Minnesota State Meet Recap

The 2013 Minnesota State Meet will go down as one of the great ones in recent memories, providing some exciting finishes and interesting results.

Individuals

Anna Kubek, Duluth East, delivered on high expectations, hammering out a dominating skate race and then showing solid classical technique to fend off all challengers in the classical pursuit.  The race for second proved to be very intense as Roseville’s Niki Reker had to contend with five skiers starting within 31 seconds.  That chase pack tightened up by the time they hit the big hill around 2K with Vivian Hett, Burnsville, and Kristen Bourne, MPA, leading the charge.  As Reker slipped back, Hett and Bourne brought their dual down to the wire with Hett taking second place by six tenths of a second.  Bourne ended up posting the top classical time of the day, and the only one under 17 minutes.

The boys race notched up the excitement even higher.  Conference rivals Jakob Ellingson, Hopkins, and Tom Bye, Eden Prairie, posted the top times in the skate race, with just four seconds separating them going into the classical pursuit.  Ellingson held Bye at bay through the first couple of kilometers, but on the descent back on the Gold trail, Bye had closed the gap and it would be a drag race to the finish.  In the finishing stretch, Ellingson had the extra gear to pull ahead for the victory.

Teams

The girls team battle came down to Wayzata versus Duluth East.   Duluth East had the half time lead, up by two points over Wayzata after the skate, with Roseville right in the mix just four points behind Wayzata.  Wayzata held its score in the classical pursuit as Duluth East and Roseville slipped back enough to finish second and third and award a three point victory to Wayzata.

Eden Prairie boys left no doubt they were the top team, crushing the skate field to take nearly a 30 point lead into the classical pursuit.   While EP lost a little traction in the classic race, they still won by 20 points.  Ely boys stood tall for the northland, sealing down second place.   The battle for third was extremely tight, with Forest Lake hitting the classical hard to move from 5th after the skate to 3rd in the end.  St. Cloud Tech and Irondale finished just three and four points off the podium, respectively.

Notes

Kubek and Ellingson, the individual winners, are both biathletes and spent part of the season racing in Europe, arriving back home just days before their section meets!  Their victories are a strong testament to the training and dedication those athletes put into both their biathlon and cross-country careers, especially when biathlon utilizes only freestyle technique.

Sadly, at least two of the favorites struggled on the day with series of issues.  Rocci Wohlk, Forest Lake, appeared to have her intake cut during the skate race, finishing well back of her normal pace at 27th. Harris Dirnberger, Hopkins, battled first illness that probably would have kept most skiers out of the race, finishing 61st in the skate, then, pouring salt on the wound, had one of his classical bindings break off during the pursuit, finishing the race on a borrowed ski, in 76th. Both those skier came away with results that significantly belie their true abilities.

Movers:  With the classical pursuit, one of the more interesting stats we look forward to is the ‘Movement’ index -- the change in position from the start to finish of the classical pursuit race.   Leading the way, big time, in this category is Lakeville North’s Amy Ferguson.  After finishing 100 in the freestyle race, Fergus passed 32 skiers in the pursuit to finished 68th.  Four other skiers all made jumps of at least 20 positions: Emma Thompson, Ely, Amanda Kautzer, Benilde-St.Margaret’s, Madeline McKeefry, Andover, and Anna Nelson, Coon Rapids.  Five boys weaved their way past 20 or more skiers, led by Andrew Egger, Benilde-St.Margaret’s going from 62 to 35, then Paul Larson, Stillwater, Tanner Wetzel, Osseo, Henry French, Duluth East, and Luke Israel, Duluth East.  Only eight boys and seven girls held their position in the pursuit.

Top 25:  Out of the top 25 boys finishers, 12 were individual qualifiers.  In the girls event, 14 individual qualifiers made up the top 25.  Seventeen of the top 25 boys had faster classical times than freestyle.  Only nine girls had faster skate times vs classic in the top 25.

Future Stars:  The State Meet tends to bring out the rough diamonds, the future stars, and this year was no exception.   Ones to watch in the years to come:  Erin Moening, Highland Park, finished 17th as an eighth grader (and looked sharp), Hannah Rudd, Robbinsdale Armstrong, 14th as freshman, and Anna Johnson, Mesabi East, 21st, 8th grade.  For the boys, Zak Ketterson, Bloomington Jefferson, will have a hard road ahead improving on his excellent 3rd place finish as a freshman.  Sean Cork, sophmore at St. Louis Park, was 13th (7th in the skate).


Predictions

Our track record on picking the individual podium has been weak -- we’d be better off picking the horses to show.  The girls race was very tough, and we hedged by stating the podium would come from Bianco, Wohlk, Sonnesyn, Bourne and Kubek, and then placed the trifecta on Bianco, Bourne and Wohlk.  Hett had an honorable mention.   In the boys race, we were a little closer, calling for a finish of Dirnberger, Ellingson, and Ketterson.   Bye, like Hett, was given an honorable mention.  Considering the problems Dirnberger encountered, Ellingson and Ketterson made our boys prediction look pretty decent.

The girls team call was spot on -- Wayzata, Duluth East, and Roseville.  Boys was pretty darn close, as we called Eden Prairie to win with Forest Lake and Ely battling for second.

Coverage

Check out the results for a number of nice photosets.  Plus we posted a more comprehensive set of results.


Changes on the Horizon?

The Coaches Association voted at the State Meet to forward a new proposal that would advance the top two teams, plus top five individuals, from each section to the State Meet.   This would increase the team competition while reducing the number of individual qualifier openings.   The Minnesota High School League is expected to make a decision on the proposal this summer.

Also be warned, the biennial section evaluation will be announced this March.   This could mean some big changes in the Nordic skiing section composition for next season.

Looking Forward

In the near term, many of the top skiers will be competing mid-March at Junior Nationals in Fairbanks, Alaska.   We wish them well -- make us Minnesotans proud!

And for next season, with the graduating class removed, early favorites are Vivian Hett, Mattie Watts, Irondale, Alayna Sonnesyn, Wayzata, and Allison Ternes, White Bear Lake along with Anna French, Wayzata, and Caroline Brisbois, Roseville for the gals.   The frontrunners for the guys include Ketterson, Steve Hokanson, Mounds View, Scott Harrison, Mound Westonka, Sam Johnson, Mesabi East, Sean Cork, St. Louis Park. and Nick Gardner, MPA.

Summer training programs kick off in June.... but if you want to make the podium next February, your journey starts much earlier.