Boys fly to third place finish at Wild Mountain Invite

by JEFF NORTON SPORTS EDITOR Boys The Wild Mountain Invitational is always a good barometer for the Chisago Lakes alpine ski teams. There are 30 teams at the meet and they are the best of the best in Minnesota skiing, and the Chisago Lakes boys team is right among the top tier teams.

The guys finished in third place behind Minnetonka and Eagan/Eastview, two teams that the Wildcats won’t see in the conference season. The ‘Cats were paced by Anders Brown, who picked up right where he left off last year, at the top of the pile.

Brown finished in third place overall with a combined time of 1:05.42. His first run on the red course was a blazing 34.46 seconds. It was good enough for third place out of all the first runs. In his second run, he stayed fast and sharp en route to a fourth place finish on the blue course in 30.96 seconds. Only Tommy Anderson of Eagan/Eastview and Jack Lindsay of Burnsville finished with faster combined times than Brown. Brown’s time was backed up by Ryan Mower. The underclassman finished the race in 1:12.87, which was good enough for 33rd place overall. Casey Bennett, who was the second Wildcat on the course, finished in 35th place after putting together consistent run finishes of 42nd and 35th. The fourth score that counted for the ‘Cats was John Frischmon’s. He came in 40th place to accrue 129 points for Chisago Lakes.

The Skippers of Minnetonka won the meet with 611 points. Eagan/Eastview’s second place finish was with 603.5 points and Chisago Lakes’ third place mark was 564.5 They also had some nice early season runs from Jeremy Wesloh and Isaac Bierman. Girls On the girls’ half of the racing, the Wildcats finished in ninth place, highlighted by a third place overall finish by Ellie Frischmon. She had two remarkable runs for Chisago Lakes, finishing in the top four in both. On the red course in her first run, she carved her way through the course to a fourth place finish in 34.08 seconds. In the second more difficult run, she really stepped it up, finishing in 34.40 seconds, which was good enough for second place overall on that course. Her combined time of 1:08.48 left her in third place after everyone was done. She was only behind Rose Hust of Orono and Juliana Damberg of Mounds View. A pair of Hannah’s were second and third on Chisago Lakes finish order. Hannah Stec came in second on the team with a time of 1:16.82, which was good enough for 36th place and 128 team points.

Hannah Janzig came in 55th place for 109 points when she combined for a 1:19.57. Lauren Peltier rounded out the Wildcat scoring with a 63rd place finish in 1:22.79. Mikayla Granfors and Ashley Angel both had some nice runs. Angel’s first run was in the top 50, but a fall in her second run sent her tumbling in the standings.