Just to make sure you are paying attention, I occasionally insert an intentional mistake in my updates. Today's mistake was caught by Lucy Renz. It only took her 13 minutes. Not a record, but very quick work on her part. And she is only in 10th grade. Wait until she is a senior. Attached is the spreadsheet listing race intentions. Mark
Good Morning Ski Racing Fans: The MEC race results from Wild Mt are attached. Given the forecast, I think the afternoon and evening went really well. Let me start by THANKING ALL OF THE PARENTS WHO WORKED THE RACE. Your efforts are deeply appreciated. Over 430 race runs were completed in less than three and a half hours in very tough conditions. The track held up really well considering the temperatures, rain, and snow. The race was efficiently executed and fair to all the athletes thanks to all of our volunteers. Congratulations to Jens Hasler and Sloane Petersen for their second place finishes in the JV results. Well done. Congratulations to the Washburn girls and boys who both finished second. The girls only lost to the Hill Murray girls by 3 points: 454 to 451. The boys only lost to the Hastings boys by 2 points: 444 to 442. And the Southwest girls came away with a trophy finishing in third. Well done. Those are two very good teams you faced tonight, perhaps the best in the state. You are closing the gap. Keep working hard. Also exciting is that half of the top ten finishers in the girls results were MAST skiers: Gabby Harritt in fifth, Kate Moore in sixth, Reese Kuehn in seventh, Lia Rulf in eighth, and Elizabeth Arbeiter in ninth. With Violet Mueller finishing fourteenth and Eva Voyakin fifteenth, the girls claimed seven of the top fifteen spots. The boys put eight in the top fifteen: Parker Hunt was our top finisher in sixth place, followed by Andreas Drekonja in seventh, Levi Ehlers in eighth, Finn Cherveny in tenth, Simon Showalter-Loch in eleventh, Beckett Wedren in twelfth, Jack Bajek in thirteenth, and Callum White in fourteenth. Great team skiing! A few observations and comments. Ski As A Team; Employ Good Tactics. Your first runs were excellent. You skied as a team. It is okay to not take big risks on your first runs. Focusing on making clean arcs to the gate and maintaining a proper line through the course is the correct strategy. Give yourself and your team the opportunity to be in contention for the win going into the second run. So my first observation is that you all employed excellent tactics last night: attacking the rise line high enough to maintain a good turn shape back to the gate. Very few of you got tripped up by the combinations toward the end of the course as other racers from other teams did. Make Saves And when you did have trouble, you found a way to make a save and stay in the course. That is what you have to do. All great racers make saves. Keep doing this in practice rather than just skiing out. Making saves is a learned response to making mistakes. Usually the mistakes are not mistakes at all, but rather just an effect of doing something well, like releasing the ski at just the right moment to have it give back energy. When this first happens, most racers get tossed out of balance, which is what happened to a few of you tonight. You did not get tossed because of poor tactics, but because of good tactics. That is progress. You will learn how to handle that energy as you continue to develop. You Continue To Improve Technically And your technique was much improved: strong positions over the outside ski, pressure to the gate and a well timed release of the pressure immediately after making contact with the gate, better utilization of the inside shin to clear the gate, and pole plants in the corridors and on the exits of the combinations. Keep working on these skills this week. You have made very strong improvements in these areas. For the week, continue to perform 60 pop hops (30 in each direction) and 50 hop turns as part of your warm ups. One final compliment to our athletes: You made this old man so proud after the race when so many of you were gathered on the top of the hill waiting for the last racers to descend so that you could make your slip run and help with hill clean up. One of the Hill Murray coaches came over to tell me how impressed he is by all of you for doing this, not only tonight, but at every race he has been with MAST. He pointed out that his athletes were nowhere to be seen. Although you were soaking wet and chilled and it had already been a long day, there you were, being exceptional citizens. I will be sending Update Week Ten later this morning or early afternoon. We have a very busy schedule ahead so please read the update carefully. Study hard today. You are a talented bunch and each one of you has a bright future ahead. I know all the coaches feel as I do: It is a wonderful joy to be your coach. Mark
Good Evening: The race is still on. Meet the bus at Noon at Washburn. We are monitoring the weather. The Accuweather forecast for North Branch is tolerable. Rain at noon and rain/snow at 6pm. Dry at 1, 2,3,4,5pm. If you have rain gear, bring it. Bring two pair of mittens or gloves. Bring your lunch/supper. We are not serving food or setting up the tent. You might want to bring a change of clothes and socks for after the race, so you can ride home in dry clothes. Missing: the bib bag. It was by the trailer as we were packing up. Did anyone grab it and bring it home, or did anyone put it back in the trailer? There will be practice at Hyland from 5-7pm on lane 4 for those not racing at Wild. Wear rope tow gloves. If it is raining at 4PM, practice will be canceled. Check team snap before you head to the hill. Check your email before leaving for the bus. See many of you tomorrow afternoon at Wild. Mark
Good Afternoon MAST Families: Thank you to everyone who stated their race intentions for the Metro East Conference Race at Wild Mt on Monday, January 16th. Due to the very large field size, we are unable to bring everyone who stated their intention to race. We are only able to bring four girls and four boys to race as junior varsity athletes. We are entering six varsity teams of 10 boys and 10 girls each plus the eight jv racers. So, we are bringing 68 athletes in total. If you name is on the list and you are no longer able to attend the race, please email me immediately so I can off a race entry to another athlete who is not on the list. Meet the buses at Noon on Monday at Washburn. Again, I would like to send one bus home after dropping you off at Wild. But I need to know that we have enough athletes planning to catch a ride home with a parent. So.... please complete the short form below. This will make it easier for me to track your responses. Jan 16th MEC Race: Athlete Travel Plans Thanks, Mark
Good Evening Race Fans: Our beloved athletes had a very successful day on the hill today. Results are attached. There are a lot of highlights to celebrate. Washburn JV Boys finish FIRST in team scoring. Southwest JV Girls finish TIED FOR FIRST with Northfield before the tie-breaker is applied. Once applied (Northfield's fifth skier beat SW's fifth skier), the girls bumped down to second in team scoring. Washburn JV Girls finished third in team scoring. Avery Patterson posted the fastest times of both runs to take the win. Also finishing on the podium were Josie Bitney (5th), Phoenix Ehlers (6th), Julia Maurice (7th), and Elsa Addy (8th). That puts five of our girls in the top ten. Well done. For the boys, Xavier Turpin was our fastest skier in the jv race finishing in 4th, followed by Hudson White (5th), Steffan Drekonja (6th), and Will Cherveny (7th). In the varsity race, the Washburn Boys finished in second place and the Southwest Boys landed on the podium in third. The Washburn girls also finished second in team scoring. So HALF of the team podium medals went to Mpls skiers-- three to our JV teams and three to our Varsity skiers. Individually, our varsity skiers fared well also, placing four girls in the top ten: Gabby Harritt- 5th, Kate Moore- 6th, Lucy Renz- 7th, and Reese Kuehn 9th. Levi Ehlers was our top medalist, finishing in 5th place. Simon Showalter-Loch landed in 6th and Beckett Wedren finished 9th. Thank you parents for your support on and off the hill. And a special thank you to our coaches: Joel, Paige, Matthew, Drew, Nahlah, Erik, and Greg. We say good-bye to Erik and Nahlah who are heading back to college this weekend. Nahlah to Oregon and Erik to Vermont. Finally, I want all of you to incorporate two drills into your DAILY warm up routine: 50 hop turns with pole plants. 60 (30 each direction) Edge Set Hops or, as we named them today, Pop Hops. Every day through the end of the season. You will thank me for this someday. Sleep Well. Mark
Good Morning: Finally I can send you the race results from Friday's race. Congrats to the Washburn girls for the 5-0 win-loss record on the day. Have a wonderful day! Mark
Good Afternoon MAST Families and Coaches: 1. Missing goggle lenses. A couple of nights ago Elsa Addy's spare lenses for her goggles walked away from the table in the chalet after practice. They were in a small bag. If anyone finds her spare lenses, please let me know or reach out to Elsa directly. 2. Rory Madden's ski poles also walked away from the rack after the race on Monday. If you find yourself with the wrong poles, please contact Rory's mother Tricia: 612-810-3435. Rory's name is on the poles. 3. Erik Hemer lost a sweatshirt the other day as well. See the attached picture. Please let Erik know if you found it. 4. Attached is a spreadsheet of the athletes on the team. You can see that the spreadsheet lists those who have indicated their race intentions for Monday's race at Wild Mt. If you scroll to the bottom, you will find a long list of athletes who have not stated their race intentions for Monday. If your name is listed there, please state your intentions today before 9PM. This is the last call I will make for Jan 16th race intentions. Jan 16th MEC Race #2 Race Intentions Sign UP 5. Jan 13th Welch Invite and Alternates and Transportation Home. a. Alternates: If you were listed as an alternate for the race on Friday at Welch Village, you are welcome to join us for the day. You can cheer on your teammates, carry down jackets, and be part of the festivities. You can learn a lot by watching. And you just might be called into actions. IF YOU ARE LISTED AS AN ALTERNATE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WILL BE ATTENDING THE RACE OR STAYING IN SCHOOL THAT DAY. markrobertconway58@gmail.com. And if you are coming to the race, you might get called into action, so be sure to sign the Welch Waiver (actually your parents need to sign it). Complete Welch Waiver Here B. Riding Home With A Parent: Thank you to those who have told me that you will be catching a ride home from welch with a parent. If you will be riding home with a parent, please send me a short email to let me know. I want to send one of the buses home after dropping us off so that the district can save some money. That should help them close the $30,000,000 deficit. markrobertconway58@gmail.com. C. Jan 16th Race Workers: The Jan 4th MEC Race was canceled. We were asked to fill the following race worker roles for that race. We almost filled them all. Here is what that looked like: Start Ref Girls: Kirsten Moertel Start Ref Boys: ?? Gate Judge Boys: Terry White Gate Judge Girls: Bill Bray Gate Judge Girls: Jeremy Graff Course Maintenance: Dimitri Drekonja, Steve Moore, Mike Rulf Can each of you let me know if you are willing and eager to work the race on the 16th at Wild? And if anyone else would be willing to work the race on Monday, please reach out to me. You can either plug in for any of the aforementioned volunteers who are unable to work this race or we might need to fill one more gate judging position and we certainly need to fill one more start ref position and two if Kirsten is unavailable. We can hold you on the reserve race worker team. email or text: markrobertconway58@gmail.com. 612-275-8392 Finally, there will be practice at Hyland from 5-7:15 for athletes who are not racing on Friday at Welch. Athletes from ALL Pods are invited, not just those from Pods 10 and 9. Only one mistake in the last email. I am improving, just like all of you. Thanks, Mark
Dear MAST Athletes, Coaches and Parents:
Great night of racing last night. Thank you. I want to get this Update out to you. I will work on scoring the team results from last night once I get this sent out. I. The first order of business is to address a few administrative needs. 1. Missing Poles: Julia Maurice’s Poles Walked Away Last Night.... Check to see that you have YOUR poles. The name MAURICE is printed on the pole guard. Let me know if Julia’s poles hitched a ride home with you. 612-275-8392. Or reach out to Julia directly. 2. DO NOT USE THE TEAM SNAP PHONE APP TO STATE YOUR AVAILABILITY FOR TRAINING OR RACES. For races, ALWAYS use the links I provide you in these riveting MAST Updates. The TS Phone App doesn’t work well for how our team is set up in Team Snap. 3. Honor the posted deadline for stating your race intentions. As you will see below, for all of the remaining races I have set a deadline for athletes to state their race intentions. Going forward, I will not be adding people to race run orders after the deadline. 4. As I said last night, please check to see if all family members are receiving the MAST Updates. If they are not, make Mpls Alpine a contact in your phone/email account. Use mplsalpine@gmail.com for the email address. And check your SPAM folder to see if our updates are ending up there. I think that the MPS email system is set up to reject outside emails that appear to be sent as a group message. I don’t know how to override the MPS firewall. Make sure that we have your personal email set up in the MAST google groups address book. II. Training/Racing Schedule Weeks Nine and Ten Tuesday, Jan 10 Hyland Training (Wear Rope Tow Gloves) 3:45-6PM: Pods 12/11. Lanes 6, 7. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 10/9. Lane 6. Warm-Ups on South Chair. 6:30-8:45PM: Pods 8/7. Lanes 5,6. Warm-Ups on South Chair. Wednesday, January 11 Hyland Training (Wear Rope Tow Gloves) 3:45-6PM: Pods 10/9. Lanes 4, 5. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 12/8. Lanes 4, 5. Warm-Ups on South Chair. 6:30-8:45PM: Pods 11/7. Lanes 4. Warm-Ups on South Chair. Thursday, January 12 Hyland Training: 5:00-7:15PM. All Pods. Lane 6. Wear Rope Tow Gloves Rest Day for All Welch Invite Racers. No Training. Friday, January 13 Race: Welch Invite. 6:30AM Load Bus at Washburn. 10AM First Run Start. Hyland Training: 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 10/9. Lane 4, 5. Saturday, January 14 Hyland Training: 7:45AM-10:30AM: All Pods. Lanes 4, 5, 6. Wear Rope Tow Gloves Monday, January 16 Race: MEC Conference Race #2. Load Bus at Noon. 3PM First Run Start. Hyland Training: 5:00-7:15PM. All Pods. Lane 4, 6. Wear Rope Tow Gloves Tuesday, January 17 Hyland Training (Wear Rope Tow Gloves) 3:45-6PM: Pods 12/11. Lanes 6, 7. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 10/9. Lane 6. Warm-Ups on South Chair. 6:30-8:45PM: Pods 8/7. Lanes 5,6. Warm-Ups on South Chair. Wednesday, January 18 Hyland Training (Wear Rope Tow Gloves) 3:45-6PM: Pods 10/9. Lanes 4, 5. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 12/8. Lanes 4, 5. Warm-Ups on South Chair. 6:30-8:45PM: Pods 11/7. Lanes 4, 5. Warm-Ups on South Chair. Thursday, January 19 Race at Hyland. 3:45PM Inspection. 4:30PM First Run Start. Friday, January 20 Hyland Training (Wear Rope Tow Gloves) 3:45-6PM: Pods 12/11/10. Lanes 6, 7. 5:00-7:15PM: Pods 9/8/7. Lane 6,7. Warm-Ups on South Chair. Saturday, January 21 Hyland Training: 7:45AM-10:30AM: All Pods. Lanes 1, 2, 3. AND Supplemental Training at Wild Mt on Saturday, January 21 2:30PM Load Bus at Washburn. 10:30PM Return. This will be our fourth of five supplemental training sessions. The third session was a lot of fun. We set a Kombi Course, which alternates between series of gs turns and slalom turns. Kombi courses are really fun to ski but also great for forcing you to look ahead, learning how to adjust your line and the amount of pressure you apply to the skis, and helping make your skiing more fluid and dynamic. The athletes asked to set a Kombi at the next Supplemental Training so if hill space and snow conditions allow, we will set another Kombi course as part of our training on the 21st. III. Race Sign Ups January 16 to February 2 Monday, January 16: MEC Race #2 at Wild Mt. 3PM First Run Start MLK Day. No School. Load buses at Noon. Deadline for stating intentions: Wednesday, Jan 11 at 9PM. Thursday, January 19: Hyland Race vs BSM and Jefferson. 4:30PM First Run Start 2:45 early release. Deadline for stating intentions: Friday, Jan 13 at 9PM. Monday, January 23: Hyland Race vs MWT and Lake Crystal. 4:30PM First Run Start 2:45 early release. Deadline for stating intentions: Friday, Jan 13 at 9PM. Friday, January 27: Wild Mt Invitational II. 9:30AM First Run Start No school on Jan 27. Load buses at 6:15am. Deadline for stating intentions: Friday, Jan 20 at 9PM. Monday, January 30: Hyland Race vs Wayzata and Jefferson. 4:30PM First Run Start 2:45pm early release. Deadline for stating intentions: Friday, Jan 20 at 9PM. Friday, February 2: MEC Race #3 at Welch Village. 5PM First Run Start. 1:45pm early release. Load buses at 2PM. Deadline for stating intentions: Friday, Jan 27 at 9PM. NOTE TO SELF: HONOR THE DEADLINES! IV. Race Worker Sign Ups Parents, I cannot overstate how grateful I am to you for signing up to work our races. Listed below are Race Volunteer Sign-Ups for our remaining Hyland races. I will be sending race worker sign-ups for our two remaining MEC races and the Wild Mt Invitational II in a day or two. January 19 Hyland Race https://signup.com/go/oChxoYH January 23 Hyland Race https://signup.com/go/bEmKFnb January 30 Hyland Race https://signup.com/go/LCyNmAt V. Welch Waiver All racers are eligible to race in the race at Welch on February 2. But all racers, coaches, and parents who will be on skis that day need to have signed the Welch Liability Release. Most of you have done this already. Thank you. If you still need to sign the Waiver, here is a link. Minnesota State High School League 2022/23 Season Release If you are over 19, you can sign the waiver yourself. If you are under 19, a parent needs to sign the waiver. Don’t ask me why 19 is the dividing line because I don’t know. That's all for now. See you this afternoon. Mark 612-275-8392 Good Morning: First, I understand that some of you are not receiving MAST Updates anymore. Please check with all family members and if anyone is no longer receiving MAST updates, there is a strong possibility that our updates are being marked as SPAM by your email service/computer. I would suggest adding our team email address to your address book: mplsalpine@gmail.com. This may help. Or look in your spam inbox and tell your computer that we mean no harm. Beyond this, I have no clue how to get our updates to know. If someone has another idea, please get ahold of me. We have a busy week of racing. Attached is the run order for today's race along with the race plan. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to work the race. See attached spreadsheet. I did submit a request for a 2:45PM early release to the athletic directors last night. Only the names of athletes who stated their intention to race are on the list. The first run starts at 4:30. Inspection opens at 3:45. Please inspect both courses. Depending on how long the first run takes, we may or may not give you a chance to side-slip and re-inspect between runs. You will swap courses nonetheless. Also attached is the team selections for the Welch Village Invitational on Friday. If your name is on the list, please talk to your teachers today and tomorrow about your absence from school on Friday. Alternates: Be ready to race on Friday--tuned skis, well rested, race suit on your body. Athletes: Be sure to work ahead in school so that your absence on Friday doesn't cause you to fall behind. The end of the semester approaches quickly. AND IF YOUR PLANS HAVE CHANGED AND YOU CAN NO LONGER ATTEND THE RACE, GET AHOLD OF ME IMMEDIATELY. We have other athletes who would like to race. Attached is the race schedule and some more information about the Welch Invite. The buses arrive at Washburn at 6:30AM so please arrive at 6:25am. Also, I anticipate that we can cancel one bus for the return home at the end of the day, assuming that a lot of you will be riding home with a parent or the parent of a friend. PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU WILL BE RIDING HOME WITH A PARENT OR THE PARENT OF A FRIEND ON FRIDAY. markrobertconway58@gmail.com Parents: we need help on Friday. Here click here for the Welch sign up https://signup.com/go/qsVcVRJ Finally, Be sure that you have stated your race intentions for next week. It is really hard for me when people fail to do this. Deadline for the race at Wild Mt on Monday, January 16th is Wednesday. Deadline for the Hyland Race on January 19th is Friday. State Your Intentions for Jan 16 State Your Intentions for Jan 19 Thanks Mark
Good Evening: Just want to get the individual race results to you tonight. I will calculate the team results tomorrow. And I will send a Week Nine Update tomorrow as well. Congratulations to Gabby Harritt and Kate Moore for their ONE-TWO finish. Also, it was nice to see Reese Kuehn put two clean runs together to finish in fourth. Reese has been skiing very fast in practice and it is always nice when a racer can bring that skiing into a race setting. Lia Rulf finished well in fifth to give Mpls four girls in the top five. In fact, we had sixteen Mpls girls in the top nineteen. Our boys didn't quite ski up to their potential. If you did not get the results you hoped to achieve tonight, take a few minutes to think about what you might have overlooked in inspection or in the execution of your run. My own observation is that generally people did not maintain their tactics as the courses transitioned from the steeper part of the run to the flats. You always want to maintain your turn shape back to the gate even as the hill flattens out. This will allow you to keep your skis moving cleanly through the snow and help you to carry your speed into the flats. We have another race with Wayzata. Let's make it a goal to ski much better in that race than we did tonight. And here is a team goal for the week: drive your inside shin to the inside of the turn to create more equal edge angles as you approach the apex of the turn and pressure the ski in the fall line. Then, take the gate with the inside shin-- just above the boot cuff. To do this properly and without allowing the gate to jar you back or out of balance, you need to drive your hips forward (into the gate) as you make contact with the gate. That way, you bring power to the gate and you can more easily move off your skis as you pass through the gate. You might just find yourself accelerating out of your turns more. Thank you parents and coaches for once again putting on an excellent race. What a wonderful crew. See you tomorrow. Mark
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