Michigan High School Championships survive Sunday's ice and rain
Results
Tue, Feb 19, 2008 - By Mike Muha
Saturday, Feb 16, 2008
Conditions were perfect for the morning Freestyle and afternoon Classic races at the Michigan High School Championships. Teams from both the Lower and Upper Peninsula competed for top honors.
The Upper Peninsula girls swept the top spots in both Sunday's Freestyle and Classic races. Olivia Orr (Copper Country A), Kirsten Fjeldheim (Superiorland A), and Katie Holway (Copper Country A) finished the freestyle in 12:28, 13:08, and 13:57.
All photos by Maureen Perkins
In the Classic, the same three girls were in the top three again, with Fjeldhiem taking top honors in 13:39, Orr following in 13:44, and Holway finishing third again, in 14:22.
Taking the combined times for a Pursuit total, it was Orr, Fjeldheim, and Holway.
Tom McFadden from Superiorland A put the hurt on the boys competition by winning the Freestyle, Classic, and Pursuit. Lower Peninsula skier Mac Brennan (Lake Michigan - and Team NordicSkiRacer.com) finished second in the Freestyle, only 2 seconds behind McFadden, 12:16 to 12:18. Superiorland A member Zach Wagner was third, another 7 seconds behind Brennan.
In the Classic, Wagner was runner up in 12:54, 8 seconds behind McFadden. Kai Sharp (Superiorland A) finished third in 13:22.
In the boys Pursuit, McFadden combined time was lowest for the win, followed by Wagner in second and Brennan in third.
Sunday, Feb 17, 2008
According to Race Director Nick Baic, "It was 22 F and raining at 8:30! Race time temp was 26 and raining. Tracks were rock hard. Fast but not dangerous. No course changes were necessary! Times were 40 seconds faster than in training runs however."
Sunday's race was a Classic Sprint. Time trials for seeding were held in the morning, with sprint heats in the afternoon.
Olivia Orr again took first place, followed by sisters Louise and Ruth Oppliger in the girls race. (Of note: The Oppliger's mom, Shawn, took second overall in the Women's 15km Freestyle at the Michigan Cup Marathon at Hanson Hills the previous day).
In the boys competition, Tom McFadden made it a clean sweep by taking his third victory for the weekend. Mac Brennan was second, with Zach Wagner in third.
Half way into Sprint A finals, Brendan Baic of the Lake Michigan team (and NordicSkiRacer) broke his pole when a skier behind him hit his pole while pushing off onto the first downhill. They had a 10 yard lead on the guys who took 1-2.
Team Competition
Overall, the Copper County A team was the top rank team, garnering 375.5 points. The Superiorland A team came in second with 338.6 points, the Traverse City Central Gold team in third with 200 points, narrowing beating the smaller Lake Michigan team by 1 point.
Complete Individual Results:
- Girls results (PDF)
- Boys results (PDF)
- Downloadable Excel spreadsheet of all results (XLS)
Traverse City Girls Team at States
Wax of the day
Nick claims his son Brendan had the fastest skis of the day. He used Toko HF Yellow with High Speed JetStream Moly and Helix Warm over a Fine Broken Structure with Fine Linear over the top. "For kick we used Toko Base Klister with a mix of Multi Violett, Orange and Silver. Kick Zone was from the ball of the foot forward 6 inches. He out glided the kids on skating skis and power strided up both hills! "
Mac Brennen ended up using the test skis which had on Toko Sportline Universal Klister over Base Klister. Good Kick but a little slower on the downhills.
Says Nick, "Overall the conditions for the weekend weren't anything like the forecasts but were ideal on Sat and good on Sunday."
| 2008 Michigan High School Championships Team Standings | ||||||||||||
| Team | Freestyle Girls | Classic Girls | Sprint Girls | Freestyle Boys | Classic Boys | Sprint Boys | Total Girls | Girls Rank | Total Boys | Boys Rank | Total | Rank |
| Copper Country A | 67 | 67 | 91 | 50.5 | 53 | 47 | 225 | 1 | 150.5 | 2 | 375.5 | 1 |
| Superiorland A | 41 | 44 | 32 | 71.5 | 77 | 73 | 117 | 2 | 221.5 | 1 | 338.5 | 2 |
| T.C. Central Gold | 43 | 40 | 34 | 28 | 27 | 28 | 117 | 2 | 83 | 4 | 200 | 3 |
| Lake Michigan | 22 | 22 | 16 | 47 | 41 | 51 | 60 | 5 | 139 | 3 | 199 | 4 |
| Copper Country B | 22 | 24 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 64 | 5 |
| T.C. West | 4 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 8 | 39 | 5 | 53 | 6 |
| T.C. St. Francis | 10 | 12 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 38 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 46 | 7 |
| T.C. Central Black | 12 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 27 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 39 | 8 |
| Superiorland B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 23 | 6 | 23 | 9 |