Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Last Saturday was the big one for Nordic skiing. The Mesabi East Cross Country Invitational at Giants Ridge in Biwabik, MN is the site of a monster meet where the boys and girls from Forest Lake could take on the very best in the area.

The boys finished in fifth place with 86 points, while Duluth East won the invite with 57 points.

In the 5K Varsity Classic, junior Travis Strike was the top Ranger, coming in 15th place, just over a minute behind the winner, Matt Pierce of Hayward.

Fellow juniors Roman Morris and Shawn Wright ended the competition just seconds behind each other, with Morris getting 49th and Wright 53rd.

In the Varsity Freestyle event, sophomore Ryan Wright continues his rapid ascent up the standings as he took 13th in the 5K course, and junior Ben Brodin was only three seconds behind, which was good enough for 16th place. Senior Dave Kasl took 44th.

The girls wrapped up the day in 14th place with 138 points as Duluth East swept the meet, with their girls skiing to first with 26 points.

Taking the lead for Forest Lake was junior Annie Dehmlow who took 10th in the Varsity Classic. Trailing behind her in the 5K race were 8th grader Amber Anderson in 46th place and junior Kate Babbitt in 51st.

In the 5K Girls Varsity Freestyle, 8th grader Liz Peterson was the top Ranger, coming in 29th place, while sophomore Megan Gooley took 56th and 8th grader Jen Scott was 81st.

Another noteworthy performance was turned in by the boys junior varsity team. They won the meet with an extremely low score of 19, as freshman Mitch Woehlk nearly grabbed first in the Classic, but ended up in second. Steve Coozennoy, also a freshman, took fifth place.

In the Freestyle, freshman Michael Howe came in third place and junior Sven Schauerhammer pulled in with a 10th place finish.

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