Good Evening: While tornadoes and rain ravaged the middle and southern parts of our state today, we stayed dry up north at Giants Ridge. The soft snow was treated with chemicals to make the track harder-- fertilizer in fact. When you watch the film on Sprongo, the track will look like someone had a bad case of diarrhea. Fortunately, it did not emit a scent. Oliver Mueller had a terrific day, finishing on the podium in fourth place. Oliver will earn All State Honors --AGAIN! Congratulations Oliver. In his first run, Erik Arnold skied himself into 26th place in his first state meet appearance. Unfortunately, he had a bit too much speed heading into a hairpin in the flats on the second run and had to correct a fault. Charlie attacked the courses, showing the kind of aggressiveness I would like all of our racers to have. Sadly, the deteriorating track fought back and knocked the speedy Charlie off his line and he too had to correct a couple of faults. Andreas' great technique was on display today. He put together two solid runs together to finish in 40th (out of 88 racers). Our three female skiers raced well today as well, finishing 38th (Gabby), 51st (Meghan) and 70th (Elli). Gabby and Elli earned more valuable experience to bring to the hill next year and Meghan completed her career with her third state meet appearance. Congratulations and thank you Meghan for all your hard work, success, and beautiful spirit. I want to thank our seven competitors for your brining your best efforts to the hill this week. It was really fun to watch you train yesterday and to see you give it your all today. You were magnificent representatives of MAST. You might be interested to know that the girls champion today has a MAST connection. Former Lake Harriet/Southwest Skier Ava Pihlstrom skied the fastest times on both runs today to win the gold medal. This is a magnificent accomplishment. As far as I can tell, Ava is the first female racer to win the State Championship who is NOT a USSS Club Skier. Ava skied with us in 8th grade, qualifying for state and helping propel the SW girls to the Section Championship and State. For ninth grade she enrolled at Blake where she has continued to develop as a ski racer (obviously) AND train and compete year round as a highly ranked figure skater. A portion of her first run from State is posted on our Sprongo page. She skis with great technique, impeccable balance, and a fearless mindset. Take a peek. Thank you to the coaches (Charlie Smith, Greg Abel, Paige Alampi, and Daniel Polland) and to our parent photographers (Michelle Smith and Tanyia Abel). Race results are attached. The format is the best I can offer at this point. I'm sure I better version will be available at some point. I will post this on the website when I receive it. Thanks for a great season everybody!!! We did it! Mark
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