Will Carpenter

Senior Tommy Keller races to the finish line Jan. 13. The varsity boys nordic team at Park raced at Theodore Wirth Regional Park.

Park Boys Nordic won Loppet Invite on Jan. 14 with incredible performances from their top competitors. According to head coach Doug Peterson, the team felt very at home at Theodore Wirth and took advantage of the ‘home field.’ 

“Yeah, they got hundreds (of) K’s (kilometers) on this track,” Peterson said.  “So yeah, I guess in some respects, it helps that the kids feel more comfortable skiing here.” 

Junior Lucas Tangelson said he likes how much of the course is downhill, and how that impacts him while he’s racing.

“It’s a great course but it’s a little hard to pace yourself,” Tangelson said. “Probably about the last kilometer is almost all downhill with some exceptions making you have energy to spare.” 

Senior captain Tommy Walsh said that this was a great race for him and the support from the people around him is what pushed him to have such a great race.  

 “I felt great about today’s race, one of my best races ever,” Walsh said. “All the help from the coaches and the support from the fans made it easy.” 

 Lucas Tangelson said he congratulates both of the relay teams on making the finals with an impressive day. 

 “The relay teams absolutely killed it,” Tangelson started.  “They both definitely made it to the finals and neither team seemed to have much competition today.”

Tommy Walsh said that he thinks this race will greatly rejuvenate the team moving forward from their successful meet. 

“I think even though it’s not early in the season, it’s the start of our really aggressive racing season,” Walsh said. “Our performance today has gone very well. It really sets a great tone for the rest of our season.” 

According to Peterson, the team has high expectations for for the rest of the season following the victorious meet.

“I expect us to do well in conference and I expect us to do well at our section race,” Peterson said. “I definitely think we’ll represent Park really nicely at the state meet once we get there.”

Nordic’s next race is at Hyland park at 11:00 a.m. on Jan. 18.