After winning its conference championship, Boys’ nordic expects nothing less than to win the section title, according to head coach Doug Peterson.

“Anything can happen, but based on previous races I think we can win,” Peterson said. “But that’s what I’ve thought all year.”

The reason sections is so important is because it is the only way for a team to advance to the State meet. According to junior Sam Olson, the team understands the importance of the race and he said he thinks the team has what it takes to succeed after winning the conference title Jan. 24.

“The team’s doing very well this year, we’ve focused a lot on our boys’ varsity,” Olson said. “We have the best chances of making it to state in a while.”

The race will be close this year. According to senior captain Nick Sokolowski, the team’s biggest competition will be the Southwest team, which defeated Park the last time they competed at the Mesabi invite Jan. 12.

In order to beat them Sokolowski said they’ve been focusing on their explosiveness, which proved to be effective in the previous races.

“We’ve been doing a lot of speed work in order to catch up with Southwest,” Sokolowski said.

Peterson said he recently noticed positive changes as the team approaches sections.

“The key is that they’re starting to believe they can actually make it to State,” Peterson said.

According to Sokolowski, whether the team will win sections will depend on the times of the teams lower ranked skiers at the race on Feb. 3. If the bottom skiers of Park can’t keep up the team can’t make it to State.

“The hardest part of winning is how well the third and fourth skiers do,” Sokolowski said. “They’re the ones with the most points up for grabs.”