Minnesota State Meet Recap

February 16, 2015

The 2015 Minnesota State Meet provided yet another exciting championship event to wrap up the high school racing season. Organizers had a lot on their plate this year, as the league changed the competition format to include additional teams and more skiers in the big meet. Before they could even get to the racing, Mother Nature played a cruel card in bringing some of the coldest weather of the season down for the day of the meet. The decision was made nearly two days in advance to delay the State Meet start to noon, allowing for everyone to make updated plans. This proved to be a very wise decision, as the weather cooperated by providing legal temperatures shortly after 11 am, and with the sunshine and light winds, most people found the conditions quite tolerable. To deal with a tightened schedule, the freestyle races were compressed, with two racers going out every 15 seconds. Grouping of the best skiers near the front of the start list, it made for some pretty exciting racing that almost felt like a mass start. In the end, the organizers need to be commended for making the decision to delay early, and then developing tightened schedule with a bigger race field, and still pulling off a very high quality event -- bravo!

Individuals

Leo Hipp delivered a championship worthy performance, going out hard in the morning to take the skate lead then fending off a chase pack of five skiers to win the boys title. Hipp had been tagged the favorite across the board, but the contenders all performed very well, with Sean Cork the best of bunch finishingly strongly in second overall, as Cory Rouw, Thomas Norman, and Tamer Mische-Richter sprinted out the finish to round out the top five. There were two incredible performances in the top ten by unranked skiers, as Xavier Mansfield, perhaps getting a little boost by starting with Hipp, came out of the skate just 17 seconds back. Thomas Norman had equally impressive performance, chasing down skiers in front of him to post the fifth best skate leg. Also to be recognized, Isaac Wieber, who had been top ten ranked for part of the season, showed he deserved it with a ninth place finish. Mansfield bears close watching for next season, as he’ll be the top returning underclassmen (and he’s got possibly two more State Meets in him).

The girls race had all the drama we had expected. Sarah Bezdicek clearly was the strongest skier on the course, crushing the skate field for a big lead, and then keeping on the gas for the classic posting the second fastest split to coast in for the “easy” victory. Top ranked skiers filled out the first five finishers as Michaela Keller-Miller put together two thirds to make a second, Margie Freed was third, Erin Moening just off the podium in fourth, and Anna French rocketing back in the classic to snatch fifth. Like the boys, two unranked skiers broke into the top ten as Anja Maijala and Micayla Batchlor saved their best races for last. A lot of returning contenders foreshadow another tight battle brewing for next season!

Teams

Every bit as exciting was the team competition. The Forest Lake boys didn’t just step up to the plate, they hit out of the park, posting their three lead skiers in the top ten and getting solid performance out of Alex Richert to blow the team competition right out of the water. Their crew of four won on every measurement -- top four skate, top four classic, and winning the overall title by 28 points. Stillwater boys gave Duluth East a fight as they were down by just a single point at half time. But the striders of Duluth East stretched it to 11 by the end to take second, with Stillwater third. Duluth East also wins on the virtual full-team scoring (combined score of all seven team skiers).  Mesabi East was the biggest surprise, finishing 4th, when they had been on the cusp list.

The Wayzata girls had a slight scare, as Armstrong came out of the morning skate races with a two point lead. But the Wayzata stars showcased some fine classical talent in the afternoon, as their top four each moved up in the field to open a big winning margin of 29 points. Stillwater also used some powerful poling to nearly overtake Armstrong, finishing third by just three points. Stillwater had the deepest squad strength, scoring the highest on the full-team scoring.  Forest Lake was the big surprise for the girls teams, finishing a remarkable fifth with a young, unranked team.

Movers and Shakers

Every year one of our favorite stats is the movement number. We calculate this by subtracting a skiers skate place from their finishing place -- the higher the number, the more positions they moved up in the field during the classical pursuit. The top movers this season were Jake Welch, who leapt an amazing 39 places, followed by Seth Cattanach and Torsten Brinkema, who both moved up 28 positions. Catapulting himself from 35th place to 15th was youngster Josh Jones. Claire Benton led the leapers in the girls field, moving up 34 places in the classical race. Siri Bohacek and Maria Berg both jumped 27 places. And taking herself from 23rd all the way up to 8th overall (what if it had been a longer race…?), Rocci Wohlk.

This year we calculated the movement number for the teams as well. Mesabi East boys took themselves from 7th place after the skate to finish 4th overall. The Hopkin Girls and Duluth East girls moved up four and three positions, respectively.

Shaking it up for the young guns, Xavier Mansfeld was the top sophomore with his 6th place finish. Erin Moening bested that, finishing 4th for the girls. Kelly Koch was the best of the girls freshman class, finishing 13th, with an eighth grader, Mae Barnes, taking 22nd. Hunter Zupko was the top freshman boy at 26th.

You can review all our number crunching, including the extra team scores, in our alternate format results.

Predictions

So how well are we at forecasting the future? The old phrase, “don’t quit your day job” probably fits. Leo Hipp made good on our streak of picking the boys winners in recent years. But we knew the battle for those top five was going to be tight, and our second and third place choices, Cory Rouw and Tamer Mische-Richter, finished 3rd and 5th. Our streak at guessing the girls champion is beginning to look more like a curse. We did select five we thought we be in the running for the title, and three of them made the top five, with Sarah Bezdicek winning. Anna French, our first choice, made a great classical comeback to crack the top five, and Micheala Keller-Miller took second, one better than we forecasted. Rocci Wohlk, our favorite for second overcame a tough skate race with the best classic split on the day to put herself back into the top ten.

For the team predictions, the Wayzata girls delivered on yet another title as predicted, with Armstrong and Stillwater switching places. The Forest Lake boys did one better, taking first, with our third place choice Duluth East also moving up one to second, as our champion pick St. Louis Park finished 5th.

Thanks to all that dropped us encouraging notes during the season. And best of luck to those skiers going on to compete at other events yet this season, like the Kortelopet and Junior Nationals!