January 15, 2009 at 9:27 a.m.
Wildcat skiers sit atop the mountain
Wildcat skiers sit atop the mountain
The Chisago Lakes alpine ski team took the elements, and their conference competition, head on and came out on top in both instances.
On Thursday, Jan. 8, the teams took to the snow at Trollhaugen in Western Wisconsin to settle their differences. In the boys half of the race, the Wildcats emerged from the pack as the clear-cut number one team.
The top Chisago Lakes skier was Mark Sandgren. His combined time on the hill of 51.41 was enough for third place out of 80 skiers.
After Sandgren, a gang of green and gold finished in a big pack. Joe Cartier finished fifth with a combined time of 51.94. In seventh place, Steven Wagner earned 74 points with a combined time of 53.14 seconds.
Right after Wagner, Jacob Sandgren finished in eighth place with a combined time of 53.67 seconds. The consistency at the top really went a long way for the 'Cats in the final scoring.
Another group of four skiers finished within four seconds of each other to really cement CL at the top. Anthony Lukas, Brandon Marvin, Hunter Haas and Hogan Haas all finished between 18th and 24th place.
"There was less mistakes by the entire team," Head Coach Dan Raedeke said. "Joe, Jacob and Anthony really stepped it up to help with the win."
The win was really accentuated by the fact that arguably CL's best skier, senior and captain Philip Bottjen, had a miscue and finished in 44th place.
The 'Cats blew away the rest of the competition, finishing with 606 points to win the meet. Andover finished second with 463 points.
The girls didn't quite win their portion of the meet, finishing second, but the group that did ski showed they are a top flight competitors in the tough conference.
Simone Raedeke, Katelyn Garbe and Amanda Angel finished one-two-three in the competition, and they won by a fairly large margin. Raedeke earned first place with a combined time of 54.84 seconds, Garbe grabbed second with a combined time of 57.18 seconds, and Angel came in right behind her with a combined time of 57.92 seconds. Fourth place was more than four seconds behind Angel.
Raedeke has won both conference races so far this year.
Teresa Sandberg, Abigail Bottjen and Katy Rayer were the next pack of Wildcats to storm down the hill, as the finished seven-eight-nine to place six Wildcats in the top ten.
Araya Gamble finished out the Wildcat skiers with a 13th place finish out of 58 skiers. "The girls we have racing are at the top of their game," Raedeke said of his charges. Quality, not quantity is what they say.
CL earned 524 points to finish in second behind Centennial's 636.
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