by Chloe Koch

MSC athletes who competed at U.S. Nationals have returned home to Minnesota, after a busy almost two weeks of skiing and racing in Utah. Some of us raced the day after returning at the Mesabi East Invite at Giants Ridge, including Molly Moening (Skate 5k) and Greta Hansen (Classic 5k), who both won their respective races. Now it's time to get some well deserved rest! 

We headed out to Utah on December 28th to get some training in and get adjusted to the altitude before the races began. All of our skis and luggage made it to Utah safely, with the exception of Everett’s skate poles. We found some tasty tacos in Heber City where our motel was, and then rested the rest of the day. 

The next afternoon, we drove out to Soldier Hollow to ski for the first time. We tried to get familiar with the courses, and get used to skiing at altitude.

 

MSC athletes Lily Brown, Silja Earl-Torniainen, Molly Moening, and Chloe Koch

The next few days we spent skiing for an hour or so each day, and then hanging out at the motel. We were lucky enough to be invited to dinner by either the Browns and the Kochs for many evenings which we were super thankful for!

Dinner at the Browns

Our first race was a skate sprint on January 2nd. It was challenging but fun to be racing in a new place. Molly was our only MSC athlete to make it to heats. She made it to the junior semifinals, finishing 8th overall for female juniors.

Molly Racing in Junior Heats

After a rest day, we raced again on January 4th in a skate mass start race. In the junior women 7.5k, Molly Moening placed 33rd, Greta Hansen in 53rd, Lily Brown in 68th, Chloe Koch in 77th, and Silja Earl-Toniainen in 84th . Davis Isom finished 38th in his junior men 10k. It was an interesting race for the MSC athletes as we hadn’t done a mass start race in two years due to COVID.

Greta Hansen and Molly Moening

 

Author Chloe Koch and Davis Isom

Next up was the classic distance race on January 6th after another rest/training day. Unlike the nice weather conditions that we had for the past two races, it became very warm and rainy for the last race. Although the sky cleared up before the races started, the snow remained very wet and slushy. Most athletes raced on zeros, skis that are used for tough waxing conditions. MSC athletes proved that they could race in hard conditions, and had a really good day. The women did a 10k, with Molly placing 61st, Lily in 78th, Greta in 103rd, Chloe in 113th, and Silja in 133rd. The men did a 15k, and Davis placed 99th. 

 

Molly

Lily

Chloe                        

Silja

Greta

Davis

The trip ended with the highlight of Molly Moening qualifying for the U18 Nordic Nations Trip which will take place in Norway. We are excited to cheer her on later this January! Overall, MSC had an excellent week of racing at U.S. Nationals. We learned a lot about racing at altitude and how challenging that can be. Now we are excited to get back to our high school teams and are looking forward to the races to come!