Winterstart: Powell's 3rd victory; Baic gets his first
Wed, Dec 26, 2012 - By Curt Peterson
Amy Powell and Milan Baic won the senior divisions of the first ever Michigan Cup Race held at Lakes of the North Winterstart freestyle 7.5 km race. This was a very challenging race as very soft conditions prevailed. The dump of 16 inches of snow in the two days preceding the race made for soft conditions. Our hosts at Lakes of the North struggled (but came through in flying colors) with the heavy snow and electrical power failures that resulted in the power being off more than it was on for Thur and Friday before the race. Nevertheless, 84 skiers competed the inaugural event which included a large contingent of High School competitors. Erin Lipp and Eivind Kragebakk won the junior races. Also noteworthy was that junior Andrew Bruning raced as a senior and placed 3rd overall. The finish for the men's race winner was tight and Milan held off Alex Vanias for the last 1/2 km to the finish ahead by about 15 yards.
Start of the Senior race (photos by Pam Darling)
We again thank our hosts, Lakes of the North for their enthusiastic embracing of hosting this event. We need venues that can host with low snow amounts in early Dec. Although low snow was not a problem on Saturday. Also we thank Lou Aowdey who loaned us his grooming equipment for use at Lakes of the North. They will continue grooming for the season and are working on making their own equipment. The after the race buffet was wonderful. As Vasa Ski Club sponsors we feel good that we could provide a low cost event for juniors and seniors alike.
Start of the Junior race
This was Amy Powell's third win in a row: she won the Ski Fest sprint race in October, last week's Wintersonnenwende, and now the Winterstart race.
RESULTS
| Junior Men | Rank | |
| Bruning | Andrew | 1 |
| Kragebakk | Eivind | 2 |
| Darling | Clay | 3 |
| Suminski | Nicholas | 4 |
| Brownell | Sean | 5 |
| Amato | Nicholas | 6 |
| Clulo | Ryan | 7 |
| Klettner | Michael | 8 |
| Brownell | Tim | 9 |
| Hansen | Connor | 10 |
| Butryn | David | 11 |
| Myers | Jacob | 12 |
| Goble | Reid | 13 |
| Moore | Christopher | 14 |
| Eckhoff | William | 15 |
| Junior Women | ||
| Lipp | Erin | 1 |
| Goble | Sarah | 2 |
| Burfield | Jennifer | 3 |
| Pflughoeft | Lauren | 4 |
| Davis | Hannah | 5 |
| Patterson | Britta | 6 |
| Keyser | Hannah | 7 |
| Padden | Hayley | 8 |
| Senior Women 19-30 | ||
| Patterson | Kaitlyn | 1 |
| Gulledge | Catarina | 2 |
| Senior Women 31-40 | ||
| Coulter | Laurie | 1 |
| Senior Women 41-50 | ||
| Powell | Amy | 1 |
| Wagar | Ann | 2 |
| Seager | Christine | 3 |
| Senior Women 51-60 | ||
| Carlson | Brenda | 1 |
| Webb | Sarah | 2 |
| Upton | Fran | 3 |
| Patterson | Diane | 4 |
| Senior Women 61 and up | ||
| Peterson | Gussie | 1 |
| Neugebauer | Maxi | 2 |
| Wilks | Amy | 3 |
| Murray | Jean | 4 |
| Senior Men 19-30 | ||
| Vanias | Alex | 1 |
| Smith | Dave | 2 |
| Williams | Ross | 3 |
| Senior Men 31-40 | ||
| Ohearn | John | 1 |
| Yankus | Dan | 2 |
| Coulter | Melzar | 3 |
| Senior Men 41-50 | ||
| Goodman | Glenn | 1 |
| Paull | Denny | 2 |
| Smigel | Steve Jr | 3 |
| Seaman | Michael | 4 |
| Todd | Dell | 5 |
| Kuz | Julian | 6 |
| Cook | Tim | 7 |
| Triebold | Bob | 8 |
| Dandeneau | Chris | 9 |
| Butryn | Rob | 10 |
| Senior Men 51-60 | ||
| Baic | Milan | 1 |
| Gravlin | John | 2 |
| Cornell | Doug | 3 |
| Weingartz | Chris | 4 |
| Bruning | Peter | 5 |
| Zordell | Blair | 6 |
| Seager | Steve | 7 |
| Green | Jamie | 8 |
| Percha | Tony | 9 |
| Rockwood | Andy | 10 |
| Smith | Randy | 11 |
| Webb | John | 12 |
| Biac | Nick | 13 |
| Bourassa | Michael | 14 |
| Pflughoegft | John | 15 |
| Trost | Karl | 16 |
| Atkins | Dave | 17 |
| Donahey | Rex | 18 |
| Kraai | Rick | 19 |
| Senior Men 61 and up | ||
| Luce | Robin | 1 |
| Smigel | Steve Sr. | 2 |
| Johnson | Peter | 3 |
| Amato | Duane | 4 |
| Nizio | Frank | 5 |
| Brumbaugh | Ernie | 6 |
| Brown | Joe | 7 |
| Grening | Tim | 8 |
| Biggs | Stephen | 9 |
| Nolan | Dan | 10 |
| Hunter | Jon | 11 |
Senior Men's and Women's overall overall finish order
| Overall Senior Women's Placing | ||
| Powell | Amy | 1 |
| Patterson | Kaitlyn | 2 |
| Wagar | Ann | 3 |
| Peterson | Gussie | 4 |
| Carlson | Brenda | 5 |
| Gulledge | Catarina | 6 |
| Webb | Sarah | 7 |
| Seager | Christine | 8 |
| Neugebauer | Maxi | 9 |
| Upton | Fran | 10 |
| Coulter | Laurie | 11 |
| Wilks | Amy | 12 |
| Patterson | Diane | 13 |
| Murray | Jean | 14 |
| Senior men's overall finish order | ||
| Baic | Milan | 1 |
| Vanias | Alex | 2 |
| Goodman | Glenn | 3 |
| Ohearn | John | 4 |
| Yankus | Dan | 5 |
| Gravlin | John | 6 |
| Paull | Denny | 7 |
| Smith | Dave | 8 |
| Coulter | Melzar | 9 |
| Williams | Ross | 10 |
| Smigel | Steve Jr | 11 |
| Cornell | Doug | 12 |
| Seaman | Michael | 13 |
| Todd | Dell | 14 |
| Weingartz | Chris | 15 |
| Luce | Robin | 16 |
| Bruning | Peter | 17 |
| Zordell | Blair | 18 |
| Seager | Steve | 19 |
| Green | Jamie | 20 |
| Kuz | Julian | 21 |
| Percha | Tony | 22 |
| Rockwood | Andy | 23 |
| Smith | Randy | 24 |
| Smigel | Steve Sr. | 25 |
| Webb | John | 26 |
| Cook | Tim | 27 |
| Johnson | Peter | 28 |
| Amato | Duane | 29 |
| Nizio | Frank | 30 |
| Biac | Nick | 31 |
| Brumbaugh | Ernie | 32 |
| Triebold | Bob | 33 |
| Brown | Joe | 34 |
| Grening | Tim | 35 |
| Dandeneau | Chris | 36 |
| Biggs | Stephen | 37 |
| Butryn | Rob | 37 |
| Bourassa | Michael | 39 |
| Nolan | Duane | 40 |
| Pflughoegft | John | 41 |
| Hunter | Jon | 42 |
| Trost | Karl | 43 |
| Atkins | Dave | 44 |
| Donahey | Rex | 45 |
| Kraai | Rick | 46 |