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The Northwest Suburban Conference has changed its meet format, but that didn't make any difference in the first meet of the ski season. The Wildcat skiers won both team events ( boys and girls) in the season's first race, Tuesday, December 18 at Trollhaugen.

In the past, the regular season was made up of a series of dual-meets. This year, all eight NSC schools face each other in five regular-season meets. In the first of those five, the Chisago Lakes-St. Croix Falls girls beat runner-up Coon Rapids 650-522. The Wildcat boys slid to a 615-534 win over Centennial.

Wildcat Simone Raedeke was the individual girls' winner with a two-run total of 61.08 seconds. Teammates Katy Boyer and Katy Garbe finished second and fourth. Wildcat skiers grabbed nine of the top 18 positions as they ran away with the 80-skier competition.

The CL-SCF boys recorded nine of the fastest 19 places in the event. Tim Johnson was the fastest Wildcat with a sixth-place 52.15 second finish. Tim Johnson was in the next spot for the 'Cats.

"The younger kids stepped up to the plate and helped both the boys and the girls to the first conference victory of the year," said Wildcat head coach Dan Raedeke.

TEAM RESULTS

BOYS

Rank Team Points

1 Chisago 615

2 Cent 534

3 BLN 440

4 CR 430

5 Irondale 420

6 Champlin 405

7 Anoka 230

8 Andover 138

GIRLS

Rank Team Points

1 Chisago 650

2 CR 522

3 Cent 420

4 Irondale 404

5 Anoka 356

6 Champlin 335

7 Andover 289

8 BLN 33

The next eight-team conference meet will be at Wild Mountain Tuesday, January 8.

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