By Tricia Pelava

The boys and girls Alpine Ski team had a busy week with races on both Tuesday, January 26th and Thursday, January 28th.

Tuesday they had their conference race with St. Thomas/ Visitation and Mahtomedi. The girls skied well and held off Visitation by a score of 340 to 339 but fell to a strong Mahtomedi team by a score of 324 to 354. The top performing girl was 9th grader Abbigail Pelava with a time of 68.25 followed by Mallory Karnick (10) at 68.77 and Taylor Pelava (11) at 69.90. The rest of the Hastings girls teams are as follows: Lydia Huntington (12) 83.22, Claire Caturia (7) 83.40, Jolie Pettit (9) 83.62, Kira Lindstrom (11) 86.37, Ella Kelly (11) 91.90, Mia Molitor (11) 102.57 and Morgan Bolland (8) 110.78.

The boys had an even better turnout for the conference race beating both St. Thomas and Mahtomedi. They won against St. Thomas by a score of 346 to 334 and held off Mahtomedi by a score of 359 to 321. Top finisher for the boys was 10th grader Aaron Herber, his first conference win, with a time of 59.53 followed by Zach Rother (10) at 61.81, Caleb Kimmes (11) 61.86, Jackson Reents (9) 62.97, Jacob Shield (10) 66.63, Gavin Molitor (8) 67.71, Finn Caturia (8) 74.64, Charlie Vier (9) 75.07, James Millhollin (9) 80.44 and Cole Caturia (9) at 81.48.

Thursday was a non-conference race with Northfield and Rochester. The girls team fell to both of their competitors with scores of Northfield – 239, Rochester – 197 and Hastings – 180. The girls were once again led by Abbi Pelava (9) at second place with a time of 70.27 followed by Mallory Karnick (10) in sixth place with a time of 73.79. They were followed by Jolie Pettit (9) 84.10, Kira Lindstrom (11) 86.29, Claire Caturia (7) 86.32, Ella Kelly (11) 89.19, Lydia Huntington (12) 89.73, Mia Molitor (11) 102.32, Morgan Bolland (8) 111.19 and Addison Niebur (8) at 119.84.

The boys were once again successful and beat both teams with scores of Hastings – 295, Rochester – 217 and Northfield – 88. The top boy skier for this race was Jackson Reents (9) coming in second place with a time of 61.71 followed right behind by Aaron Herber (10) with 62.68, Cole Caturia (9) with 64.19 and Caleb Kimmes (11) at 64.71. Not too far behind were finishers Zach Rother (10) 66.44, Jacob Schield (10) 69.69, Gavin Molitor (8) 71.65, James Millhollin (9) 74.26, Finn Caturia (8) 76.06 and Charlie Vier (9) at 77.95.

Head Coach Jason Gergen was proud of the team’s efforts. “The girls skied well and held off Visitation by a small margin but fell to Mahtomedi. The boys won their races over both St. Thomas and Mahtomedi.” The boys team especially will be fun to watch because they are performing very well and are a very young team. Good outcomes could be in their future. While the girl’s team does not have the depth that the boy’s team does they do still have a handful of good skiers with state potential. Both teams have many new and young skiers that are showing much improvement and promise for the future.

Jackson Reents quote after his first run at Thursday’s race “Go faster. That’s always the name of the game, go faster!” Abbi Pelava was quoted as well by saying “The courses can be turn-ey but are staying in good condition for me. The second run, we ski after the boys so it’s a lot more icy but otherwise I think it’s gonna be fine.”

Next up for the Alpine Team is a non-conference race on February 9th at Welch against Rochester and Northfield again and a conference race on February 11th at Wild Mountain against Hill Murray and St. Thomas/Visitation.