Racers on the Boys Varsity Ski team are rulers of the mountain after finishing their dual season undefeated.
Five finished in the top 20 in their dual against Lake Orion on Feb. 1. Freshman Ryan Callahan finished in first place with a a total of :44.12 and junior Brent Vanitallie finished in second place with :44:61.
Sophomore Alex McIntosh took seventh, Grant Huber, eighth; sophomore Lance Holsbeke, tenth; and junior Nathan Rogers in 18th.
“The team is doing really well,” said Coach Mike Foyteck. “They are still a young. We graduated on senior last year and have one senior this year. We have a group of boys that can ski and are contributing to the team results.”
He noted Callahan has had consistent finishing. Huber, McIntosh and Vanitallie also consistently ski well.
He added the boys have received off-season training at Pine Knob Ski Resort and Mount Holly.
“It helps them,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of training time. We had snow early this year and it’s been cold but we were only able to get one training day in December before break.”
The boys finished third overall at the Traverse City Invitational out of ten schools, scoring 117 points. Traverse City Central won with 75 points and Traverse City West took second with 101.5 points.
The girls team finished in ninth.
“It is always a good race because you have Traverse City Central and West, Harbor Springs, Petoskey, Lake Orion and Cranbrook,” he said. “It wasn’t too bad.”
The girls finished their dual season 4-5.
They graduated two seniors last year and gained three freshman putting them at seven senior Natalie Stevenson; juniors, Riley Dixon, Olivia Dunn, Amy Wozniak; freshman, Arianna Cross, Rebecca Gorz and Karoline Holsbeke.
“We have seven which is a very small team,” said Foteck, adding they race six from each team. “They are doing pretty well and the experience they have helps.”
In their last race on Feb. 1, five finished in the top 30.
Dunn led the girls placing in 12th with a :52.14 finish. Dixon was the second finisher in 18th, :55.06.
“Olivia is the girls captain and she has been skiing well this year,” Foyteck added.
Following close by were Holbeke, 20th; Stevenson, 25th; and Wozniak, 30th. Cross finished in 43rd.
The teams begin their divisional races this Wednesday and Thursday and regionals is next week.
“I don’t think we are where we should be skiing but they are doing pretty good,” said Foyteck. “The boys team is very strong. We have five at any point that could win a race.”
The state meet is Feb. 28 at Marquette Mountain.