---

The Wildcats opened their regular season with a couple meets at their home hill last week.

They hosted 21 other teams as part of the annual Wild Mountain Invitational on Friday, Dec. 17.

The Wildcats top finisher was Joe Cartier. The junior's ski career has been up and down throughout the years. As a freshman, Cartier was All-State Honorable Mention, but some untimely falls last year kept him from moving up any farther.

Now, as an upperclassman, Cartier began his season right, finishing in eighth place in the 132-man field. Cartier's first run was nearly flawless at 30.66 seconds. It left him in seventh place after the first run.

In his second run, Cartier moved over to the more icy and beat up course and had a little slower time, but still impressive, at 31.36 seconds. His combined time of 61.96 seconds ended up good enough for eighth, as he was the pace setter for Chisago Lakes.

Jake Sandgren had a couple impressive runs of his own during the meet. Although he didn't keep up with some of the top skiers in the meet, he still posted an impressive first run time of 31.96 seconds.

Much like Cartier and most of the field, the second run was a little more rough for Sandgren, as he went 33.13 seconds in the second stanza. His combined time of 65.09 seconds left him in 27th place for the meet.

Hunter Haas had two consistent runs for CL and ended up finishing in 61st place. Haas skied the first run in 36.04 seconds, and turned around with a 36.22 seconds in the second run.

Shane Anderson was the next Wildcat to appear on the leaderboard, as he had a 38.35 second run in the first chute, and actually improved his time in the second run, going 37.37 seconds.

Hogan Haas had one of the Wildcats' early falls. The state participant from last year tumbled in his first run, finishing in 49.90 seconds. The run basically eliminated him from top contention in the invite, but he still came back with an impressive 34.57 run in his second crack at the hill. He ended up finishing in 101st place.

Brandon Marvin had a couple of rough runs in his season debut, finishing in 52.27 seconds in his first run after a stumble and 42.33 seconds in his second run. He finished in 107th place.

As a team, the Wildcats came in 13th place in the meet with 352 points. They know they have plenty of room for improvement, and things will only go up for them from here. Minnetonka won the meet with 478 points while Stillwater and Hopkins rounded out the top three.

Girls

The girls half of the team got two top performances from their two top skiers, and things eventually fell into place as the 'Cats finished in fifth place in the meet, just 50 points shy of Minnetonka, which took home dual championships in the event.

The Wildcats were led by Katie Rayer, who had two nearly identical runs on two different courses. Rayer finished the first race in 34.19 and the second in 34.64. Her consistent times left her in 15th place for the meet out of 132 skiers.

Just behind Rayer was returning state participant Sheila Stephani. Stephani was just under a second behind Rayer after her first run of 35.01 seconds, but she almost made up the difference in her second run. Stephani hit the course hard and finished with a 33.91 in the second run. Her total time of 68.92 seconds left her just one spot behind Rayer in 16th place, and only nine-hundredths of a second away from her.

Teresa Sandberg kept the girls impressive day going when she finished in 29th place in the meet. Sandberg's first run went 36.08 seconds, and she kept some momentum going into the second run and finished it in 35.10 seconds for a combined time of 71.18 seconds.

Eighth-grader Amanda Engelbrekt finished not far behind Sandberg, coming in 37th place. Engelbrekt finished her first run in 37.22 seconds. Her second run came in 36.12 seconds. Her combined time of 73.34 seconds kept the Wildcats in the hunt for a top three spot.

Beth Swanson was the next Wildcat to clock in, finishing in 90th place overall. She went 44.46 and 43.39 in her two runs for a combined time of 87.85.

A big fall doomed Kate Swanson in her second run. After going 49.48 in her first run, Swanson took a digger in the second run and didn't finish until over 93 seconds ticked off the clock. Her combined time of 143.35 seconds left her in 121st place on the day.

After Minnetonka, Benilde-St. Margaret's finished in second place and Minnehaha Academy capped off the top three. Mounds View finished just one point ahead of Chisago Lakes in fourth place. In fact, only four points separated the 'Cats from Minnehaha Academy.

---