Mesabi Invite High School Meet Rant

Flame on Here's a round of thanks to the media who once again missed
out on the single largest high school athletic event in the nation. /Flame

Just got back to MSP from Biwabik, MN/Giants Ridge, home of the Mesabi
Inviational. 60 schools, 1200 athletes, plus assorted coaches, parents,
friends, spectators, ski patrol, volunteers, etc. No fights, no boos,
lots of cheering of other teams, lots of people on course cheering.
Definitely a great event.

What a great day. The temps were on the very mild side: -2c/+1c range
during the meet, starting with Boys Classic, Girls Classic, Boy Classic
JV, Girls, and then repeat program for skate in the afternoon (next
year, girls go first). Each school brings 3 Varsity and 2 JV both boys
and girls for each discipline. Skiers go off in pairs, 2 every 30
seconds, seemingly forever. With chip timing, and a cadre of
volunteers, White River/itiming.com does a phenomenal job of generating
results. They were up within minutes after the finish of each category.

The courses are pretty standardized 5Ks at Giants Ridge. The skate loop
uses most of the Silver trail - vicious, rolling hills that reward power
and good form, and penalize tentative or mediocre skiing. The classic
loop is a series of fairly constant grades (lower reaches of Cedar and
Gold), looping up & down the mountain, culminating in a short wall at
4K, and a very fast 1K inrun to the line. You find out very quickly who
has wax, and who can ski at the wall - the best kids are still kicking,
while the also-rans are reduced to a slow herringbone.

Results are linked from Skinnyski, and from itiming.com. Rag on your
favorite media outlet:-) These kids are the backbone of the next
generation of skiers (sorry New Englandg)

Marsh
New Brighton, MN

Marsh:

It tain't football & it tain't Nascar, so it tain't wert coverin'. Not only
dat, there tain't no beer ads anywheres. I bets all them kids in licra are
probably the next batch of liberals that'll send dis country to heck anyway,
so why give them any attention.

Sorry, feeling grumpy this morning.

MOO,
Matt

"Marsh Jones" wrote in message
...
Flame on Here's a round of thanks to the media who once again missed
out on the single largest high school athletic event in the nation.
/Flame

clipped............................

Marsh
New Brighton, MN

Not even Duluth stations?

GG

Marsh Jones wrote:

Flame on Here's a round of thanks to the media who once again
missed out on the single largest high school athletic event in the
nation. /Flame

Just got back to MSP from Biwabik, MN/Giants Ridge, home of the
Mesabi Inviational. 60 schools, 1200 athletes, plus assorted
coaches, parents, friends, spectators, ski patrol, volunteers, etc.
No fights, no boos, lots of cheering of other teams, lots of people
on course cheering. Definitely a great event.

What a great day. The temps were on the very mild side: -2c/+1c
range during the meet, starting with Boys Classic, Girls Classic, Boy
Classic JV, Girls, and then repeat program for skate in the afternoon
(next year, girls go first). Each school brings 3 Varsity and 2 JV
both boys and girls for each discipline. Skiers go off in pairs, 2
every 30 seconds, seemingly forever. With chip timing, and a cadre
of volunteers, White River/itiming.com does a phenomenal job of
generating results. They were up within minutes after the finish of
each category.

The courses are pretty standardized 5Ks at Giants Ridge. The skate
loop uses most of the Silver trail - vicious, rolling hills that
reward power and good form, and penalize tentative or mediocre
skiing. The classic loop is a series of fairly constant grades
(lower reaches of Cedar and Gold), looping up & down the mountain,
culminating in a short wall at 4K, and a very fast 1K inrun to the
line. You find out very quickly who has wax, and who can ski at the
wall - the best kids are still kicking, while the also-rans are
reduced to a slow herringbone.

Results are linked from Skinnyski, and from itiming.com. Rag on your
favorite media outlet:-) These kids are the backbone of the next
generation of skiers (sorry New Englandg)

Marsh
New Brighton, MN

They didn't cover Mesabi, and I doubt this will help most anyone else
on the newsgroup other than haltvick, but our new local station, True
North TV 25, has been _awesome_ with nordic. They were down at 24
hours of Telemark for the entire event and ran segments during the news
broadcasts every night all week for the week after the event. And they
were at the Seeley Hills Classic this weekend and I'm expecting
something during the news tonight. They are a low budget, low power
station on the Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior, but they've been
giving us coverage. Most of the credit probably should go to George,
the video journalist who is an accomplished endurance sports athlete
himself and probably pushes for coverage of these events. He does a
really nice job.