Minnesota State Meet Preview

February 13, 2007

The Minnesota State High School Nordic Ski Championships at Giants Ridge are this Friday, February 16th.  And once again, it looks like skiers can rest easy with the wax selection as the temperatures look to be fairly chilly for the morning races (forecasts of below zero temperatures as of Tuesday).  

The State Meet will follow the same schedule as recent seasons:  opening individual start freestyle races in the morning, with classical pursuit format in the afternoon.  The road to the State Meet this season was slightly different as qualifiers were selected purely on pursuit results from sections instead of the previous top skiers from the individual disciplines.  

Individuals

Let's start with the easy stuff...   For the girls, Jesse Diggins has skyrocketed to the top of the pack and has dominated all season long.  Her rise to the top hit a minor pothole last season when she became quite ill at the State Meet and didn't score near her potential.  Given good health, Diggins, a freshman, should not only collect top honors this season but could be in for a four year reign.  

The race for second place becomes a hotly contested battle.  There is a wealth of talented skiers who could peak for the big meet.  The Roseville duo of Lindsey Marshall and Lynn Duijndam will be in the mix, along with Addie Byrne of Grand Rapids, Jill Smith of Bemidji, Carolyn Freeman of Ely, and Erika Sell of Duluth East.  

The boys race appears on paper to be a similar story:  Joe Dubay has been on top of the game most of the season.  The spry powerhouse from Coon Rapids has come up aces when matched against the best in the region and should collect his first, in most likely a series, of state titles.  

And much like the girls race, the boys field is stacked with some great challengers.  The Hopkins trio of Zach McGill, Doug Debold, and Sam Newcomer have pressed each other all season and one of them could very well take number two on the podium.  But top skiers like Jens Brabbit, Winona, Justin Tyner, Brainerd, Nick Peterson, Ely, Leif Nordgren, Forest Lake and Erik Johnson, Duluth East could easily challenge a spot on the podium.  Those that might be peaking and surprise the field include Mason Bacso, Wayzata, Waylon Manske, Bemidji, David Jorgensen, Woodbury and Luke Busta, St. Cloud. The key for all of these skiers will be consistency -- last year's state meet saw a number of wide ranging performances, where a skier did well in one disciple and only fair in the other.

Teams

This year should feature some of the best team battles in recent memory.  None of the teams have a sure hand for the overall title.

In the girls race, Stillwater is our favorite in the field.  Besides their star, Diggins, the team is incredibly deep and has a number of skiers who could step up to give them the edge.  Duluth East represents the best challenge to that notion, with a team of very consistent skiers.  But Roseville, year-in, year-out, cranks out great skiers and if a few of their 3-7 skiers moves up, they could step in front.  The Grand Rapids girls should also be in the mix for one of the podium positions.

Coming out of sectionals, the Hopkins boys appear to have a best deck for taking the team title.  The top trio of Hopkins skiers should all score in the first 20, so it will be up to their teammates to lock it down.  Bemidji and Wayzata will not give up the battle easily, and expect them both to be on the podium.  And Mahtomedi and Duluth East boys both have teams that, with the right performances, could leapfrog the competition.

Before we wrap up, we want to mark some names for future references:  Raleigh Goessling and Liz Peterson.  Goessling is a freshman from Cloquet-Esko-Carlton and has been challenging some of the best in the state most of the season.  With another year of off-season training under his belt, he could move to the top of field.  Liz Peterson has a bit more time on her side. Peterson is an eighth grade skier from Forest Lake, yet finished third in Section 2 this season, just behind the Roseville duo.  Undoubtably coach Deno Johnson will have her working on the disciplines and strength this summer and she should be an early favorite for the Section 2 championships next year... and possibly a state champion beyond that.

So turn out Friday at Giants Ridge to see some great performances, the crowning of new champions, and perhaps a preview of the future yet to be.