Nordic ski team boasts talent and numbers

Once again, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Nordic team has to charter two buses to get to its meets, because there are so many kids.

In his first year as head coach, Arne Maijala said the sport just keeps growing in Cloquet, as it provides a good chance for kids to get outside and participate in a winter sport. The team is also a lot of fun, and Cloquet's Pine Valley offers a wonderful winter playground ... when there's enough snow to practice, which there isn't.

In the meantime, he's got plenty of help getting the 90-plus skiers on the team trained and ready for competition. After taking over from Glen Sorenson, who retired last year, Maijala has a very talented crew of assistant coaches on his staff this season including Ben Croft, Tim Stark and Ann and Gus Gustafson. For now, the Gustafsons are spending most of their time with the middle school kids at Pine Valley. Maijala and Croft are also spending most of their days at Pine Valley, while Tim Stark oversees skiers at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, where they can make snow for the new Nordic trails at the base of the alpine ski facility. Maijala added he was very pleased to have Croft as the new assistant coach for this year's team.

CEC is also very fortunate to have a brother and sister on the respective teams that are at the top of their class. Aidan and Charlotte Ripp compete for both the Lumberjacks and for Junior National ski teams which often takes them traveling all over the United States as well as overseas.

Aidan, who has competed at the Junior National level now for a few years, will see his time split between both the Lumberjacks and the Junior National team.

"Aidan is a remarkable athlete but when he is gone we have so many young talented young skiers who step up and fill in and do a great job," Maijala said.

Will travel for snow

The section has had to search for snow again this early part of the season.

Competition opened up with the Grand Rapids Relays on Dec. 6, with each team sending its top 15 boys and 15 girls to compete.

The Grand Rapids Relays saw CEC boys' duos finish sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. Aidan Ripp and Henry Slater was the top finisher with a time of 15:24, while just four seconds behind them was Blaine Bong and Benjamin Bauer who came in with a time of 15:28. Coming in with a time of 15:38 was the Lumberjack duo of AJ Maijala and Josh Sanders. The girls' side of the relays saw Sophie Richardson and Charlotte Ripp placing eighth and the duo of Harmony Tracy and Elise Pickar finish eleventh with a time of 21 minutes even.

The new head coach - who was assistant under Sorenson the past two years - is very optimistic about the season.

"The Nordic Ski team at CEC has a nice mix of skiers," Maijala said. "Senior Aidan Ripp is leading the boys team and is easily one of the top skiers in the state. We have a solid crew of boys working hard: Blaine Bong, Ben Bauer, AJ Maijala, Josh Sanders, Spencer Hoeffling, and Henry Slater. Many of these guys have been training year-round in preparation for the season.

"On the ladies' side we have Charlotte Ripp stepping up to being our top skier. Seniors Andrea Hille and Elise Pickar will be playing leadership roles."

On Thursday, Dec. 13, the Lumberjack boys' team finished third overall behind host Ely and Grand Rapids, while the girls' squad finished fifth overall with Grand Rapids taking the top spot.

Sophomore Benjamin Bauer was the top Lumberjack finisher with a time of 15:51 for an eighth place finish overall. Two more sophomores, AJ Maijala and Josh Sanders, finished 12th and 13th. The other top finisher for CEC was Blaine Bong.

The girls race saw Charlotte Ripp as the top Lumberjack skier. The eighth-grader finished seventh with a time of time of 18:46. Brita Mowers had the second-best finish for the Lumberjacks with a time of 20:18, and Elsa Mowers was third-best for CEC with a time of 20:54.

"We had such a mixture of older and younger skiers on the team this year that the younger ones not only push the older skiers, the older ones are great leaders for our underclassmen." Maijala said.

The Lumberjacks competed in their third meet in Coleraine Thursday as this issue of the Pine Knot went to press.