Snowy night skiing
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Dan Saletel
Cloquet-Esko-Carlton's Megan Chopskie, in purple, climbs a small hill on the second lap of the girls 5K "Under the Lights" invitational at Pine Valley Tuesday night.
Freshly fallen snow makes for pretty pictures but not the best racing conditions, skiers discovered at the Lumberjacks home ski meet Tuesday. Close to 300 skiers descended upon Cloquet's Pine Valley to race in the annual "Under the Lights" Lumberjacks ski meet, the only evening meet in the conference and usually a popular event for spectators.
Dan Saletel
Thomas Carlson and Noah Cunningham frame an opponent during their race.
This year, winter weather hit the course and the snowfall occasionally made it difficult to see, "especially on the downhills," said Cloquet-Esko-Carlton head coach Tim Stark. "It also created what skiers call 'mashed potato snow' on the race course, where there is a lot of extra snow to ski through, making things slow."
CEC had 45 skiers in Tuesday's race, including junior high, junior varsity and varsity skiers for boys and girls teams.
CEC senior Megan Chopskie was the top girls local finisher in 10th place, followed by Charlotte Ripp in 17th, Jazlyn Gunderson in 23rd and Shaelee Gunderson in 29th. The CEC girls took third place, after Duluth East and Ely, out of seven teams.
The Lumberjacks boys varsity team took fifth place out of nine teams with Hunter Williams in 16th place, followed by Miles Fischer in 17th. William Bauer placed 19th, Ian Berube 21st and Mike Kruse 25th.
