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The Wildcats are officially over the hump. After taking second the last two years are the section 7 ski meet, last Tuesday, the Chisago Lakes/St. Croix Falls boys and girls ski teams took first overall. The performance punched their ticket to this Thursday’s state tournament. It’s the third straight season the ‘Cats will represent the program at the state tournament.

Both squads edged out Duluth East for the title. On the boys side, the Wildcats placed three skiers in the top 12, including Dan Olson who finished second overall, less than a half of second behind Joel Bischoff of Duluth Marshall. In addition, Seth Kinzer finished fifth overall and Jeff Wolfe came in 12th. Dan Sandgren, Dominick Raedke, and Andrew Wagner also competed for the Wildcats, each finishing in the top 30 overall. The balanced attack gave Chisago 353 points as a team. Duluth East finished with 339 points.

Last season, the Wildcat boys finished fourth as a team at the state ski meet.

As for the girls, the lady Wildcats were equally as impressive, edging out the Greyhounds by seven points to grab first.

Sarah Bottjen led Chisago with a fourth place finish overall. She had plenty of company on the leaderboard. Following Bottjen was Simone Raedke at the ninth position, Breanna Stoeckman came in 11th, and Katelyn Garbe finished 20th overall. Katelyn Kinzer stumbled on her second run, dropping her down to 79th place overall, which is what makes the Chisago win so impressive. When one goes down, everyone else steps up. It’s the true sign of a championship team.

The Chisago girls will go for a state championship on Thursday at state. Last season, the Wildcats placed third overall.

Section 7 Ski meet:

Boys team results-

1. Chisago Lakes 353

2. Duluth East 339

3. Brainerd 318

4. Forest Lake 289

5. Virginia 289

6. St. Cloud 285

7. Hibbing 263

8. Cook County 251

9. Duluth Marshall 238

10. Cloquet/Esko 234

11. Grand Rapids 205

12. Anoka 182

13. Buffalo 158

14. Duluth Denfeld 141

15. Duluth Central 137

16. Annandale 105

Section 7 Ski meet:

Girls team results-

1. Chisago Lakes 305

2. Duluth East 298

3. Hibbing 295

4. Duluth Marshall 280

5. St. Cloud 258

6. Brainerd 255

7. Cloquet/Esko 249

8. Forest Lake 244

9. Virginia 223

10. Grand Rapids 183

11. Buffalo 149

12. Anoka 133

13. Duluth Denfeld 130

14. Annandale 86

Chisago Lakes

Individual Results:

Boys-

2. Dan Olson 1:11.60

5. Seth Kinzer 1:14.68

12. Jeff Wolfe 1:18.67

16. Dan Sandgren 1:19.02

21. Dominick Raedke 1:21.13

29. Andrew Wagner 1:24.16

Girls-

4. Sarah Bottjen 1:22.81

9. Simone Raedke 1:28.90

11. Breanna Stoeckman 1:29.91

20. Katelyn Garbe 1:33.30

36. Melinda Beyer 1:39.13

79. Katelyn Kinzer 29:38.51

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