FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Minnesota State Meet Qualifying Process Approved

This morning the MSHSL formally approved a proposal put forward by the Nordic Ski Coaches Association to change the qualification format for the State Championship Meet. 

The current format entails the 1st place team (of 7 athletes) from each section along with the next 8 fastest skiers qualifying for the State Meet for a maximum of 15 skiers/section. Given that Nordic skiing is composed of 8 sections this results in 8 boys and 8 girls teams competing and a maximum of 120 skiers of each gender.

The new format to be instituted for the 2014-2015 season will result in the top 2 teams (of 7 athletes each) from each section along with the next 6 fastest skiers qualifying for the State Meet with a maximum of 20 skiers/section. This will result in 16 Boys and 16 girls teams qualifying and a maximum of 160 skiers for each gender.

The new format, the proposal for which was overwhelming passed by coaches in December 2013, will mean more schools have the possibility to quality for the State Meet.  In addition, it brings the percentage of Nordic skiers who qualify for the State championships more in to line with that of other sports at approximately 7.5%.

At this time, we do not foresee any significant changes in format. The only differences will be in the time frame with races tentatively taking place based on the following schedule:

Because past years have often seen extremely cold temps delaying the start of racing, discussion will be held at the Fall coaches meeting in consultation with Bob O'Hara our State Meet Manager as to potential back-up plans that might need to be instituted if our first races were to be delayed by several hours.