Waiting anxiously for her results at nordic Sections Feb. 5, junior Cecelia Schmelzle said she was excited when she found out she qualified for State.

“It was close. I didn’t know right away if I made it or not, so I had to wait a little bit,” Schmelzle said. “I’m really excited. I’ve worked really hard for the past couple of years.”

According to nordic head coach Doug Peterson, the Park’s boys team placed seventh and the girls team placed sixth among 12 schools.

“I’m a little disappointed with the boys’ results, but we have a young team, so there’s a lot of work to do there and that happens,” Peterson said. “Girls did pretty well, about where we expected them to be.”

Peterson said Schmelzle qualified for State individually and has high potential of succeeding at State.

“She had a really good race, the best race of the year,” Peterson said. “She’s in the best shape she’s been in all year right now. She’s healthy so I expect her to do very well at State.”

Junior captain Emmett Foner said while he is disappointed he didn’t personally make it to State, he’s excited for Schmelzle.

“I’m proud of her because she put in a lot of work over the season and throughout the summer and her hard work paid off,” Foner said.

Schmelzle said she is looking forward to State and is hoping to reach her personal goals.

“I’m hoping for a top 40 finish this year,” Schmelzle said. “There’s a lot of really good girls (competing), but it’ll be fun to have good race.”

Foner said despite a disappointing ending, he is proud of how the season went overall because of his personal and team achievements.

“The season went pretty well because I improved and so did the team. We all really bonded together, everyone got closer and became better skiers, which is great,” Foner said.

Schmelzle said her performance this season has boosted her enthusiasm for next year because she and the team will continue to improve throughout the offseason.

“It makes me really happy for next year just knowing how much more I can do and how I can improve to do even better,” Shmelzle said.

Schmelzle competed at State 10 a.m. Feb. 15 at Giant’s Ridge, Biwabik.