Good Morning MAST Athletes, Coaches, and Families: I. Practice Today at 3:30 on Lanes 5, 6. We have practice today on lanes 5 and 6 (rope tow hopefully, but not guaranteed) from 3:30-5:30. Go directly to lanes 5 and 6 for warm ups today. II. Feb 19 and 26 Race Intentions Attached is an updated roster with stated race intentions for our last two regular season races on Feb 19 and Feb 26. Please make sure that you have stated your intentions for these last two races. If you already did this but your intentions have changed, go ahead and re-state your intentions. I can access when you stated your intention so I know which intention is most up to date. State Your Race Intentions Here III. Race Day Volunteering l want to say thank you to all of the parents who have worked our races this season. Our racing opportunities have been limited this season but we have still managed to deliver races that are well run, on time, and competitive because we have had a full slate of volunteers working every race. I want to thank Charlie Smith, Mike Isensee, Amy Hemer and Abbey Showalter-Loch for the new race day roles they filled this year: Chief Gate Judge, Gate Judge Prep Admin, Bib Admin, and Race Day Concierge. These roles have been so helpful that we are actually looking to add two new positions for our final two races: a JV Race Day Concierge and JV Chief Gate Judge. The Chief Gate Judge would lead the gate judge meeting before the JV race and would assign the gate judges to their gate stations before the first run. The JV Race Day Concierge would distribute lift tickets to workers and volunteer coaches, distribute bibs to the coaches to give to the athletes, and would direct volunteers to their assignments. And of course, we want to finish the season with two excellent races for our athletes. Parents, please sign up to work the last two races here: Race Volunteer Sign Up IV. Photos and Sprongo I need to thank Brien Spanier, Michelle Smith, Janna Fraboni, Tanyia Abel, and any other photographers who have been working their craft on the hill this season. The photos posted on our website are absolutely amazing. Thank you. If you haven't seen them, please take a look. You can download any photos by pressing "control-space bar". You can learn a lot about technique by studying your photos. Give it a try. MAST Photo Galleries Also, we have a lot of video posted on Sprongo. Sadly, several athletes still need to set up a Sprongo account. You should have received multiple invitations to do so by email. Athletes, please tag yourself. It is very helpful if you do this. Your coaches are very busy and don't have time to sift through all 90 clips of a race or practice session to find the athletes in their pod. If you can tag your runs, they will be able to find your videos easier, as will you. See you this afternoon. Mark
Good Morning: I am sorry to report that one MAST athlete has tested positive for Covid-19. This person is asymptomatic. Please read the attached letter from Minneapolis Public Schools. All of you have done a great job wearing masks on the hill, so good, in fact, that several of you have had your goggles fog up on race runs because you didn't take your mask off to race. Keep wearing masks. And switch up your chairlift partners. You don't want to accumulate 15 minutes of chair time with any one person in a given night. Due to the cold temperatures, Hyland will be closing at 6PM on Monday. At this point, we are planning to hold practice on Monday from 3:30-5:30PM. If we decide to cancel practice, I will send an email no later than Noon. Good day to tune your skis. Mark
Good Morning Ski Race Fans: Attached is today's race plan and run orders. All on separate tabs. Tab 1 contains the race schedule for both races as well as the race worker plan. Athletes: look over the run order to find your name. Varsity race run order is in tab 2, junior varsity in tab 3. Some who have raced varsity in a previous race are racing junior varsity today due to greater athlete availability for this race. Please check to see whether you are racing varsity or junior varsity today. Varsity athletes should report for warm ups at 3:30. There should be space on the north chair for you to warm up. Inspection opens at 3:45. First run starts at 4:30. Junior varsity athletes should report for warm ups at 5:15 on NORTH CHAIR. Look for Joel over on the outer lanes. I suspect there will be open lanes over towards lanes 4, 5, 6.... See you this afternoon. Drive safely. Watch for black ice. Mark
Good Evening.... Race results are attached. Another strong performance by all our athletes. Thank you to all coaches and parents who faced the elements and put on an excellent race. Athletes, please thank your parents if they worked the race. Congratulations to Oliver Mueller and Erik Arnold for yet another 1-2 finish. The SW boys avenged Wednesday's loss to SW by the exact same score of 29-26. What a great rivalry they have going. Keep pushing each other to be the best. Gabby Harritt skied incredibly well to finish second and third behind Marta Pendergast who is an outstanding skier. Great work girls. Your runs were very fun to watch. Chloe Bitney just keeps getting faster with each race, finishing sixth overall. Fun to see the constant improvement. The Washburn girls were victorious in team scoring. In the JV races, Amelia Moertel placed first, followed by Maddie Graff, Lia Rulf and Ramie George. Well done girls. Sam Moore had another outstanding race, finishing second. Luke Moertel was right behind Sam in third. Leo Spanier came off injured reserve and put down two strong runs to finish fifth. A great result Leo. It was a joy to watch all of you today. I was able to film one run of boys and one run of girls. Jerome, I apologize for missing your run. We had an issue come up at the finish line just when you were taking your run. Rest up. Stay warm. See you Monday evening.... except for those of you skiing in the mountains. Remember-- no practice in the morning. Mark
Good Evening:
Saturday morning practice CANCELLED due to the cold temps and projected windchills. You have worked incredibly hard the last five weeks. The coaches are really proud of your progress. It is a good weekend to rest and recharge your batteries. We have three and a half weeks left in our season. Hard to believe, isn't it? Get ahead on homework so you can make the most of the remaining training sessions. Watch video. Watch the World Championships on television or youtube tv or wherever you can access it. Tune your skis. Video is uploading as I type. I will calculate results next and send them out as soon as I have them completed. More to come. Mark Good Morning: Race tomorrow. Working on run orders. I do not have intentions from the following skiers. If you wish to race, please State Your Intentions BY 9AM this morning. Eliza B Elika V Carys J Sylvia P Liam L Nicholas D Ian F Kai L Calvin L Oscar M Sam V Jason B Christopher F Aiden J Everyone: click on the link above and make sure you have stated your intentions for the remaining two races--Feb 19 and Feb 26. Parents: We still need race workers for tomorrow's races. Please sign up to volunteer. https://www.mplsalpineski.org/volunteer.html Attached is a revised race result. I lost my total time formula during refining phase of the editing process. The order of finish is unchanged. Only the total times are different. Perfection continues to elude me. See you at practice. Mark
Dear MAST Families:
1. Practice tonight from 5-7PM only. All Pods. 2. Welch racers: All athletes are instructed to pick up your lift ticket at the outdoor ticketing window facing the hill at the main chalet. The attendant will check off your name and give you a lift ticket. 3. You are not allowed to bring or store a bag in the chalet. You must boot up in the parking lot. Facemasks are required in the chalet obviously. The lower level of the chalet does have limited space for warming up. Numbers will be restricted. Click here to see the rest of the Welch Village Covid rules. Drive carefully. See you soon. Mark Good Evening Race Fans: We had a beautiful bluebird night at Welch tonight. No wind. Temps cool, but not nostril freezing. Awesome snow conditions. We had a full race crew of volunteers and coaches. I want to say thank you to everyone who drove an athlete, judge a gate passage, slipped a course, shot pictures an video, collected bibs, rolled fencing, coached, cheered and gave support in some form or fashion to our athletes. One highlight for me: after the race I was talking with the Welch race director Brianna and way on top of the hill are our athletes making one last slip run in the flying v formation. That hill looked great when you got done with it and your efforts generated a big compliment from Brianna as you wedged on by us. Thank you for the extra effort to be good citizens after the race. You make me so proud. Back to the race. A big win from Oliver Mueller. Congratulations Oliver. The next seven finishers were MAST skiers: Erik Arnold, Andreas Drekonja, Charlie Smith, Jaxson Moore, Owen Hemer, Eli Showalter-Loch, and Callum White. Terrific skiing boys. Washburn earned 3 victories including a slim one by three points over SW. Quinn Jurek skied another fast race, finishing second overall. She did post the fastest time by a half a second on the more technically challenging second run course set by yours truly. Gabby and Kate finished third and fourth to give us three in the top four. MAST girls then took 7th through 13th place: Meghan Abel, Nahlah Mkaouri, Elli George, Anne McConville, Chloe Bitney, Elizabeth Arbeiter and Reese Kuehn. Well done girls. A special shout out to Ingrid Hartzell who continues to impress with her gutsy skiing and increasingly strong angles. Ingid finished in 15th position. The Washburn girls earned three victories over SW, Mahtomedi and MAST. Congratulations Washburn. I was very impressed at how well all of you skied, even those of you who were disqualified or did not finish. You skied aggressively. Your tactics were very good. And your technical skills were really strong. You are all progressing just as you should be. Keep working hard. We have exactly three weeks to the Section Championships and four weeks to the State Championship. Make the most of training. It is cold out but that is awesome because it is keeping the crowds away. You are getting more runs. Thanks everyone. Mark Conway 612-275-8392
Dear MAST Families:
1. The temps continue to be very cold in case you hadn't noticed. However, if the athletes dress with multiple layers and stay moving on the hill, they seem to be able to make it through the duration of practice. While the temps remain in the single digits or lower, we will be cutting practices down to two hours. The athletes should be ready for pick up at the two hour mark until the temps warm into the double digits. So.... 3:30-5:30pm 5:00-7:00pm 6:30-8:30pm 2. 53 athletes are racing at Welch on Wednesday so we are going to hold just one practice that evening from 5-7PM. Matthew and Eleanor and any volunteer coaches who are free to assist will run the practice. We have Lanes C and B so you will be using the chair lift. Take advantage of the excellent terrain on these lanes and come to practice if you are not racing. So.... no practice from 3:30-5:30 and no practice from 6:30-8:30 on Wednesday. Just 5-7PM. Thanks Mark Dear MAST Athletes, Coaches, and Parents: Attached is an updated race plan and run orders for Wednesday's race at Welch Village. The most urgent business is for ALL COACHES, RACE WORKERS, AND ATHLETES who are attending the race to complete the Welch Race Agreement and Liability Release. Attached is a Welch Race Tracking spreadsheet. Please open this. I have listed all the athletes who have been invited to ski at Welch on Wednesday plus all the coaches and parents that I know are working the race that day. Even if you will not be needing a lift ticket to perform you role, you still need to sign the waiver. Note: for some families, one parents signed the waiver but the other parent is working the race. Sorry, the race working parent needs to fill out the waiver as well. MAST High School Race Team Welch Waiver Please do this NOW. Welch management wants it done today. Please get the Welch management off of my back and complete the waiver now if you haven't done so already. If you have an industry pass or Welch season pass, please email me so I can include this information in my records for Welch. If you don't have a ride to Welch, please let me know. Thanks Mark Conway 612-275-8392
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