State skimeister titles go to Husky skiers

Lindsey Whitton and Seamus Farrell claimed state titles in Tuesday’s Colorado Ski League state skimeister competition, a crown given to the best all-around skier in the state.

“It’s the Heisman of Colorado high school skiing,” said coach Christian Apps.

“It was a pretty good way to end it all,” Whitton expressed.

Throughout the season, skimeisters compete in both Nordic (classic and skate) and Alpine (giant slalom and slalom) disciplines, accumulating a running score based off their best finishes in each event.

“It takes a ton of technique as well as athleticism,” Apps, who competed in the 2016 state competition, said. “It is really fun to be the skimeister coach as it allows me to blend both my backgrounds as a Nordic and Alpine skier.”

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“You have to be fully committed to both, which is a way bigger commitment to an already big commitment,” Whitton added.

It’s also a great opportunity for coaches and athletes to admire their skiing counterparts, according to Apps. Colorado’s state competition, which the Husky girls won two weeks ago, is dependent upon both Nordic and Alpine team scores. ”To see close up how each unit of the team operates is very cool,“ Apps noted.

In the past, the title was given to the two athletes with the best scores at the end of the regular season, but the last two seasons have seen a separate state skimeister competition at Howelson Hill added to the calendar.

There, the qualified athletes took a slalom and giant slalom run and competed in a classic and skate race. The overall champion was determined by taking the lowest two scores from each discipline (GS, Slalom, Classic, Freestyle) from the regular season and adding it to the scores from each discipline from the skimeister championships. The long season and exhausting day is more joy than grind.

“You were doing something a lot,” described Whitton of the day. “It was snacking, sitting briefly, and getting ready for the next one.”

Going into the meet, Whitton and Farrell held comfortable leads in the overall. Presley Smith was two points from dropping to third while Theo Krueger in fourth. Whitton and Smith went 1-2 in the first event of the day, a 3-kilometer classic ski, with Farrell and Krueger managing second and third.

“Me and Presley are really close,” Whitton said. “She’s definitely helped me with Nordic; it’s helped because we can help each other get better at both.”

The giant slalom course contained fast flats which moved to steep, technical pitches. A hill in the middle shot athletes into a blind right turn. The slalom was also classic Howelson Hill — steep and challenging.

Before the day’s final event, a 3-kilometer skate ski, Apps gathered his team for a final huddle and told them how proud he was to see teammates competing for the final spots on the podium. “This is literally a coach’s dream to have them performing this well,” he told them. “We have had an incredible season and this was just the cherry on top.”

“The coaches made it a lot better,” Whitton said, noting Apps’s biggest impact has been to impress high standards onto the team. “There just always about hard work ethic — the whole environment about we have to try.”

Smith took the skate victory, with teammate Hailey McKenzie coming in second. Whitton simply needed to finish the race to take the overall title, which she did, finishing fifth. In the boys race, Farrell wore a smile for his victory lap. “Two years of hard work and he knew he had it; I told him to just have fun with the race and make it one to remember,” Apps stated.

The Husky men took first, second, third, fourth, and seventh.

“It was really cool to see the progression of these kids in their skiing. Lindsey started Nordic skiing two years ago and already has improved dramatically, and Seamus put a ton of time in the weight room and got really strong for the year,” the coach stated of his champions’ progression.

One lure to the skimeister life for Whitton is the freedom to hang out with both groups of friends. “Nordic has a lot of the people I run with, which is fun … Alpine has different people I don’t see throughout the year,” she said, claiming she doesn’t have a favorite discipline.

Krueger finished in second, though by placing third in every event, technically won Tuesday’s meet on a standalone basis. “I was very impressed with his skiing,” stated Apps, who also pointed out the strong showing of Tyler Losa, who took second in both Alpine events.

“I am extremely excited to see what happens next year with the momentum built from the 2021-2022 season,” Apps said.

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