but things are extremely tight and just 20-30 seconds he would of been where he was hoping to place. Great experience and he was the 4th 9th grader. But possibly the story of the day was Jack Hinkens who placed in the 50's. First year skiing after playing hockey, and did classic and had an incredible race. The hockey players that convert to skiing usually make a nice transition for skating but classic is generally harder. Jack came on nicely the end of the season mountain biking and did well on the cross scene. Very cool. All in all it just recaps my feelings on HS Nordic skiing being pretty much the coolest sport out there. One of the biggest reasons is the single class. You have someone like Conrad Roberts (who was fourth in the skate) coming from Battle Lake, battling against the big city schools. The atmosphere is great with everyone cheering and a most positive environment. It still amazes me the number of jr skiers in the state of MN. In Jake's race alone, there were 200 skiers!! Some bike races don't even have that many riders in all the classes. It is encouraging, in the position I am in, to see those numbers. About 3/4ths of those skiers will be lifelong skiers and the future of the "sport". After the race Jake, Dylan and I skied the Silver trail which was tracked best line and was fantastic skiing. It is always interesting to observe other grooming and after skiing it, I thought about where I might set that line !
We all went out for a moonlight ski tonight. Some high clouds but still plenty good light to see. Was a great ski. Jake logged a big day on the trails, knocking off about 65k. Not to long until sections and now is the time to crank it up before tapering off. Jon's team lost to PR which they killed earlier in the year but rebounded with nice wins over Little Falls (which they lost last week to) and beat the Fargo Flyers which is always good. Jack had bb ball tourney and lost first game but Jack is happy so all good. Jens running wild with kids of guests from South Carolina. They came in with us to watch Jon's game and was fun to have them along.
1 comment:
Mesabi is a great Meet and hard one to miss! Thanks for the report looks like it was another good one!
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