The snow falls lightly over the Mount Holly. The skier gets position to look down at the group of parents waiting for his arrival at the bottom of the slope. The wind whips across his face, and he inhales and then exhales relief. The nerves are buzzing, legs are shaking. All of that time in practice, all of the countless hours spent training and conditioning, all comes down to these 30 or so seconds. He is given ‘okay’ to go, and freshman Braden Lapa takes off, flying down the slope blanketed in a white sheet.

“The ski team worked hard during practice and managed to pull it off,” Lapa said. “We had a later start for the season because of the lack of snow.”

The Fenton-Linden ski team competed in their first dual meet of the season at Mount Holly. Both girls and boys, varsity and junior varsity teams competed. The first day of racing included the slalom race, and the second day was giant slalom racing.

“All of the teams lead the races and everyone had good times,” coach Tim Hiscock said. “We pulled off the victory because of these good times. The first day, we had some problems with the races, but there was a big difference the second day because we recognized our issues with the first night anf ixed them for the second night.”

Annie Koester- 1st run 25.65 2nd run 26.07
Rachel Smith- 1st 24.50 2nd 26.23
Zoe Weinberg- 1st 22.99 2nd 23.14
Milo Kernan- 1st 23.40 2nd 33.60
Sylee Kiran- 1st 26.88 2nd 26.

Other teams competing consisted of Holly-Oxford, Powers Catholic, Grand Blanc, and Flushing. All skiers showed exceptional, including Annie Koester with a 25.65 for giant slalom, Rachel Smith with a time of 24.50 for the giant slalom and Jon Gilman with a 28.71 for the slalom.

“I’m looking to get faster throughout the season,” said Lapa. “I think I’m in a good spot for the short amount of time the team has been able to be on a course this season. I think my time will improve with the more experience and practice I get this year.”

As the first night went on and the course became slicker due to the amount of snowfall, more skiers from all teams began to fall and make mistakes. Luckily, the second day brought clearer weather, and less mistakes were made, which resulted in an overall win for Fenton.

“I think that getting the right mindset before a race is very important,” junior Milo Keranen said. “You only have a short amount of time to do well during a ski race, you have a lot of pressure put on you. The right thing to do before a race is to ignore that pressure and act as if it is just another training day.”

The ski team will return to Mount Holly on Jan. 20 and 21 for more races, so make sure to come out and support the team.