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Hello MAST Adults,
With this Spring like weather and the need to sustain a safe and effective ski hill, the hill needs to be salted. The coaches need 4 parents on skis from 3pm-4pm before practice to salt the hill on Thursday and Friday. This will give the coaches time to get racers organized, set coarse and coach. Meet at the bottom of the practice hill and be ready to ski and salt. Instructions will be given. SignUp to Help Salt The Coaches appreciate all your help! Heather Hunt Good Morning:
I suggest that you bring a sack supper and water bottle to Welch. The food at Welch is expensive and I'm not even sure how much food will be available in the cafeteria. You can stuff a sandwich in your pocket and eat it on the chair if need be. I am leaving for Welch early today to get the gates staged and at least one of the courses set. Please reach out to the other coaches if you have any questions or issues to discuss. Joel (Washburn): 612-716-3186 Eleanor (Washburn): 612-723-9559 Paige: 612-718-1440 Matthew (SW bus): 612-220-1010 Liam: 612-715-5690 Bring your skis and bags to SW or Washburn. Check with your captains via Team Snap if you don't know where you go to store your bags. Here are some other notes about the day. 1. I requested an early release of 12:45 for athletes from SW, Anthony, Washburn, Justice Page. 2. I requested an early release of 12:30 for athletes from Roosevelt, South, Northeast, and Sanford. 3. Buses are scheduled for loading at Washburn and SW at 1PM. Joel will be driving the trailer and meeting you at Washburn. The SW bus will have a trailer. 4. The Washburn bus will be returning to the cities so do NOT leave anything on that bus. 5. The SW bus will be staying and will be the bus taking athletes home after the race. 6. When you arrive at Welch, bring everything into the chalet except your ski bag. Put you ski bag in either the bus trailer or the MAST trailer. 7. Athletes need to pick up a lift ticket at the ticket window. They will ask you for your name and check to see that you and your parents have signed the competition waiver. 8. Find the team and get changed into your race gear. 9. Store your bag in a cubby... there are cubbies in the hallway off the main dining area and steel storage racks in the lower level next to the ticketing windows. Do not store your bags under tables or on the floor anywhere. 10. Take your first warm up run on Long Way Home... take is slow and just get used to the snow on your first run. Focus on your stance and balance and pole plant. 11. Hopefully we will have a coach directing warm ups after that, otherwise, work your normal warm up routine. Skip edge sets today. 12. Inspection will be side slip the fall line with in and out traverse to get a closer look. 13. Focus your efforts today on skiing a nice arc back to the gate, using the rut to your advantage. You do this by using the top of the rut to enter the turn. Exit the rut early if possible to stay on your line and hit the top of the next rut. Stay in balance. Today is not the day to boot cuff the gates. Ski a smooth, consistent line and stay relaxed and balanced at all times. 14. Be at the top of the course at the end of the first run. We will give you instructions on what to do next. You will either be asked to slip out the next course or slip in the old course so we can re-set. 15. After the second run, make a couple of slip runs to get the hill cleaned up. 16. Awards will be held as soon as the results get tabulated. 17. The bus will return to SW. If we are nice to the driver, maybe we can convince him to also make a stop at Washburn as well. And for the Moore's: Bring The MEC Trophy! Thanks all. Looking forward to a beautiful afternoon of ski racing. Mark 612-275-8392 Good Evening: Hopefully you are all tucked into bed after a long day of school and ski racing. Results are attached. A very successful night. Congratulations to the Washburn boys and and the Southwest girls on their victories tonight. The SW girls scored 700 points to the 697 points earned by the Washburn girls. However, after all the points were added up for all three MEC contests, the Washburn girls came out on top to successfully defend their MEC Championship title. Well done. Congratulations to SW for giving them a strong run for their money. Wow. Congratulations to Ilsa Beck who finished second in the girls junior varsity race, and to the next ten girls from MAST, SW and Washburn who took 3rd through 12th place. Also getting medals: Lily Jorgenson in 3rd, Sammy Abelerra-Wright in 4th, and Sarah Rosenthal in 5th. And we had great results on the varsity level as well. In the boys race, Finn Cherveny smoked Parker Hunt by .01 seconds to take first place. Levi Elhers bounced back from a recent battle with a virus to finish in third and Jack Bajek landed on the podium in fifth. Beckett Wedren had some trouble on the first run, but he came back on the second run to post the third fastest time. And Elliot Vap had a wonderful night, putting down the fifth fastest time on the first run to finish ninth overall. Perhaps his best race of the season on a good pitch and in tough conditions. Hard work pays off. In the girls race, Gabby Harritt had the fastest time on the first run and Lucy had the fastest on the second. When both runs were totaled, Lucy finished in second overall and Gabby in third. If you thought the boys race was close, how about the girls: Lucy was .01 seconds out of tying for first and Gabby was only .01 seconds behind Lucy. In other words, after 62 seconds of skiing, first and third places were separated by 2/100s of a second. That is a close finish. Ninth grader Ella O'Connor may have had her best high school race of her young career tonight, finishing in seventh place, just behind Kate Moore in sixth. And we had nine girls finish in 10th through 18th place. Well done girls. Overall, great skiing everyone. I want to say thank you to all of the parents who once again worked the race. We had some very difficult snow conditions to manage and all of the folks who came out to slip out the ruts did very good and important work. You made it possible for our athletes to focus on skiing well rather than on just surviving. No one got hurt tonight which is the best part. Thank you to everyone who gate judged, wrote down times, collected bibs, assisting with starting and anything else that needed doing. A fun and successful night. A special thanks to Bill Bray and Steve Moore who arrived early to help get things set up. You extra efforts were greatly appreciated. The homepage of the website has been updated with practice information for the week. We have supplemental training on Saturday at Wild. I encourage people to attend. Here is a link to register: https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/385526 We have one more race on Friday, Feb 9 at Hyland. More to come on this race very soon. Section Teams will be announced sometime tomorrow-- most likely after practice. Finally, a pair of training shorts was left behind at Wild on Friday. Pics are attached. It is possible that you recovered your shorts tonight, but if you did not, let me know via email or text. Thanks Mark 
Good Afternoon:
I just spoke with Coach Joel and the two of us made an executive decision to cancel today's practices due to the warm temperatures. Our race tomorrow is still ON. Two factors went into this decision: 1. We have a race tomorrow, school all day today, and you have been working incredibly hard. We want you to rest up for tomorrow's race. Tune your skis (just clean up your edges and wax the bases--you don't need razor sharp edges tomorrow). Get caught up on homework. Eat a lovingly prepared meal with your family for once. Get to bed early and rest. 2. The snow is going to be very soft at Hyland and we are unprepared to use salt on the courses today. The benefit of training in these conditions is very low and the risk of someone getting injured are too high for our liking. Temperatures remain warm for Wednesday. As of now, we will train as long as we are allowed to salt our training lanes. We have time to secure bags of salt between now and Wednesday. Sorry for the late notice. As of a day or two ago, the outlook was looking more positive--the temps were forecasted to be cooler than had been previously predicted. Turns out the long range forecast a week ago was more accurate than the short range forecast of two days ago. Bummer. Rest. Mark 612-275-8392 Sorry to inundate you with emails, but I forgot to tell you two things last night...
1. For those who skied at Wild yesterday, give your skis a full shower. We salted the courses at Wild and the salt needs to be washed off your skis If you are coming to practice this morning, be sure to give them a shower after practice today. Salt can also get into the bindings and put some wear and tear on them over time. If your edges rusted up a bit overnight the rust can be removed easily with some stonework (400-600 grit). 2. Brien Spanier has been loading pictures onto our website all season long and I want you to know that 1) they are there for your enjoyment and study and 2) that you can download them directly from the website. Just put your cursor over the image and push control-space bar. You probably already knew that.... See you soon. Mark Good Evening Racers, Parents, Coaches and Fans: Congratulations to both the Washburn boys and girls! Two second place finishes in a field of 20 teams. Excellent skiing. And the SW girls placed fourth. Congratulations also to Finn Cherveny who finished sixth overall and was only .6 seconds out of third place. And hats off to Beckett Wedren who also skied onto the podium to finish in ninth. Parker Hunt (11th), Jack Bajek (13th) and Levi Ehlers (16th) also finished high in a deep field of highly skilled skiers. For the girls, Gabby Harritt was our top medalist finishing in sixth and Lucy Renz skied to a nice ninth place finish, and that was after blowing a ton of speed in the hairpin near the finish. Kate Moore also put together two consistent runs to finish in eleventh and Ellie Arbeiter skied very well to finish sixteenth. In spite of the warm temperatures, the courses held up well. Thank you to the parents and coaches who worked hard to salt and slip the courses today. Your sweat made the track very skiable for all of the racers. Thank you to the athletes who slipped the hill between runs and after the race. You made me incredibly proud. I asked you to hold off slipping until after all the other athletes slipped so you could execute our now famous REVERSE FLYING V. You performed this patented maneuver to perfection. I have never seen such a clean slate for setting a course after a first run. Thank you. And then, as the last seed of athletes took their runs, there you were at the finish cheering on our skiers. I could hear you loud and clear from my referee perch in the middle of the hill. After the race, you came to the top and again waited until most of the athletes had already attempted to slip in the courses. After they had their chance, you unleashed your coordinated REVERSE FLYING V for a second time. It was a sight to be seen. Working together, you effectively moved and flattened giant piles of snow into a smooth track for a second time. You reminded me of the Blue Angels flying by in perfect unison. They, in the sky. You, on the snow. Even Nathan, the Wild Mt Race Manager, commented to me on how smooth the hill was after the race. He didn't know that much of that was because of you, but I do. So thank you. Thank you coaches... another fantastic effort on the hill. Thank you parents for all the work you did to support our athletes--from setting up the tent in the dark to setting out food and drink all day long to keep everyone nourished and hydrated to cleaning up at the end of the day. And thank you to all who gate judged, worked the start and the finish, wrote down times and again, slipped the courses. And a big Thank You to Erik Addy who volunteered to ride the bus to and from the race--again. What a big help you are. And we have another BIG RACE on Tuesday. I received confirmation that we have buses for a 1PM pick up at both SW and Washburn. I will ask the ADs at Roosevelt, South, Northeast, and Sanford for early releases of 12:30. For Washburn and SW, Justice Page and Anthony: 12:45PM. Parents, we need race workers. This is a big race. Everyone is racing. Athletes will be racing on FOUR separate courses. Each course needs five gate judges. Please sign up to assist. Jan 30th Welch MEC Championships Best of luck to all the racers competing in LaCrosse this weekend. Hit the rise line high, turn shape back to the gate, pole plant, big edge angles, all energy to the outside ski from the top of the turn to the completion. Everyone else, I hope to see you bright and early at Hyland. Lanes 1, 2, 3. Timing. Video. More work on outside ski pressure and after today, POLE PLANTS. 7:45 AM. Sleep well. Mark
Good Evening Athletes, Parents, Coaches: Attached is at Wild Mt Invitational Program. The program includes run orders for the first run. For the second run will utilize Bibbo, meaning that athletes will go in order of their finish on the first run with the top thirty finishers reversed (30th best time goes 1st, 29th best time goes 2nd, ....Fastest time goes 30th. After that, athletes go in order of their first run time.). To see the race order for the second run, utilize the Telegram App supplied on page three of the Wild Mt Invite Program. In the morning, meet the bus at Washburn at 6:15AM. Your coaches on the bus with you are: Matthew Polland, Eric Addy, and Rachel Tanner. Be nice to them. Thank them. Be sure to wear a hat and gloves to the bus...to help with loading and in case the bus is late and you are standing in the cold waiting for it. For those going early to help with the tent, I received this note from the Hill-Murray crew. Please consider their recommendation to have some sort of cover between the tent and the ground....our tent area is no longer snow covered. Hello Wild Mountain Invite Coaches & Contacts! Please see attached a couple photos from today of our tent area at Wild and the tent locations map. While the race hill does have sufficient snow, the tent area has less snow than we would like. However, Hill-Murray is still setting ours up. We wanted to give you a report on the conditions so that you can make a decision for your own group. If you do decide to set up, it is strongly suggested that your team bring some sort of carpet or covering for the ground under your tent. In addition to the tent situation, we wanted to let you know that the full running order and schedule is available in our event program (attached). Folks may want to access and download the file prior to the event, just in case their cell signal is weak at Wild Mountain. Included in the program, on the schedule page, is a QR code for access to our Telegram channel. That is one place where we will be communicating race day information (including the bibbo for the second run). Thanks so much, and we look forward to racing with you tomorrow! We still need an assistant starter and one more course worker...with the warm weather we could use even more than the three we are assigned. If all three course worker positions are filled, check in with one of the coaches to volunteer. Race Worker Sign Up Here For those who have signed up to work, here is where you should be and when. Forerunners: 8:30AM in the Timing Office--upstairs over the ski patrol. Starter: 8:45AM in the Timing Office--upstairs over the ski patrol. First Run Gate Judges: 9:00am at Finish Second Run Gate Judges: 12:30pm at Finish Course Workers: 9:05 At Start Forerunners Start: 9:35AM and 1PM. First Run Start: 9:40AM Second Run Start; 1:10PM Awards: 4PM Athletes: The Invite will provide you with a bib. Take Care of you bibs. Do not spill on your bib. Do not lose your bib. Do not take you bib off and then forget to put it back on (like when you go to the bathroom). You are responsible for your bib all day long until the end of your second run when you graciously hand your bib to the nice people who are collecting bibs. Attached is a list of athletes who are attending the race tomorrow. If you are sick or late for the bus, you need to CALL one of the coaches who will be meeting you at the bus plus myself. Here are our numbers. Mark: 612-275-8392 Matthew: 612-220-1010 Erik: 952-270-0934 Rachel: 612-845-8148 Hopefully this is everything you need to know. See you at the hill around 7:45am or so. Mark 
Welch Race January 30th-- start time change; waivers; Friday practice canceled; Saturday training...1/24/2024
Dear MAST Athletes, Coaches, Parents: We have a race on Tuesday at Welch Village. ALL MAST athletes are invited to race and it looks like nearly all of you have stated your intention to race. That is wonderful. 1. New Race Start Time of 4PM Somehow the head coaches and I missed the memo that announced an earlier start time for our race on Tuesday, January 30 at Welch Village The race will begin at 4PM instead of 5PM. Sorry for this inconvenience. I am trying to get the bus pick up time changed from 2PM to 1PM from both SW and Washburn. Hopefully this will not be difficult to do. 2. Release Of Liability All athletes and race workers who will need a lift ticket will need to have signed the ski areas release of liability. Anyone who raced at Welch back on January 4th already signed the waiver. It is possible that many more of you have done so as well. I have finally secured a list of parents and athletes who have signed the waiver. That list is attached. IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO RACE AT WELCH, PLEASE OPEN THIS SPREADSHEET AND SEE THAT YOUR NAME IS LISTED. IF IT IS NOT LISTED, CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW WITH A PARENT AND GET THIS WAIVER SIGNED. DO NOT DELAY. IF THE WAIVER IS NOT SIGNED THE DAY OF THE RACE, I CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SIGN IT THE DAY OF THE RACE AND SECURE A LIFT TICKET. Athlete Release of Liability Any parents who will be working the race and requiring a lift ticket will also need to sign a lift ticket waiver. Please click on the link below to sign Welch's lift ticket release of liability. Race Workers Release Of Liability 3. No Practice Friday, January 26.... I am canceling practice on Friday. Because most of our coaches will be at the Wild Mt invitational on Friday, we do not have coaches who are available to coach that afternoon and evening. SO NO PRACTICE ON FRIDAY. 4. Saturday Morning Practice... But we DO have practice on Saturday morning. 7:45AM. We have good lanes... 1, 2 and 3. We will time, videotape and have a wonderful morning of training. Everyone should attend. 5. Get your costumes ready... Our third annual Costume Practice will be on the last Saturday morning training of the year: February 10th. 8am-10am. That's all for now... Mark
To all MAST parents: As you all may or may not know, Mark Conway, our esteemed (he begs to differ) coach of more than 15 years, is planning to ease off on his responsibilities next year. He plans to step away as head coach and allow his strong coaching staff to take on the head coach positions. Mark still plans to help as a support coach. What many of us didn’t know was how much work Mark has been putting into the daily administrative tasks required to run a great ski program for over 100 skiers from many different schools every year. These are tasks easily picked up by parent volunteers. We have created an org structure with Mark’s guidance and input (see attached) to continue the strong Minneapolis Alpine Ski Team program for many years to come. As most of us know, Mark puts a great deal of care into everything he does in order to make the MAST experience for our skiers top notch. We want to continue that attention to detail for the benefit of our young athletes. No doubt Mark, hesitant to let go of the program that has been his winter life for many years, would also like to see this program remain strong. In that spirit, we had a great show of parent support at our Parent meeting early in the season and started filling many roles, thank you!!!! Very impressive! We’d like to further invite any and all parents to indicate if you have the time and interest next year to engage in some of the tasks you see in our MAST org chart. Specifically, we could use a little more support in Registration, Program Administration, Fund Raising, Equipment, and Race Management. We also need a parent rep from Washburn to help with overseeing the whole program. Too many volunteers is good, as we can put you on the “active reserve” list, as people’s availability may change from month to month, year to year. The first slide of the attached explains the roles a bit, and the second slide shows who has signed up so far. Please respond to Bill Bray ([email protected], 507-301-7109) if you are interested in joining any of these task groups, or have questions about them. As Mark says so often, skiing is a labor-intensive sport (not just for the athletes) and requires the help of parent volunteers. Plus, it’s fun, you get to work with other talented and energetic parents, and you help our athletes become great skiers and exceptional citizens! Dear MAST Athletes, Parents and Coaches: Thank you to all of the coaches and parents who worked tonight’s race. It went very smoothly for the most part. Just over 360 race runs were completed in under two hours tonight. Results are attached. Congratulations to the Washburn boys for squeaking out a narrow 6 point victory over Wayzata. Congratulations to the MAST boys for finishing third. Congratulations to the Washburn girls for taking first in team scoring and to the Southwest girls for placing second. Kudos to Finn Cherveny on his victory tonight and to Jack Bajek who has been scoring points consistently all season long for the Millers. Jack finished third overall. Also moving up in the results this week after showing impressive improvement in training over the last couple of weeks were Stuart Durand (6th), Wyatt Shelton (8th), Sam Moore (9th) and Xavier Turpin (10th). It was a great night for Mpls girls from all three teams. Nine girls placed in the top eleven. Gabby Harritt put down the fastest times on both runs to finish first. Eva Voyakin followed in second, Kate Moore in third, Lucy Renz in fourth and Reese Kuehn in fifth. Keep up the hard work everyone. Wild Mt Invitational Friday, January 26 We are sending six teams of six athletes each to the Wild Mt Invitational (SW boys and girls, Washburn boys and girls, MAST boys and girls). The coaches have been tracking race results all season long. We met after tonight’s race to further make our picks for the Wild Mt Invitational on Friday. Because you are skiing so well, you made our task very difficult. Listed below are the athletes who have secured a spot on a Wild Mt Invite Team either as competitors, alternates or forerunners. Also listed below is the schedule for the day on Friday. Note that athletes should meet the bus at 6:15am to load. Please come to the bus wearing your hat, gloves, and gs suit. This will allow you to stand in the cold should the bus be late, carry your gear to the trailer without shivering away your energy, assist (effectively) with trailer loading duties, and speed up the time it takes you to get out on the hill to warm up before inspection. It will also demonstrate to your coaches that you have some brain cells. Parents: we need to supply race workers for this invitational plus fill roles to support our athletes with food, beverages, and the festive tent home base. Please sign up to help here: Friday, January 26 at Wild Mt (9:40AM Start) Washburn Girls: Gabby Harritt Kate Moore Reese Kuehn Ellie Arbeiter Amelia Moertel Julia Westphal Alternate: Josie Bitney Washburn Boys: Levi Ehlers Finn Cherveny Jack Bajek Beckett Wedren Stuart Durand Steffan Drekonja Alternate: Freddy Proell Southwest Girls: Lucy Renz Lia Rulf Eva Voyakin Avery Patterson Ingrid Hartzell Mila Voyakin Alternate: Reese Brothers Forerunner: Julia Maurice Southwest Boys: Parker Hunt Eli Kroll Massi Bray Sullivan Hunt Beckett Krueger Leo Spanier Alternate: Logan Benz Forerunner: Quinn Nelson MAST Girls: Violet Mueller Beatrice Mueller Ella O’Connor Sarah Rosenthal Alma Wernimont Elsa Addy Alternate: Sylvia Pulkrabek MAST Boys: Makeen Mkaouri Elliot Vap Samuel Moore Xavier Turpin Henry Payne Wyatt Shleton Alternate: Will Cherveny Week 11 Calendar Tuesday, Jan 23 Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Pods 11, 12 Lane 3 5:00-7:15PM. Pods 7, 8 Lane 3 6:30-8:45PM. Pods 9, 10 Lane 3 5 and 6:30PM Practices Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups Wednesday, Jan 24 Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Pods 11, 12 Lanes 4,5 5:00-7:15PM Pods 10, 9 Lane 4 6:30-8:45PM Pods 7, 8 Lane 4 Wear Rope Tow Gloves. 5 and 6:30PM Practices Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups Thursday, Jan 25 Hyland Training 3:45-6:00PM Wild Invite Teams (optional) plus Pods 11, 12. Lanes 2, 5, 6 5:00-7:15PM Pods 7, 8, 9, 10. Lanes 5, 6 Wear Rope Tow Gloves. 5PM Practice Meet On South Chair For Warm Ups Friday, Jan 26 Wild Mt Invitational 6:15AM Load Bus From Washburn 8:45 Course Inspection 9:00AM Gate Judge Meeting at Finish 9:05AM Course Workers Meeting at Start 9:35AM Forerunners 9:45AM First Run Start 1:10PM Second Run Start 4:00PM Awards Hyland Training 5:00-7:15PM All Pods. Lane 4,5 Wear Rope Tow Gloves Saturday, Jan 27 Hyland Training 7:45-10:15AM All Pods. Lanes 1, 2, 3 Tuesday, Jan 30 MEC Race #3 at Welch Village This is a wonderful race for all MAST athletes. Everyone who wants to race will be entered. There will be four separate courses set—two for the JV race and two for the Varsity race. More details coming soon. For now, make sure you have stated your race intentions. Parents: we need to supply a LOT of race workers All hands on deck. Please sign up to work this race. It will determine the MEC Champions for boys and girls AND the MEC Junior Varsity Champions for boys and girls. The Washburn girls will be defending their 2023 Metro East Championship against the 2023 MN HS Alpine Girls State Champions, Hill-Murray. Sign Up To Work The Race Here: Tuesday, January 30 at Welch (5:00PM Start) State Your 2024 Race Intentions Here Looking Ahead: Supplemental Training at Wild Mt Saturday, February 3 Bus Loads: 2:30PM at Washburn Bus Returns: 10:30PM at Washburn Bring A Sack Supper Sign Up Here: Feb 4th Supplemental Training Registration See you tomorrow. Mark
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