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Sports

Skippers Skiers Get Their Feet Wet at Conference Meet

Minnetonka's boys and girls varsity ski teams both finished at a Lake Conference 5K freestyle meet at Hyland Lake Park Reserve in what their coach called "essentially our first race of the season."

It was only Dec. 15, but to Minnetonka Nordic ski coach, Mike Mason, it felt like February, state meet time.

"Section 6 is like a mini state meet," he said as the boys varsity racers lined up for Wednesday's Lake Conference 5K freestyle race at Hyland Lake Park Reserve in Bloomington.

Four Lake Conference teams – Minnetonka, Hopkins, Edina and Eden Prairie – reside in the section. Only Wayzata is in a different section, and the Trojans' boys team finished third at state last season and its girls team finished second.

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So Mason knew the races would be a good test for his teams.

"This was essentially our first race [of the season]," Mason said. The Skippers only previous meet was a conference meet on Dec. 9 that consisted mainly of relays.

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Both the Skippers boys and the girls varsity teams finished fifth overall in the team standings. The boys scored 408 points (Edina won with 536), while the girls scored 432 points (Wayzata won with 571.

Kyle Bratrud of Eden Prairie won the boys race, covering the 5K course (about 3.1 miles) in a time of 13:28.47. Marit Sonnesyn of Wayzata won the girls race in a time of 16:19.03.

Minnetonka junior Zach Goldberg was the team's top finisher. His time of 13:43.65 was good for fourth place overall in the boys race.

Skippers' senior Megan Bailey was the team's top finisher on the girls side. She finished sixth with a time of 17:06.40.

Both Goldberg and Bailey made the state meet last year, and Mason hopes his others skiers take a cue from them as the team works to improve.

"[Goldberg and Bailey] have unusual competitive zeal," Mason said.

Full results can be found at http://www.myvira.com. Click "view results" in the upper left corner of the page. Then select "cross-country/Nordic skiing" from the drop-down menu. Next, select "conference skate I (2010)" from the next drop-down menu. Finally, from the last drop-down menu, pick the race whose results you wish to view.

Up next: The Skippers' will participate in the Holiday Relays at Troll Hollow in Dresser, WI. There will be both freestyle and classical races. After that, they will join the rest of the Lake Conference teams at 3:30 pm on Jan. 4, 2011 at Baker National Golf Course in Medina for a 5K classical race.

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