The first Alpine Ski meet of the season took place on Tuesday, December 19 at Buck Hill and Eagan had a great start. With twelve girls and twelve boys skiing, our boys team placed third and the girls placed fifth in their respective divisions. We had four female skiers rank in the top half: Sofia Palmquist (5th), Hannah Burns (6th), Anna Schnuckle (13th), and Annika Bowen (17th). We had six boys place in the top half: Camden Palmquist (1st), Izak Hofstad (3rd), Grant Strop (28th), Joey Peterson (29th), Tommy Edelman (32nd), Carter Weber (36th).

The team has been training since mid-November and according to Emma Veldhuis, a Varsity skier, “We have practice every single day. We either have gates or skills practice.”

Sometimes courses present challenges and the skiers have to be able to adapt to ice, ruts, and tricky combinations of gates. First time skier, Zoie Weisendaner described that before each run the team “[slips] the course so we get the feeling of what the combinations are and then we get all together and support each other before we go on.”

The races were continuous with the skiers’ times only showing up for a few seconds on the board. The competition was fast paced and was interesting to watch. The skiers encouraged each other before, during, and after their races, keeping the team relaxed and ready to tear up the slopes.

The coaches were relaxed and relatively easy on their skiers since it was only the first meet of the season. Coach Carl Zeilon explained that he helped the team prepare for this race with “an extra pizza party.”

For a few of the skiers this was their first meet and told me they were having a great time but were also really nervous. Lindsey Arndt said that she has improved since the beginning of the season. Arndt confided, “I know at the start I wasn’t in control at all, but getting better feels so good.”

There were a few falls on the Eagan team and others but those skiers got back up and finished their races like champs. The first Alpine Ski meet of this season was a successful one for Eagan and they’re ready to crush it again at their next meet in January.