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Good Evening MAST Families:
Three short announcements. Please read. 1. MAST In The News Fox 9 News and Maury Glover did a good job telling the story of the Washburn boys and girls. See the link below to view the piece. Thank you to all the athletes who came out to Hyland yesterday. It was really nice to see you and watch you ski again. Once again, you made me so proud to be YOUR coach. I know Joel feels the same way. Minneapolis alpine ski team wins state for first time in 48 years (fox9.com) 2. Senior Superlatives.. a request for athlete and coach input. Josie and Lucy are producing the MAST Video. They would like all athletes and coaches to answer the questions posed in the google form. If you have questions, reach out to Lucy Hugunin and Josie Bitney. Senior Superlatives Form 3. A Friendly Reminder To Purchase Your Banquet Ticket By purchasing this sooner than later, you are helping the banquet organizers plan and prepare and enabling them to sleep restfully. Here is a link to order your tickets. https://www.mplsalpineski.org/20232024-mast-banquet.html Thanks Mark Good Evening:
Just wanted to alert you to a story that will air tonight on Fox 9 News at 9:45 and 10:15PM tonight. Maury Glover came out to Hyland today with his cameraman and interviewed our Washburn boys about their victory at the State Meet. Enjoy the early Spring. Mark Good Evening MAST Athletes:
Hopefully you were cheering on Jessie Diggins in today's Loppet Cup World Cup race at Theodore Wirth Park. What a great day for Mpls and for skiing in general. We have a banquet approaching and we are in need of some help from our Seniors. One of the highlights of the banquet every year is the Senior Tribute Video that Daniel makes. He starts with a video clip from your first year on the team that flows into a video of you ripping it up in a course your senior year. Because we have so many seniors on the team, we need your help. Here are some instructions Daniel sent for me to send out: If you want to be in the senior tribute video please email [email protected] the following, a video of your first year on the team, a video of your best skiing senior year, and 2-3 pictures of yourself with the team. You can submit picture of yourself at different ages on the team if you want. Pictures can be found on the MAST website. If you do not send a before/after video you will not be in the senior tribute video. It would be terrific if you can find the time to send these to me before Tuesday morning, but if you can't get it done by then, please have them to me by next Sunday, February 25. For Everyone: There is still a lot of skiing left this winter. Ski Racing Magazine just published this demonstration of five drills to use to improve your slalom, giant slalom, and speed skiing skills. We will be incorporating these into our training next year but watch these and give them a try this year. Just be careful with some of these. Remember to always look up the hill when doing the J Turn drill and be careful using the speed skiing drills on crowded slopes and never use them in Slow Skiing Zones. Here is a link: How To Train: Top Drills For Ski Racing And don't forget that we have video of the demonstration drills we use during our season. Continue to improve your execution of these drills whenever you get out to ski yet this year. MAST Drills To Build the Skills See you at the banquet. Mark Gentle nudge, please share your thoughts and memories this weekend!
-------------- Hello MAST community! As you might have heard, after decades of selfless service and coaching, Mark is transitioning roles within MAST. While he still intends to be part of MAST he will no longer fill a head coaching role. In celebration of Mark, we are collecting well wishes and memories from you. Your thoughts and tributes will be included in a team photo album and given to Mark at the end of the season. PLEASE NOTE: responses have to be submitted by February 18 Please share with others who know Mark, share this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScoKMKn7HW83zJ7zGye5daOwpb1EkQMC5ZlxF1WUQBxyxOVBA/viewform?usp=pp_url Thank you, 2023-2024 MAST families (a-d) 2023 - 2024 MINNEAPOLIS ALPINE SKI TEAM BANQUET
DATE & COST: Sunday, March 10, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM $15 Per Person ($60 Max Per Family) Under 12 Free *Please contact Mark Conway if you need assistance with the banquet fee* NEW LOCATION: Annunciation Church 509 W. 54th Street, Minneapolis Enter from the parking lot at W. 55th Street, north on Harriet Ave. REGISTER HERE BANQUET DETAILS: The MAST end-of-the-season celebration will be held at Annunciation Church with dinner and awards. Bring your own water and/or non-alcoholic beverage. All attendees, show your MAST pride! Rock your MAST gear: flannels, race suits, shin guards, hats, goggles, vintage ski wear… Or, show up in MAST colors (red, blue, white). Wear anything that celebrates this community’s love of MAST and skiing. Please reach out to Dianne McConville ([email protected]) with any dietary restrictions. *We will not have live-streaming this year, but the event will be recorded. ADDITIONAL INFO:
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Calling all 11th graders! Sign up to help set up and greet guests. 9th, and 10th graders! We need your help with cleaning up. 7th and 8th graders! We need your help with serving ice cream. Parents! We need your help with various volunteer roles. All VOLUNTEER SIGN UP Contact Dianne McConville ([email protected]) or Wendy Moore ([email protected]) with any questions. We look forward to seeing you on Sunday, March 10th! Good Afternoon MAST Families and Fans: The Washburn boys and girls had a very successful day yesterday at the Minnesota State High School Alpine Championships. The Southwest girls had some bad luck and, like the Washburn boys last year, will learn from their experience. With continued hard work they will be more formidable than ever next year. The good news: All twelve Washburn boys and girls skied clean first and second runs. All raced knowing that they were skiing for the best possible team result. No one took undue risks or pushed their tactics to advance their own overall result over that of the team. It is rare for any team of six to put down twelve clean runs in a race. Even more rare: two teams putting down twenty-four clean runs in a row. Impressive. The result: Washburn boys are the 2024 Minnesota State High School Alpine Champions over the defending State Champs, Minnetonka. The Washburn girls finished second to the Minnetonka girls, who seem to win the championship every other year. Outstanding performance. In a field of 88 boys, Finn Cherveny led the way for the Washburn boys with his 17th place finish, followed by the always reliable and king of the one-liners, Jack Bajek, in 28th place. Beckett Wedren and Levi Ehlers completed the scoring with their 36th and 37th place finishes. Stuart Durand helped seal the result by finishing in front of the fourth skiers for both Minnetonka and Hill-Murray to keep an additional point away from those two teams who ended up with 151 points to Washburn’s 153. This was especially significant because Stuart lost his pole exiting the start on the first run, but managed to ski to a fine first run result to keep the Washburn boys hopes alive. And Stefan Drekonja had an impressive result for an eighth grader, finishing in 62nd place overall and gaining valuable experience that he can share with his Washburn teammates next year. Parker Hunt, our only skier in the race from the Southwest boys’ team, had a strong result as well, finishing in 22nd place. Finn earned All-State Honors and Parker earned All State Honorable Mention honors. In the girls’ race, Gabby Harritt and Lucy Renz both earned All-State Honors, finishing 14th and 19th respectively. Reese Kuehn put her quick feet on display to finish 29th. One second and eight skiers behind Reese was Kate Moore who finished in 37th place and third for the Washburn girls. And having a breakout race to complete the scoring for the Washburn girls was Amelia Moertel who finished in 49th. It was going to be impossible for our girls to catch Minnetonka, who had three girls finish in the top ten. The challenge now was to hold off the other teams, a feat that Ellie Arbeiter and Julia Westphal both accomplished by finishing in front of the fourth skier for Brainard. Washburn finishes second with 141 points to Brainard’s 137. The Southwest girls finished in sixth place. Considering that Eva had some bad luck as she approached the finish of the first run, and Lia experienced her bad luck on the second run, sixth place was very respectable. Avery Patterson (52nd), Mila Voyakin (57th), and Ingrid Hartzell (59th) skied very well and scored enough points to give the SW girls a very solid sixth place finish. Avery and Mila gained wonderful experience and hopefully a boost of confidence to take on the competition next year. The bad luck that Eva and Lia experienced will provide some useful lessons to share with our athletes in the years ahead. Let it be known that Eva was having the run of her life on her first run before bad luck hit and Lia had put down a fantastic first run before she got hit with some bad luck on the second. I am really proud of Eva and Lia for how they handled their disappointment. You demonstrated maturity and grace. I want to thank the parents for all of your support. The team dinner, the State Meet hats, the lunch and snacks on the hill, the tent city—ALL of that was so helpful. Thank you Janna for taking photos and thank you to the parents who helped with training on Monday. You gave our coaches the opportunity to focus on giving feedback. Thank you Chris Renz and Dimitri Drekonja for answering the call to gate judge. That was a big sacrifice you made for the good of the event. Much appreciated. And thank you to all the MAST athletes, parents, and alums who came up to the Range to support our team... and to those who followed the action on Live-Timing. I hope you enjoyed the day. Finally, a big thank you to Coach Liam who stayed back on Monday and Tuesday to give the rest of the team a chance to get in two more days of training. You kept the MAST train moving along for 2025. Thank you to all the parents who came out to the hill to assist Liam. We had a marvelous season. Every day on the hill with you was a privilege. You worked tremendously hard and made impressive improvements both technically and tactically. Your enthusiasm never wavered and the way you supported each other was inspiring. I am sad to see it end. Keep skiing. Keep working the drills. Hopefully you can get in a vacation to the mountains and enjoy the fruits of your hard-earned technique. I know you will turn heads with your perfectly carved turns. Save the date for the banquet: Sunday, March 10th at 5PM. Be well. Study hard. Make good decisions. Thank your parents. Mark 612-275-8392 PS. Congratulations to Vivian Pihlstrom who skied herself onto the top step of the podium yesterday. Vivian skis for Blake but is our neighbor living on Queen Avenue in Minneapolis. Her sister Ava skied for SW as an eighth grader and helped the girls team win the Section IV Championship in 2018. She attended Blake for high school and went on to win the 2021 State Championship. Once a MAST family, always a MAST family.
Good Evening MAST Families:
We do have two practices remaining at Hyland. Monday, 5-7:15PM Lane 5 Tuesday 5-7:15PM Lane 2 Liam is the only coach available to be on the hill. We could use one, two or more parents to join Liam and the athletes on the hill. You can help carry gates, slip, stand in the start and help monitor the top of the lane, and clean up afterwards. Please text both Liam and me if you can assist. Liam will have a lift ticket for any parents who come out to assist. Text us so he can be certain to have enough tickets. Liam plans to be at the hill between 4:30 and 4:45. You can come directly to the North Chair to get your lift ticket or meet him in the chalet if you get there while he is getting his boots on. Thanks Mark (612-275-8392) Liam (612-715-5690) Hello MAST Parents,
This is the final race and we want it to go smoothly for our racers. To do that, we need to fill a few more volunteer spots. This is a great way to support your athlete and learn something new! We are still looking for a handful of volunteers for this afternoon's race. Bill, our gate judge teacher extraordinaire, can teach you how to gate judge. This is a great opportunity to be on the race course watching the kids wiz by. No need to be on skis. Arrive by 4 pm at the bottom of the hill to get your Gate Judging Lesson. There are other spots available too. Sign up here! Hyland Race Volunteers 2/9/24 Thank you for volunteering! Coaches and MAST Board Good Evening Race Fans: After becoming accomplished at maintaining your turn shape in soft snow conditions and rutted courses, the temps drop, the snow hardens, and you suddenly have to make an adjustment back to “normal” Minnesota ski racing conditions Set the high edge angle quickly and extend into that outside ski with maximum pressure. Not a lot of finesse needed today. Some of you got caught off guard and fell inside. That is understandable. Learn from this experience and make the adjustment next time the conditions switch on you. Congratulations to our overall winner on the girl’s side tonight: Ella O’Connor. Nice to see her get her first victory after all the hard work she has put in this season. Beatrice Moldow ended her high school skiing career on a positive note with her second place finish overall and first place in her age group. Bea has worked incredibly hard over the years, turning herself into an excellent skier and formidable racer. Behind Bea in the overall results were Elsa Addy and Reese Brothers who tied for third place. Anne McConville and Sylvia Pulrabek, also skiing in their last race as MAST athletes, locked down fifth and sixth places respectively. Like Bea, they have become accomplished skiers who can ski any terrain in North America (in bounds only please) and also race with ferocity and grit. On the boys’ side, our top finisher was Henry Payne in third place. Congratulations Henry. Skiing into fourth and fifth place overall were Wyatt Shelton and Will Cherveny. With the Washburn Section IV Championship Team graduating five seniors this year, these three boys made an early claim to fill those shoes in 2024-25. Tonight we honored the top five finishers in each age group. Here are your 2024 Mpls Alpine Skiing Age Class Champions .... Boys Grades 7/8 1. Garrett Brothers (SW) 2. Wyatt Jackson (AHA) 3. Rory Madden (SW) 4. Liam Davis (AHA) 5. Oliver Tourville (Washburn) Girls Grades 7/8 1. Sloane Petersen (SW) 2. Sara Rosenthal (Roosevelt) 3. Sofia Younan (Roosevelt) 4. Clara Hugunin (SW) 5. June Loes (Washburn) Boys Grades 9/10 1. Dominic Wood (AHA) 2. Wyatt Shelton (Washburn) 3. Will Cherveny (Washburn) 4. Logan Benz (SW) 5. Sullivan Hunt (SW) Girls Grades 9/10 1. Ella O’Connor (Roosevelt) 2. Elsa Addy (Washburn) 3. Carolyn Heindl (AHA) 4. Phoenix Ehlers (Washburn) 5. Stella Wedren (Washburn) Boys Grades 11/12 1. Thomas Anderson (DLS) 2. Henry Payne (Washburn) 3. Erick Brunsvold (DLS) 4. Finn Turner (AHA) 5. Makeen Mkaouri (Washburn) Girls Grades 11/12 1. Bea Moldow 2. Reese Brothers 3. Anne McConville 4. Sylvia Pulkrabek 5. Sophia Melancon Thank you to all the parents who worked the race. Your effort tonight and all season long are deeply appreciated. A special thank you to Bill Bray who worked hard to learn all aspects of race management, from the initial set up of race management documents to organizing run orders to filling volunteer positions to learning how to set up the timing system to calculating results. We will need another three to five parents to learn how to do all these things next year so we can continue to offer our athletes quality race experiences through their entire careers on MAST. Thank you coaches for your hard work as well. You are the best staff in the State of Minnesota. See you bright and early in costume. I'll be disguised as an old man pretending to be a ski coach. Silly I know, but I will play the part convincingly. Mark 
Hi MAST Parents,
Our final MAST race at Hyland is still in need of a handful of positions to make this final race run smoothly. Never volunteered before? No worries!! We have a great set of parents who can easily train you to be a starter, gate judge, scoreboard writer, and timer. These are all vital positions and this Hyland race is a great place to learn. Sign up here... Hyland Race- Volunteer SignUp 2/9/24 The Mast Board Follow MAST at Facebook- MAST MAST Instagram |
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