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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 
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