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Clara Ann Bagnoli

ALL SMILES. Freshman Juliette Smith smiles coming off of her first run. This was her first IMAC race in high school and she placed 30th overall. “[The season] is feeling pretty good so far,” Smith said.

On Jan. 10, the alpine ski team raced against Academy of Holy Angels, Blake, Breck, DeLaSalle, Minnehaha Academy, Mound Westonka, Mounds Park Academy and Providence Academy at Buck Hill. This was the team’s first time racing there this season but Buck is where they practice so they are familiar with the runs. After weeks of bad weather, they were greeted by fluffy snowflakes powdering their course.

The race started at 4:00 p.m. with the skiers lined up at the top of the Black Diamond run with two lanes of gates set up. The goal of alpine skiers is to ski down the hill as quickly as possible. Instead of all going at once like in cross country or nordic, they race two at a time and their times are compared to the rest of the skiers at the end. Skiers go down the hill twice and they take the combined time of the two runs in results.

Additionally, there are colored gates set up within the run that skiers must go around. This often leads to wipeouts but they avoided any today. Usually, in going around gates, skiers will hit them, which is why they wear shin guards to protect from bruising. Eight-grader Liam Burns, who ranked second at the meet, aims to get close to the gate. “You want to travel as little distance as possible and the way to do that is being inside of [the gates],” Burns said.

Along with Burns, his older brother, junior Caden Burns, ranked first and captain McKinley Garner placed 11th for the boy’s team. Burns, although placing high, felt he could “next time go a little bit more aggressive.”

The boys placed fourth with 217 total points.

For the girls, seventh-grader Sophia Weinberg placed third, captain Evy Sachs placed 14th, and junior Mia Collins placed 16th. The girls team placed third overall with 305.5 total points.

It was freshman Juliette Smith’s first high school race and she placed 30th overall and dropped a second from her seed time. This was an achievement for her: “[the race] felt really good,” Smith said.

It went especially well considering the lack of snow this winter. Alpine has had to rely on Buck Hill to produce its own snow. Artificial snow provides a different skiing experience for racers.

Captain Nicholas McCarthy is upset about the conditions. “It hasn’t been very good this year, [the snow is] not very deep,” McCarthy said. “It looks fine now.”

Smith was pleased with the snow that day compared to recent weeks. “[The snow] was so bad it was like skiing on snow cones,” she said.

More snow allows skiers to easily slip through the snow, is softer on joints, and offers more cushion when they fall. Some snow fell this weekend and the team hopes for better conditions in the future to supplement their training and make time improvements next race.

The alpine team’s next race will also be at Buck Hill against the same teams at 4 p.m. on Jan. 17.