The 2011 Minnesota Skinnyski Series returned to the beautiful city of Bemidji for the final race of the season in the Minnesota Finlandia. After two weeks of warm temperatures, the weather dropped and flash froze the previously-melting course, creating wicked-fast conditions across the board. Nearly 300 skiers showed up in Bemidji this year for the Finlandia and helped provide for an exciting finish to the 2011 MiSSeries.
In the 25k Pursuit, MiSSeries veteran Kathleen DeWahl cruised in alone for the women’s title, while on the men’s side was an exciting race to the finish. Phil Rogers, another MiSSeries veteran, came out of a tough classic portion and stormed back to catch the leaders then won the race in a four-way final sprint!
This year’s overall competition featured domination by the famous/infamous Finn Sisu Vakava team. On the women’s side, Cheryl DuBois held out over teammate Angie Robinson to take the overall title, with another Vakava skier in Kathleen DeWahl using her win to move her into the final three of the standings. The men’s overall champion this year is David Christopherson, who stormed away from the field early and dominated this year’s series. Finishing in second was Odd Osland with Phillip Rogers finishing in third place. Congratulations to Cheryl DuBois and David Christopherson for their overall victories!
The battle for the Skier of the Year, the most improved skier from last season to this season, came down to the wire as Richard Anderson pulled away from Jason Dalebroux to finish on top. Kathleen DeWahl finished in third after finishing second overall last year. Richard will receive free entry into all of next year’s MiSSeries events, congratulations Richard!
The women’s age group competition saw no change in the final standings but also saw a number of new winners mixed in with veterans of the MiSSeries. Kathleen DeWahl continued to bring home the prestige as she takes home age group honors, while for the first time ever we have a tie at the top of the final standings in the 35-39 age group with Kim Rudd and Sara Kylander-Johnson! Congratulations to all the women for your age group victories. The men’s side also saw no final change in the standings as a mix of MiSSeries veterans and new skiers joined the coveted winner’s circle. Congratulations to all the skiers on your age group victory and good luck training this summer as the targets are now squarely fixed to your backs! Here are the final standings as follows:
Age Group Women; Men
00-24 Kathleen DeWahl Peter Olejniczak
25-29 Johanna Winters Nathan Porath
30-34 Elaine Nelson Jason Dalebroux
35-39 Kim Rudd/Sara Kylander-Johnson Grant Nelson
40-44 Angie Robinson Mark Ahlers
45-49 Cheryl DuBois James Schultz
50-54 Marise Widmer; Jack Baker
55-59 Carol Markham-Cousins Richard Anderson
60-64 Jean Lavelle David Christopherson
65-69 Caroline Kostroski Odd Osland
70-74 Wanda Arenz Will Gosnold
75-79 Wally Hed 80-84 Erv Schilling
The Series also saw six hearty skiers complete all seven of the MiSSeries races, skiing a whopping 189km and countless more training in between! This year’s Ironskiers are Kathleen DeWahl, Richard Anderson, John Lavelle, Jean Lavelle, Odd Osland, and Wally Hed. Your dedication to the MiSSeries is phenomenal and we commend you for your hard work, congratulations!
Finally the battle for the coveted traveling team trophy indeed came down to the final race of the season. Finn Sisu Vakava, confident in victory, only scored one skier in the final race, but Peter’s Cheaters used all their cheating prowess to storm back with four skiers scoring perfectly in the final race of the season. Alas, it was too little too late for the Cheaters as Finn Sisu Vakava repeats as the team champion for the MiSSeries! Finishing in third was Hoigaards/Breadsmith with Skinnyski.com finishing in fourth place. If this competition has shown us anything, it’s that the shenanigans will return next year for another go around.
The 2011 Minnesota Skinnyski Series has at last come to a close. The season saw some of the coldest and warmest race conditions imaginable and featured the best races in the state of Minnesota. Congratulations to all the skiers who competed and had a great time out there, this series simply wouldn’t happen without you. Next up is our annual end-of-the-year awards banquet which will also feature the awards for the Midwest Junior Championships and the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award by the Minnesota Nordic Ski Association. Click here for more info and to reserve your tickets for the banquet on April 2nd, 2011. We hope to see you there.