The Fergus Falls Otters Nordic ski team had two representatives at the 2023 State Meet, held on Feb. 16. David Ronnevik skated for the boys and Estee VerSteeg for the girls.
“Despite some sketchy weather when we left on Feb. 15, we had glorious ski weather at Giant's Ridge for our state meet,” observed Fergus coach Josh Scharnberg. “We woke up to five degree weather, very calm wind, sunshine and freshly groomed corduroy. That kind of weather is a dream for speedy skis and choosing the right grip wax.”
The day started with Ronnevik and VerSteeg skiing the Interval Classic 5K. Skiers start one skier at a time with 15 seconds between each skier. This kind of race is extremely difficult since there is not a group of skiers to pace. Racers must rely on their training and instinct to know if they're pushing their bodies at a fast enough pace. VerSteeg took a pretty good tumble on a speedy downhill and wasn't able to recover her time. She is an amazingly determined athlete, however, and we're proud of her for getting up and finishing as best she could. VerSteeg placed 93rd of 112 athletes. Ronnevik had a very good classic race as well, but he too did not finish where he wanted. Despite fast skis and pushing hard, he found himself in 49th.
The second race was a 5.4K Pursuit Skate race. This race starts with four lanes of skiers that start based on the time of their first race. Example, the winner of the boys classic finished with a time of 13:00.01. The second place skier finished in 13:14.4. That means the second skier starts the pursuit skate race 13.4 seconds after the first skier takes off. It's a fun and interesting start to watch. At times, there is a longer gap between skiers and at others, there are multiple athletes starting within milliseconds of each other. In any case, VerSteeg had a very strong and very fast skate race. She finished in 16:33.3 moving up 13 places to finish 80th overall out of 112 skiers. Ronnevik finished his race in 14:39.4 and placed 62nd out of 112 skiers.
“For VerSteeg, she is a third year skier, a freshman, and it was a great learning experience. Admittedly, Ronnevik did not rank as he was hoping, but that's the world of racing. There's so many factors that impact a race, too many to list here, and we as coaches could not be more proud of him,” said Scharnberg. “To have the heart and courage to finish where he did says a ton about his character. Both of our state skiers are so resilient, focused, dedicated, amazing athletes and amazinger (if that's not a word it should be) human beings! Overall, in the big picture, both rank amongst the top 1% of high school Nordic skiers in the state and that is a feat they should both be proud of.”
Full results can be found at: https://www.mshsl.org/2023-nordic-ski-state-tournament-schedule-and-results.