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Rodger Petryk and the Chisago Lakes/St. Croix Falls ski team try to avoid the spotlight at all costs, up even they might have a hard time dodging the critics now, after sweeping the Wild Mountain Invite, a meet that brought in 22 of the best ski teams from around the state.

“You win in racing with a team effort,” remarked Petryk, head ski coach for both the boys and girls squad. “You have to have consistency. It’s the fifth and sixth skiers that have to ski just as well as your top guys. We have a good enough team where we can do that, we’ve got that type of depth. Because of that, we’re going to be able to win every ski meet we’re in this season, we’ll always have that chance.”

Last Friday Wild Mountain, that chance became reality. Leading the pack, literally, on the girls side was Brittany Nelson who finished first out of 132 skiers. The first place finish was Nelson’s second in as many seasons at the Wild Mountain Invite. Nelson blazed through her two runs, followed by Jessica Lundgren who finished sixth. Add in Sally Bowen and Tara Wilson who finished 12 and 28 respectively, and the girls had four skiers place in the top 30. That depth led the ‘Cats girls team to a 33 point win, outdistancing Mounds View who took second.

The boys were just as powerful, placing four skiers in the top 16, led by Isaiah Kinzer’s eighth place finish. Right behind him was Ross Stensrud (10), Dan Olson (14), and Seth Kinzer (16). The boys racked up 484 points, 14 better than second place Hopkins.

“Having four boys in the top 16 and three girls in the top 12 is just exceptional,” said Petryk. “What makes it even more impressive is that, in both the boys and girls race, we had two of our top skiers fall, so they didn’t even get a chance to place high. That’s depth.”

That’s also scary.

Wild Mountain Invite-

Boys Team Results (Top 5):

1. Chisago Lakes 484

2. Hopkins 470

3. Eden Prairie 436

4. Edina 408

5. Benilde-St. Margaret’s 398

Individual Results (CL only):

8. I. Kinzer

10. Stensrud

14. Olson

16. S. KInzer

58. Wolfe

116. Sandgren

Wild Mountain Invite-

Girls Team Results (Top 5):

1. Chisago Lakes 433

2. Mounds View 400

3. Hopkins 396

4. Forest Lake 395

5. Benilde-St. Margaret’s 381

Individual Results (CL only):

1. Nelson

6. Lundgren

12. Bowen

28. Wilson

59. Stoeckman

Kinzer- DQ (straddled gate)

As if a sweep at the Wild Mountain Invite wasn’t enough in one week, three days earlier, both the boys and girls squads dismantled Irondale in a conference meet, also skied at Wild Mountain.

On the boys side, Isaiah Kinzer led the pack with a first place finish followed by Rob Sandgren who finished second. In all, six ‘Cat skiers placed in the top 10, helping the Chisago boys squad to a 37-18 win.

Meanwhile, on the girls side, Brittany Nelson started the party and Cassandra Quiram finished it as the Wildcat girls placed eight skiers in the top 10, leading to an easy 50-5 win. After Nelson, Katelyn Kinzer placed second and Jessica Lundgren finished third.

Boys Results:

Chisago Lakes 37

Irondale 18

Individual Results-

1. I. Kinzer

2. Sandgren

3. Irondale

4. S. Kinzer

5. Irondale

6. Stensrud

7. Wolfe

8. Irondale

9. Garbe

10. Irondale

Girls Results:

Chisago Lakes 50

Irondale 5

Individual Results-

1. Nelson

2. K. Kinzer

3. Lundgren

4. Bowen

5. Bottjen

6. Wilson

7. Raedeke

8. Irondale

9. Irondale

10. Quiram

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