February 8, 2024, ABC 10 ran a feature about CCST resilience in the face of the strange snow season. Coach Jana Nyberg and skiers were featured in a story on the ABC 10 website and also in a video segment (below).

ISHPEMING — The 2024 Michigan Nordic Skiing State Championships for high school skiers wrapped up over the weekend of Feb. 9-11 in Ishpeming, and this area’s local club did better than expected. The Copper Country Ski Tigers boys earned a top first-place spot on the podium – beating out six other regional teams. The Copper Country girls finished fourth overall, and the combined team placed third.

This year’s Ski Tigers Nordic team consisted of eight boys and four girls. The boys team was an all Houghton High School squad, while girls was a split between Houghton and Hancock. The team was under the direction of coach Tom Wood, who returned to the Tigers this season after a five-year hiatus.

He is convinced that the team’s attitude during training over the past few months was key to success in the state races.
“It was a strange year because of the weather,” he said. “There was just one week for us, after that January snowfall, where I was certain what we were going to be doing that week in terms of practice. Otherwise, I was having to adapt on the fly due to the weather of the day. However these kids were there on time and ready to go with a great attitude.”

Lack of snow, particularly in December, meant a lot of dry-land training, running with poles and roller skiing. While their home course and training grounds are the Michigan Tech Trails, they would also visit Swedetown in Calumet and Maasto Hiihto and Churning Rapids Nordic Ski Area in Hancock.

Members of this year’s Copper Country Ski Tigers recently stopped for a picture at the state finals in Ishpeming earlier this month. Members include (from left): Emily Moore, Rayna Towles, Robin Kisiel, Ayla Miller, Lewis Vendlinski, Finnian O’Neill, Illya Velat, Augie Hamlin, Josh You, Vincent Gemelli, Xavier Hutchinson, and coach Tom Wood (missing: Birk Seagren). (Photo submitted)

“Not ideal,” Wood added, “but the kids rolled with it and I think that attitude was a huge contributing factor in their success this past weekend.”

Teams from as far as Petoskey and Cadillac, and as close as Ispheming and Marquette, were among the competition for the three-day event.

More than 40 boys and girls competed in three races. On Friday afternoon, the event kicked off with a freestyle (skate-ski) sprint race. Top finishers in this one-kilometer race from the Ski Tigers included Illya Velat and Birk Seagren, who came in second and third respectively for the boys. On the girls’ side, Robin Kisiel came in second.

Saturday morning kicked off with a classic 5k distance race, in which Seagren came in third. Next was the freestyle 5k race. On the boys’ side, Seagren was third. Velat placed fourth. Kisiel placed fifth in the girls’ race.

In addition, Seagren and Velat were third and fifth-place finishers, respectively, in their combined times for their classic and freestyle races. As well, Kisiel placed finished sixth in the combo for the girls.

The weekend concluded on Sunday with a fun relay race among all the skiers there in the morning, and an awards ceremony was held at the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame and Museum in Ishpeming in the afternoon.

“Birk was a consistent third,” said Wood with a smile. “But Robin and Illya deserve a shout out as they worked hard all year, and it payed off. In fact, I think everybody on our team had some of their best times of the year.”

The Ski Tigers boys team all got first place medals for their top finish and a plaque on Sunday. While they stole the thunder from the perennial favorites – the Vasa Boys’ Ski Club (Traverse City), Woods added that the Copper Country girls’ fourth-place finish was equally impressive.

“We have just four girls on the team, and two had never competed Nordic skiing before,” he said.
Those two were Rayna Towles and Emily Moore of Hancock.

“Both of those girls are runners (cross country and track), and athletes, but they had to learn how to ski, and they did,” said Wood. “That really impressed me. The fact that they competed and finished about mid-pack in their races spoke volumes of their work ethic. In a nutshell, they embodied the spirit of this season which was a great one.”

Thanks to CCST VP Erin Syth, the Copper Country Ski Tigers was one of the organizations to benefit from the Copper Shores Community Health Foundation's Giving Tuesday campaign 2023! To advertise the connection, the Keweenaw Report ran a Giving Tuesday Non-Profit Spotlight on Copper Country Ski Tigers! Thanks for all the local support!

Another fun night of racing at the MTU Ski Trails.   Results can be found here:  MTU Citizen Races

Warm & Sunny weather made for icy conditions in the morning and slushy conditions in the afternoons, but the Copper Country Ski Tigers prevailed coming away with the state title for the 5th year in a row.

Complete Results
Pictures

Boys Combined -- 5.4k Classic + 5.4k Skate pursuit race
Mitch DeLong 1st
Matt Chard 3rd
Nikolai Huotari 6th
Joseph Wood 8th
Ilhan Onder 10th
Galen Resh Chimner 14th
Dan Groeneveld 15th
Mike Fraley 27th
Thomas Lyle 31st

Girls Combined -- 5.4k Classic + 5.4k Skate pursuit race
Anabel Needham 3rd
Kora Johnson 8th
Maria Valet 11th
Angie Grunert 19th

Boys Sprints
Mitch DeLong 1st
Matt Chard 2nd
Nikolai Huotari 4rd
Dan Groeneveld 5th
Joseph Wood 7th
Galen Resh Chimner 8th
Ilhan Onder 10th (Calumet HS)

Girls Sprints
Anabel Needham 2nd
Kora Johnson 5th (home schooled)
Maria Valet 6th
Angie Grunert 19th

Middle School Race
Sage Resh Chimner 1st

Sunday was the 10th Annual Barnelopet, hosted by Keweenaw Nordic and the Sons of Norway.   Pictures here:
keweenawnordicskiclub.blogspot.com
trailmuttreports.blogspot.com/

ISHPEMING — The Great Lakes District Super Bowl Junior National Qualifier Classic wrapped up their two-day ski races Sunday afternoon at Al Quaal in Ishpeming.

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9 Ski Tigers competed in the Super Bowl GLD JNQ this past weekend held in Ishpeming, MI.  Click here for results and pictures.