By Akane Fujimura
The first ski meet took place in Homer, Alaska on December 2nd and 3rd. Each skier raced Friday in the classic ski race, and on Saturday skied in the skate ski race.
At the classic ski race, Emily Schmidt, a senior, started the race, and accidentally broke her ski. “At first when I fell over, I didn’t know that I broke my ski. When I found out that the binding part was broken I wasn’t panicked at all, because well, there is nothing you can do, you know. I just asked everyone for the other skies to race with at that time and I was able to borrow a pair from one of the skiers and it was just fine. It all worked out.”
Jan Spurkland, head ski coach, said “Most of the time, if the skiers have accidents like breaking their skies at the start they usually quit the race, because it will take a long time until they started the race. It will affect their time, but she didn’t and it was very impressive.”
Tian-En Liu, a sophomore on the ski team, just started to learn how to ski a month ago, yet took 4th place at the JV classic ski race and 6th place at the skate ski race. “It was an awesome meet. I thought in my brain, I’m going to win, before the race and that I actually could take those places.”
Overall, the boys and girls varsity teams earn 1st place respectively at the ski meet.
The skiers are waiting to start.