Downhill skiers race into the busy season

A very young Cloquet-Esko-Carlton alpine ski team is preparing for a busy portion of their season following the holidays. The Lumberjacks had only two races prior to the holiday break, but that will all change soon.

"We've had only a couple of races so far, but that will change after the first of the year," said CEC coach Ryan Zimney. "We have a young group of kids, so it is giving us a chance to work on some things, and the snow conditions have been very good so far."

The two races the Lumberjacks raced in were a couple of weeks ago at Lutsen and last Friday at Giants Ridge.

The 'Jacks spend most of their time practicing at Spirit Mountain in the early evenings after school. Despite a lack of snow lead-up to Christmas, the ski area near Duluth has been producing snow and grooming the hills, making for nearly ideal conditions for the teams twice-weekly practices.

"It started a little rough," said Zimney. "However, the snow at Spirit Mountain has been good and conditions on the hill have been great and that has given us time to get in a lot of good work."

Even though the Lumberjacks lost a lot of skiers to graduation last year, they have good numbers this season as well as one of the area's top skiers in senior Thomas Heren.

"Thomas has higher goals than most skiers," Zimney said. "His goal is to always get to State, but he has the ability to achieve some big things if he can get there again."

Heren, who has been to the state meet in the past, did not qualify last year after falling in one of his two runs, which took him out of contention. In downhill skiing, the skiers face the tough task of riding the edge and taking the chance of taking a spill, or being too conservative and not qualifying and having to live with the thought they could have gone faster.

"I was really looking forward to participating in the state meet last year, and not qualifying was disheartening," Heren said. "Not making the state meet made me all the more determined to make it this year."

In addition to high school skiing, Heren also skis on the FIS (Federation of International Skiing) and the USSA (United States Skiing Association) circuits.

"Thomas will for sure be in the running for the section title this year," Zimney said. "He is also skiing FIS and USSA and has done extremely well in those races, so he definitely can ski with the best."

Coming into the season, the biggest concern for coach Zimney was if there would be enough skiers coming out to field a team, but that all changed when a large contingent of first-year skiers came out at the beginning of the season.

"We gained a lot of numbers and we have a nice mix of skiers this year," Zimney said. "We just want to see the younger skiers improve as well as skiers like Thomas reach their goals. He (Thomas) has all the tools and has been racing a long time. He is very strong physically and tough mentally."

Joining Heren in a leadership role is Esko's Colter Hendrickson.

"He is definitely skiing faster this year and he is looking very smooth," Zimney said of Hendrickson. "The good thing is that Colter is not totally happy with where he's at yet and I think he's still getting back in the swing of things, so I like the potential for him this season."

On the girls' side the 'Jacks have a pair of seventh-graders who could be rising stars in Emily Regas and Madyson Waters.

"Emily just joined and has been a surprise," Zimney said. "She finished fifth in last Friday's meet at Giants Ridge and the only four skiers to finish ahead of her were seniors. You can tell she's hungry and she has a winning mentality that will serve her well. I knew she was good, but until she got in a race I wasn't sure how she would do."

Waters is also a first-year skier who, according to Zimney, comes from a racing background and will be another skier to watch.

"We have a good group with a lot of first-year skiers," Zimney remarked. "We have kids at every level from beginner all the way up to Thomas, who could vie for a section title and maybe even more at the state meet."

With heavy snow in the forecast, and this winter's first major storm expected to hit the area as this edition of the Pine Knot went to press, all the focus now will be on prepping for the sectional meet just a little over a month away.

"The kids are working hard at practice and working to improve," said Zimney. "Obviously, the less-experienced skiers have a bigger learning curve, but it is a lot of fun to watch the improvement in all of them."

Hopefully that improvement will be enough to get a few of those skiers to the state meet at Giants Ridge in mid-February.