Amanda Kautzer: Ski 'n Shoot: Maplelag, Mesabi, and JNQs 2015

January, 2015 Update: Maplelag, Mesabi, and JNQs

Since Trials over Christmas break I have been amazed by the incredible support and enthusiasm my classmates, teachers, family, and friends have had for me. The congratulations were helpful in breaking up the craziness of preparing for finals. Thank you for all the congratulations and well wishes this week! In addition to my Mom's, Dad's, and Sister's Facebook post(s), BSM also posted an short article about Trials on the school website. You can see the article here.

I'm including the pictures below:

Photo: Brad Kautzer

In addition, I came home to this magazine!!! I and my teammates Nicole Schnieder, Sarah Bezdicek, and Hannah Rudd (left to right) all live in Plymouth, ski for LNR, but all go to different schools. The article and pictures inside followed us and how we train year round for the sport we love. We did the photo shoot last spring after nationals. I'm glad they didn't use any of the serious pictures!!! We can do sassy poses, but can't keep a straight face no matter how hard we try.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

Some BSM skiers went up to the location of the state meet to participate in the largest high school Nordic meet in Minnesota: the Mesabi Invitational. We brought up 4 boys and 5 girls, including myself. I raced classic and placed 2nd behind Rocci Wohlk. My teammates also did really well on a tough course most hadn't raced on before.

Here's the group of rockstar girls!
Photo: Julie Kautzer

We had our first classic race for BSM on January 8th. It was powder snow but the kick and glide were great. Most of the Varsity athletes took it slow in preparation for Mesabi this weekend, but we still had a good standing at 3rd as a team. I won and my teammate Rachel Conley took 2nd, with the team placing 3rd overall.

The team after the classic race.

Photo: Mary Selke

Our second classic race on January 15 was a massive success. The boys placed 3rd overall, and the girls won scoring 3 athletes! However, the Conference meet at the end of the year scores the top 6 from each school, so it doesn't count.

Actually smiling post race.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

High school skate race at Theodore Wirth.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

We actually won our first race on January 21st. Although we had just come off a weekend training camp, and are typically stronger in classic, the girls crushed the skate race!!! This is the first race the BSM girls team has won in the history of the ski team, or at least during the time Mr. Wander has been coaching, which has been a long time. (I know I said we won our first race, but that doesn't count because it was a 2 team scrimmage)

Speaking of our training camp.... we went to Maplelag Resort up north for the long weekend. Here's some highlight:

Getting some major air during agility.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

My teammate, Clyde, and I doing chariot races.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

One of the best parts was the food, and the bottomless cookie jar

available 24/7.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

This was at the end of the week after a long ski. We were

definitely tired.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

One of the best parts is the alumni and parents that also come to

Maplelag with us. This is my teammate Elizabeth who graduated a few years ago.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

The ski room got a little messy....

Photo: Carl Shaffer

Some other highlights were our "initiation" tradition, which is a totally optional jump in the (frozen) lake. In addition to Minnesota's largest hot tub, Maplelag also has a sauna by the lake. We all went to the sauna after our last night ski of the day and warmed up, then ran to the hole in the ice and jumped in, made a snow angel, and sprinted back inside to the warmth.

In addition to all the fun stuff, we also did a boat load of training. I haven't added up the total hours, but on Sunday we skied over 7.5 hours... that's about as much as I slept that night. We did about 70k that day, and over 150 that weekend in all. On Sunday I skied 6 times: pre-breakfast ski, OD before lunch, ski soccer for an hour, skate ski strength with Clyde, a night ski, and a post night ski.

Ski soccer was actually really intense. I have a bunch of bruises, but it was definitely the most fun I've had on skis in a long time. We mixed our team with Mound Westonka and had a blast.

Everyone was tired, coach included.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

The BSM game, plus Joe from Mound, before a night ski.

Photo: Mike Brown

The night skis were one of my favorite parts. You feel like you are going a lot faster in the dark, and there is the small element of fear of hitting trees you don't see coming.

This last weekend I raced the Junior National Qualifiers at Theodore Wirth, my home course. It was a 10k classic mass start (on a 3x3k loop... go figure), and a 5K skate individual. Both races were fun because I got to mix it up with the college skiers and the best racers in the Midwest, and see some friends I haven't seen for weeks or months since the last time we raced against each other. I placed 3rd in the classic, and 4th in the skate. The wax was really tricky for the classic, but it made the race interesting. I crashed pretty hard on an technical corner in the skate race and lost a few seconds finding my pole again. That being said I have done that corner many times and shouldn't have crashed.