The Hastings Raiders Alpine Ski Team is off to a promising start to the season with the 2023 Wild Mountain Invitational on December 21. Despite the lack of natural snow, the Wild Mountain Invite …
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The Hastings Raiders Alpine Ski Team is off to a promising start to the season with the 2023 Wild Mountain Invitational on December 21. Despite the lack of natural snow, the Wild Mountain Invite always carries an extra festive feel with the holidays right around the corner, and racers and spectators participating from over 20 area schools.
The ruts were deep and conditions less than ideal, but the Raiders persevered. The girls finished a very respectable 6th place out of 20 teams. Abbi Pelava was the top finisher in 7th place followed by Kate Nowak in 17th, Alexa Loritz in 31st, and Claire Caturia in 53rd. Addison Maniak and Maddie Herdt made the most out of their first Wild Invite finishing 74th and 78th out of the 120 girls who were entered.
Jackson Reents won the boys race in leading the team to a 4th place finish, only 1 point off the podium. Cole Caturia was 5th overall in the boys race. It was the first Wild invite for the rest of the boys team with James Millhollin finishing in 41st, Finn Caturia was close behind in 47th. Axton and Will Bauer both skied well in deep ruts to finish 68th and 80th out of over 130 boys.
Says Coach Jason Gergen of his team,”I think it was a great start of the season for the team, and I know they'll take this experience and confidence forward into 2024!”
Coach Gergen went on to give a shout out and thanks to recent grads Taylor Pelava, Mallory Karnick, and Aaron Herber for helping out at the race. “I'm grateful to have such a wealth of experience giving back and helping us on the hill.”
The long-term future of the team looks bright as several 7th and 8th graders joined the team this season. Several races and invites are scheduled in January and the team is hopeful the Minnesota weather begins to cooperate. The next chance for action is on January 4 at Welch Village with a race start time of 5:00 pm.
