Boys demolish NWSC competition at Troll

Northwest Suburban Conference Meet Boys
The Wildcat boys alpine ski team absolutely dominated the competition at the Northwest Suburban Conference meet held at Trollhaugen on Thursday, Jan. 17.

The boys half of the squad ended with 627, 114 points ahead of second place Osseo/Maple Grove. They accumulated so many points on the strength of their top trio of skiers.

The threesome had yet to put together a dominant race together this season, but that all changed with six quick runs. Jake Sandgren was his usual self, finishing in third place in the meet with a combined time of 51.08 seconds. He had the second fastest run on the red course with a 24.458. Tanner Rivard continued his breakthrough senior season, finishing the red course in the fourth fastest time and the blue course in the third fastest time. His conbined time of 51.71 seconds put him in fourth place overall, just a half second behind Sandgren.

The third Wildcat in the top six was youngster Anders Brown. Brown had a combined time of 52.40 seconds, nearly keeping pace with Sandgren and Rivard. His 26.54 second run on the red course was eighth best and his 25.86 second run on the blue course was fifth best.

Hunter Haas, Ryan Mower, Casey Bennett and Colin Schladeiller all earned top 20 finishes for the Wildcats to round out their scoring. Haas finished in 14th with a time of 55.80 seconds, Mower was 16th with a combined time of 57.04, Bennett was 16th with a 57.36 and Schladeiller was 20th with a time of 57.79 seconds. The ‘Cats won the meet with the aforementioned 627 points, besting Osseo/Maple Grove and Centennial, who finished in second and third. “They were solid finishes by all 10 guys,” Assistant Coach Su Leslie said.

Girls
Things didn’t go as smooth for the girls in their trip down Troll. Ellie Frischmon’s run was spot on, as she finished in fourth place overall with a combined time of 1:04:30. Her 32.19 second run on the red course was third best overall, while her 32.11 run down the blue course was sixth overall.

Other than Frischmon, however, there was some tough spots for the girls. Hannah Janzig and Lauren Peltier were the only other top 20 finishes for CL, and Janzig came in 18th with a time of 1:14.39 while Peltier was 19th with a time of 1:14.49. Claire Eikens finished in 22nd place with a time of 1:17.44.

The Wildcats had three other girls who had at least one run in the top 30. Hannah Stec had the 17th fastest run on the red course, but then got a DQ on the blue course. Annalise Parks had the 23rd best time on the red course, but a big stumble gave her a 1:49.80 on the blue course and she finished in 62nd place. And Kathryn Swanson was 29th on the red course, but couldn’t finish the blue course, leaving Chisago Lakes with limited option for their other varsity scores.

They ended up finishing in fourth place with a score of 362. Andover won the meet with 415 points, Centennial was second with 414 and Champlin rounded out the top three with 387. “The girls had a few spills and mistakes and ended up with fourth place,” Leslie said. “Ellie continues to ski fast, though.”

The Wildcats travel up to Giants Ridge on Tuesday, Jan. 29 for the Centennial Invite, then it’s on to sections for them at the same course on Tuesday, Feb. 5.