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Zoe Kedrowski

Senior Sean Cork comes down the hill to finish the first lap of the Section 6 meet on Feb. 2. Cork won the race.

Senior skiers Sean Cork and Liam Schmelze traveled to California Mar. 8-14 for the Junior Olympics for Nordic Skiing after training in order to compete at a higher level.

Both skied on the St. Louis Park Nordic team since eighth grade and have continued to ski ever since then.

For the past couple years, both Cork and Schmelze have competed in the Junior National Qualifiers. There are eight Junior National Qualifier meets held each nordic season. Skiers accumulate points after each meet they participate in. At the end of the eighth meet, whoever has scored enough points qualifies to compete at the Junior Nationals. According to Schmelze, only eight people can qualify.

Cork was second in state this year, and qualified to competed in the Junior Nationals in California (Auburn Ski Club) this past month.

“It was really great to be able to compete at this year’s Junior Nationals with Liam. I felt good about my races and I was happy I was there,” Cork said.

Schmelze also competed in California in the Junior Nationals with Cork.

“There were four races throughout the course of the week and I had a 19th place finish in the 10k skate which was my best race. It was closer to the end of the week, so I wanted to try my best during that race,” Schmelze said.

According to Schmelze, the race course, at an altitude of 7200 feet, was hard to adjust to because of the lack of air in the mountains.

“I felt pretty good most of the week. Once I got acclimated, I started racing better as the week went on. The day that we raced, it was actually raining and at some parts during the race. We were actually skiing through puddles,” Schmelze added.

Cork and Schmelze’s team from the midwest region, got second overall.