Trio of homegrown jumpers compete at national championships

When asked who her Nordic combined female role models are, Cloquet eighth-grader Charlotte Ripp doesn't have a quick answer. She can name her favorite ski jumpers or Nordic skiers, but the truth is, Ripp is part of the first generation of girls to compete in Nordic combined, which combines both sports.

Women jumpers broke new ground when they competed in the 2014 Olympics. Nordic combined isn't even an Olympic sport yet for women, although this was the first year for women's Nordic combined Cup competitions in Europe and the USA.

"There's a lot of older jumpers, but for Nordic combined, they're all around the same age as I am," said Ripp.

That's OK though, Ripp has a big brother and a whole crew of kids from Cloquet and other places in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois she can compete with, male and female.

Last week, the youngest Ripp joined her older brother, Aidan, and longtime family friend and ski jumper Woody Waugh - along with many other competitors from around the country - in Park City, Utah, for the 2019 USA Nordic Ski Jumping Nordic Combined Junior Championships.

Waugh and Aidan, both seniors at Cloquet High School, competed in the U20 category, while Charlotte competed in the U16 age group.

The Pine Knot News interviewed the trio and dad Ken Ripp in the kitchen at the Ripps' house Monday night, where Waugh and Aidan were working on a toothpick bridge with classmate and Nordic ski teammate Blaine Bong, while Charlotte hung out and stayed up too late.

Ken Ripp is now the official Central Division Nordic combined coach, after filling that role unofficially for three years, so he was in charge of training and waxing skis for a group of about 20 athletes from the Central division in Park City.

He said the Central Division competitors did well, and pointed out that Minnesota skiers and jumpers have an advantage because they can ski with a high school program, which all three have done here.

"Time on the snow and training with a group and all that stuff really helps," he said. "You have to be somewhere you can ski and compete to be a good Nordic combiner. And to have good snow. You can tell instantly what kids are skiing with team and get good coaching."

The Cloquet kids held their own in Utah.

Charlotte took fourth in Nordic combined and in ski jumping for the individual competition, then she and her partner took third place in the team event.

She explained that they each had to jump twice, then do a relay sprint ski race, where each one does a 1K loop for a total of 6K.

Charlotte completed her loops with one working arm - the other one was in a sling, after she fell on her second jump, causing a deep bruise that her doctor father diagnosed.

Coach Ripp pointed out that Charlotte and her friend Carter Brubaker from Alaska won the "courage, confidence and character" award at the competition.

Aidan Ripp had a good competition in Park City, he said, and credited time spent with Cloquet's Dave Sobczak jumping off the 70-meter jump in Coleraine for a much improved performance out west.

"I don't know why, but doing that really turned it around for me after a disappointing beginning to the season," Aidan said. "I started figuring out a lot of stuff on the hill so that definitely helped a lot."

He readily admitted that a big part of ski jumping is in your head and his was too stressed before that.

"I just kind of got the feeling back again," he said. "Going up and enjoying it. Not caring if it's good or bad, just going up to jump. Not getting bogged down with the super-technical stuff."

In Utah, Aidan took second place in the individual Nordic combined competition, and second in the team NC event. He took third in the team event for jumping and top five in the individual jumping competition.

Aidan said he is planning to take a gap year after he graduates in May, to really invest himself in his chosen sport.

"I want to try to move somewhere and get consistent training and not have the distraction of school, and high school athletics and stuff," Aidan said. "I wanted to go to Lake Placid, but they just decided to redo their hills. So it looks more like Park City or maybe just jumping around a little bit (no pun intended, he said).

Of the two boys, Aidan has remained more focused on jumping and skiing, in part because Waugh spent his junior year in Italy as an exchange student, which put a stop to his jumping for a time. When he got back, he had soccer, then he had surgery. He decided to do a test jump at Pine Valley during the Central Division competition there in January, and hasn't looked back since. He also hasn't completely healed from his surgery yet.

"I'll have time to do that now," he said.

Waugh made the trip to the Junior Championships in a van with several other jumpers and skiers from the Central Division, stopping for the Western Regionals Ski Jumping competition in Steamboat Springs, Colo. on the way.

Waugh did his best jumping there, he said.

"Their big hill is really really fun because you can go really far," Waugh said of the K114 hill at Steamboat. "You get a ton of height. I had never jumped over 95 meters and I went 112 meters in competition there. I could have gone a buck 20 - if I was more experienced on that hill."

Waugh readily admits that what he loves most about jumping is the adrenaline rush.

"That's why I like big hills more, especially the high flying ones like in Steamboat," he said. "It's kind of like scaring yourself, but you still keep it together ... for the most part. You'll notice at the end of that jump I could have gone a lot farther but I didn't keep it all together."

In Steamboat, Waught took ninth in the individual ski jumping competition.

He also "came out of retirement" for the Nordic combined team competition, and skied with longtime friend and competitor Aric David, from the Itasca Ski Club in Coleraine.

All three Cloquet teens started their ski jumping careers at Cloquet's Pine Valley. Waugh and Charlotte began when they were around 3 years old, Aidan at the age of 7, because that's when the Ripps moved here from Duluth.

At Pine Valley, Waugh and Aidan challenged each other to higher jumps - and the occasional winter water ski through giant puddles - while Charlotte held her own, advancing at her own pace. There are still blood and hot chocolate stains on the cow-spotted jumping suit Waugh used to wear, which has since been passed down to younger jumpers.

Their experience in Cloquet has introduced them to a whole world of skiing and ski jumping, as they traveled first to Coleraine to compete, then to jumps all around the Midwest, then across the country and even - in the case of Aidan - to Europe a couple of different times to compete.

David Marc is dad to two much younger ski jumpers, Ephram and Luella, who jump and ski with the Cloquet Ski Club two or three times a week when they can. He said the younger children really look up to the older kids.

"When Charlotte, Woody, or Aidan are at the ski jumps or cross-country skiing with the younger skiers, many of the young skiers compete for their attention so that they can get advice from the pros," Marc said. "It's really great to have our older skiers advancing to a higher level of competition, but also maintaining their roots and giving back to the younger skiers."