Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Coach's Corner by Mark Walters BHS Nordic Ski Coach

The regular cross country ski season as come to an end for the 2008/2009 ski season. Most of section 8 attended the Buena Vista Pursuit race held just north of Bemidji, MN on Tuesday, January 27th.
Many of the coaches used the event to select their running order for the upcoming sectional meet on Wednesday, February 4th. Sections this year will be held on the Camp Ripley course with the girls classical event at 10 pm and the boys classical event at 11 pm. This timed start will set the stage for the afternoon's pursuit race. The girls go out at 1:30 pm and the boys at 2:30 pm. The pursuit format has the fastest classical skier going out first, followed by the next fastest skier back by their time difference and so on down the line. It' a very exciting type of race with lots of stategy and speed.
The section 8 outlook has the number 5 state ranked Grand Rapids boys looking pretty strong in the sectional meet with Bemidji close behind. The girls have two state ranked teams, Little Falls and Grand Rapids, with the 'edge' going to Little Falls.
One boys team and one girls team will go onto the state meet, along with the next eight fastest individual, boys and girls, to make up the skiers representing section 8. All in all that's 30 skiers from our area going to the state meet on February 13th at Giants Ridge.

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