Saxton in line to defend state Nordic title
Lakeville qualifies a busload for state
Lakeville North’s Ben Saxton skis at the Section 1 meet in Dresser, Wis., on Tuesday. Photo by Andy Rogers
Lakeville North’s Amy Ferguson finished second in Section 1 at Trollhaugen on Tuesday. Photo by Andy Rogers
by Andy Rogers
Thisweek Newspapers
Lakeville North’s Ben Saxton just wants to do his best and enjoy the ride.
If that ride takes him to another state Nordic title and beyond, even better.
The defending state Nordic champion will get the chance to defend the title after winning Section 1 on Tuesday at Trollhaugen in Dresser, Wis.
His focus wasn’t so much on speed as it was on relaxing.
“It was a very interesting race,” he said. “I just focused on staying at ease. Not slower, just calm and collected. There’s always things to work on with technique. Doing any athletic motion when you’re uptight is inefficient. I was in an opportunity where I could experiment working on stuff like that. I still skied a crazy fast race.”
As the top-ranked high school skier in the state, Saxton is favored to win the title again on Feb. 16 at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.
“Last year was awesome,” Saxton said. “It was the result of a lot of hard work. I’m not thinking of defending it. I just want to have the best race I can have and if I work my butt off and if I give it my all, I’ll be happy. I’ve gotten stronger and fitter, but so have my friends I’ll be going up against.”
He also won the South Suburban Conference championship earlier this month and won several other races, but winning high school races isn’t the only thing on Saxton’s mind this winter.
He leaves on Feb. 26 for Utah for the U.S. Junior Nationals in early March. Then it’s off to Oslo, Norway, for the Norway Junior Nationals.
“It’s the most hallowed ski arena,” Saxton said. “From what I’ve been told it wouldn’t be out of the question to have 10,000 people show up.”
Saxton has skied in large events before. He was in Maine earlier this year for the U.S. Senior Nationals where he had a shot at qualifying for the U.S. Ski Team.
“It was a good experience to race at a high level,” he said. “I had a couple gaffes here and there, but overall it was a fantastic week. I just missed the junior team, which was my goal, but sometimes stuff doesn’t fall your way.
“I’ll have one more shot, but that’s a lot of people’s goal to get there. It’s just one part of my goal to ski at the World Cup and make the U.S. Olympic team.”
Saxton isn’t the only skier from Lakeville North with plans of striding well at state. Lewis Kunik finished second at the section meet behind Saxton.
“I don’t mind losing to Ben at all,” Kunik said. “He’s been my teammate since middle school days. It felt good. I progressively moved up every year. This was a nice way to end it after five years. ”
He’d like to get all-state honors, but like Saxton, his anxiety level is low.
“No matter what happens, I just have fun with it,” Kunik said. “Skiing is something I do for fun. I love watching my teammates enjoy it and I enjoy it a lot.”
The Lakeville bus to the state meet will be filled with a few other members from the girls team. Amy Ferguson finished second in the section. Her teammate, Sara Nelson, will join her after finishing seventh.
“Our team really pushed it out there,” Ferguson said. “We made the best of this season. I’m hoping to be all-state, I just have another hard week of practice.”
With the lack of snow, the Lakeville teams have been cross training.
“I thought it was going to be a lot different not being able to ski every day, but I think it’s helped us out a lot being in the weight room every day,” Ferguson said. “We’ve gotten a lot stronger and it’s helped us out more than I think we thought it would.”
Two girls from South will join them. Maggie Singer placed third and Caraline Slattery was 10th. From the boys team, Michael Picken qualified.
The Panther girls qualified as a team last season, but fell seven points short of that goal this year. Winona won the meet with North second and South in third.
Andy Rogers is at andy.rogers@ecm-inc.com.
