Good Afternoon:
Today I learned that Wild Mt also lost too much snow for us to set gates on Saturday night. Consequently, I am canceling Saturday's supplemental training session. I will refund those of you who already paid. I am adding back the Saturday morning training session for December 30th. 8:45-11:15AM. I know that your expectations are to ski gates this far into the season. Unfortunately, we have to make the most of what we are given right now and what we are given is enough snow to develop our skills through directed free skiing. Please take advantage of these practices this week. Every turn you make with intention and focus and a goal in mind will help you be faster when you get back into the courses. Improvement comes by working the drills outside the course. So, three practices remain this week: Thursday, Friday and Saturday- 8:45am-11:15am. Off Sunday and Monday. Hopefully we will be back in gates on Tuesday next week. Mark Good Evening: Just received the race results from today's race. Not sure where to start.... How about this... I am really proud of our skiers. Every one of them. Each one of you made the most of the opportunity today. Focus. Preparation. Sportsmanship. Spirit. Teamwork. Grit. Enthusiasm. Had the results come out differently, I would be just as proud of you. Some races go your way and some don't, no matter how well you have prepared. Ski racing is a difficult and unforgiving sport. For the Southwest girls, the Washburn boys and the Washburn girls, things went extraordinarily well today. Let's celebrate... and then get back to work. After finishing third at Sections countless times in the last five or so years, today the Washburn girls came away victorious. The Southwest girls were not far behind in second place, beating a very good Stillwater girls team by one point. And the Washburn boys missed winning the Section IV Championships by only two points. But they still qualified for State with their very strong second place finish. The Southwest boys and the MAST girls had very respectable results today, each team finishing in ninth place. Individually, the results were equally impressive. Eva Voyakin finished second overall with Gabby Harritt in third, Lia Rulf in fifth, Lucy Renz in sixth, Kate Moore in ninth, Reese Kuehn in thirteenth, and Ellie Arbeiter in fifteenth. I'm sure Violet is disappointed. She was only a quarter of a second away from qualifying for State with her nineteenth place finish. Nonetheless, she skied really well and should be proud of her performance. After showing continuous improvement all season long, Beatrice topped off her career with an impressive 23rd place finish. So fun to watch you attack the courses today Bea. On the boys side, Finn Cherveny continued his streak of impressive performances with his seventh place result. Jack Bajek, starting in the fourth seed, finished in tenth. Levi Ehlers put down two consistent runs to finish in thirteenth and Parker Hunt qualified for the State Meet with his fifteenth place finish. Beckett Wedren's seventeenth place result added invaluable points to the Washburn team total and gave them their six point lead over a very strong Stillwater team and enabled them to pull away from the always strong Hastings and St. Thomas boys teams. Thank you to our awesome coaches who have been training our athletes all season long. Well done. Thank you to the parents who worked the race and provided us with yet another fantastic lunch and festive team gathering space. Thank you to our alumni athletes and parents who came out to work the race: Charlie Smith who slipped courses all day long, Kelly Bent who videotaped from the finish arena, and Alex Turner who spotted on the knoll for Kelly and me. Most of all, thank you athletes for working so hard all season and for believing in our system of building the fundamental skills of ski racing. Anyone want to guess how many wedge turns, edge sets, and javelin turns you made this year? You are very deserving of your accomplishments today. Sleep well. And because we have rain in the forecast, please check your email before heading to the hill tomorrow. Mark
I. Minneapolis Alpine Championships on February 9 at Hyland
State your race intentions for our final race together on Friday, February 9th at Hyland: The Minneapolis Alpine Championships. I will ask for a 2:30 early release for students at Sanford, Roosevelt, Northeast and South. I will ask for an early release of 2:45PM for students from Anthony, Justice Page, Washburn and SW. We will be joined by Holy Angels and DeLaSalle. Awards will follow the race so plan to stick around. We will honor the top three finishers for boys and girls in the following Classes: 7th/8th; 9th/10th, 11th 12th. Parents: please sign up to work this last race. Here is a link: MAST Hyland Hill Race 2/9/24- Champs Thank you! Heather Good Afternoon: Attached are three important items for those of you attending the Section IV Championships tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to work the race. We still need to supply a BOYS gate judge for the morning run and a GIRLS gate judge for the afternoon run. Please sign up here: https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/12532106800118/false#/invitation Thanks Mark Latest email from Meet Manager Joe Dalman. ALL: I spoke again today with Wild Mtn and they have confirmed that they will ensure that we have the snow depth for us to race at Wild so no change in location. I did speak with Afton and Adam and they where very helpful in using them as a plan B but based on communications with Wild and there ability to still hold the section 4 race I felt it was better to stay with what was planned. I CC the Jury on the email and I know race crew along with the coaches of this section will work to ensure we do the best we can to provide a fair race for all athlete's. I want to go over our plans for the day in regards to slipping and salting and some reminders. I also attached the Spreadsheet with 3 tabs and the Bib numbers with run order for the day. I'll have a copy in each of your packets with bibs and athlete lift tickets at registration in timing Wednesday morning. This will be the process for each race run. 1. Course setters and crew will set course 2. Race Crew will salt race track after set 3. Course will be open for inspection roughly 30 minutes after salting. Remember extremely important that all athlete's know what a vertical slip is and race line should not be slipped but in and out of course to view gates. Let's really ensure that all athlete's are doing a vertical slip during inspection. 4. After inspection is closed whatever coaches can be at the top of the hill to slip after inspection is closed would be a big help. 5. Race crew will salt one more time after inspection closes and try for 30 more minutes to let salt set. This does mean timelines on the schedule might change some based on letting salt set but we will take the time to ensure we allow it to set and try to get the best track we can for racing Run 2 will follow the same process. Some other reminders: Remember once race starts race arena is closed to everybody but race officials and jury members. No one should be in the arena unless part of the race crew. I will allow coaches that want to help slip to be in the arena but they should only be in the arena to help slip and must always being looking up hill at all times and no communication with gate judges are anyone on the hill. Also teams that have course worker I want to make sure that they are meeting with Chief of courses once inspection opens up 1st run. I'll speak to Dan and Jeff to make sure they meet with course workers top of hill at the start of inspection. Thanks again for your continued support and I know with the efforts of this group and the trying conditions we can still do the best we can to give the athlete's the best change they can have to make it to the MN State Meet. Sincerely, Joe Dalman
Good Morning MAST Families:
As we begin Week Thirteen of our season, I want to pause and express my deep appreciation to the coaches, parents and athletes for all of the support, enthusiasm, generosity, and labor you have offered our program this season. As I watched our athletes train Saturday morning and then again Saturday afternoon and evening, I was struck by how much improvement I was seeing in their skiing. And everyone was having fun. A special thank you to the coaches who have been hustling from their day jobs to practice every day for the past twelve weeks and will continue to do so through the end of the season next week. And then they take days off of work so they can coach at our big races. Please take time this week and next to say thank you to your coaches. They make all of this good stuff happen. Much is happening this week. The website and Team Snap are updated for Week 13 and 14. Here is a link to see the full schedule for Weeks 13 and 14. MAST Website. Here are some reminders. I. Minneapolis Alpine Championships on February 9 at Hyland State your race intentions for our final race together on Friday, February 9th at Hyland: The Minneapolis Alpine Championships. I will ask for a 2:30 early release for students at Sanford, Roosevelt, Northeast and South. I will ask for an early release of 2:45PM for students from Anthony, Justice Page, Washburn and SW. We will be joined by Holy Angels and DeLaSalle. Awards will follow the race so plan to stick around. We will honor the top three finishers for boys and girls in the following Classes: 7th/8th; 9th/10th, 11th 12th. Parents: please sign up to work this last race. Here is a link: February 9 Race Volunteer Sign UP February 9 Race Intentions II. Section Championships on Wednesday, February 7. All athletes attending the Section IV Championships should arrive at Washburn no later than 6:10AM to meet the bus. If you are riding with a parent to Wild, please let your head coach know this via Team Snap or a text to his or her phone. Parents: We still need a few gate judges and a starter for this race. Please sign up here: Section Champs Race Volunteer Sign Up Athletes: tune your skis as you normally would. Clean and sharp edges will be needed. If you are comfortable lightly de-tuning the tips and tails, you can do this, but only if you do it lightly. The courses will be salted so you need sharp edges. Clean your bases with a hot wax. Scrape while the bases are still somewhat warm. Wax a second time with wax for temps in 28-35 temp range. Let the skis cool. Then scrape and brush. No PRACTICE on Wednesday. All coaches will be at Wild Mt that day. III. Saturday, February 11, 7:45-10:15AM CRAZY COSTUME DAY (Our last Saturday Morning training of the season.) Looking forward to seeing all kinds of creatures and characters skiing the courses on Saturday. Hoping for a return of the dinosaur. See you later today. Mark Good Morning:
The forecast for Wild Mt is warm during the day. Temps will be dropping quickly through the late afternoon and evening to below freezing by 8pm. I do not think salting will be effective. Winds are from the east-- so will be blowing directly onto the hill which takes the moisture out of the snow that is needed for the salt to work its magic. If we do end up salting, we will use salt bags stationed by Wild Mt for our use and we will only be salting lightly. This means that only 2-4 bags of salt will need to be moved to the top of the hill. Coaches and athletes can handle this. However.... Having said this, we have forty athletes registered for supplemental training and we can always use help setting the courses and then maintaining the courses during training. I am certain that the courses will need to be slipped out A LOT all evening. Having extra folks around to slip during training would be very helpful. If this interests any parents, please join us. You can ride the bus if you like or meet us there. Lift ticket will be provided. Just text me if you would like to join the supplemental training fun. I do think that this activity would make for a great date night. Couples welcome. It is very peaceful on a ski slope after sunset. Especially at Wild Mt. Thanks, Mark 612-275-8392 Canceling Parent Help for today (Friday) and Saturday Morning Salting/Training Venue Set Up -2/2/2024
Hello:
For those of you who signed up to assist the coaches with salting and venue set up today (Friday) and tomorrow morning, STAY HOME. The temperatures have cooled and it looks like we will either not need to salt at all or very lightly. We don't want to waste your time today or in the morning. Many thanks for volunteering to assist. We may still need help at Wild. I will check the forecast for North Branch tonight. My guess is that there is a lot of salt already on the hill at Wild and we may only need to dust the course lightly to get it to harden up. Looks like the temps cool very quickly tomorrow late in the afternoon so salting may not even take. I will let you know one way or another later tonight. I think the forecast gets updated late in the day today. Thank you to Bill, Steve and Mark who helped yesterday. You were tremendously helpful. Mark Dear MAST Athletes, Families, Coaches and Friends:
Once again, our beloved athletes are giving the coaches headaches. The reason for this is positive of course. We have too many really good racers. The number of highly skilled racers on our teams far exceeds the number of racers we are allowed to enter in the Section IV Championships. The coaches truly wish we could race ten athletes per team at Sections, but that is not how it works. We have to pare the teams down to six racers and an alternate. So after carefully analyzing race results over the length of the season, the coaches have selected the athletes whom we think have demonstrated the highest measure of consistency and speed at both home and away races. Ultimately, the head coach for each team made the final selections, but it was with input from all of the coaches. For those who have been competing hard for a spot on a section team but find that your name is not listed, please know that you are very much a part of your school’s Section IV Championship Team. We realize that this is small consolation, but it is very much true. You pushed your teammates to be better with each drill, each timed training run, and each race run. You faithfully attended practice every day, worked with passion and focus, shouted words of encouragement and sometimes, friendly taunts. You made training fun which made everyone want to be there. And once there, you couldn’t help but get better. And either could your teammates. So, if your name is not on the list, your spirit is in every athlete named to each one of our Section Championship Teams. Thank you for that. Parents of athletes competing next Wednesday: please sign up to work the race and/or help with food, tent, serving and everything else we need to do to support our athletes. Here is a link: https://signup.com/go/dOcDTCi More information about sections will be coming soon. Thank you. Mark, Matthew, Joel, Paige, and Eleanor. |
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