Saturday, February 27th, the annual State Cross Country Ski Meet was held at Kincaid Park.  Schools from all around Alaska attended to see who had the fastest teams and skiers, and West High School pretty much dominated the entire meet.

 The championship is split up into boys and girls individual races and awards, and the state title is achieved with the top four individual skiers of the meet and the top relay times of the schools are added up and the highest one wins.

 Magdalen York, a West skier, and one of the top members of the ski team, helped the girls relay team win their race.  “My team had already given me a big lead and so I basically coasted the whole time,” she stated.  This helped her take the corners better so she wouldn’t slip up due to the icy conditions they had that day.  Both skiers and coaches agree the key is to go with the flow and hope it turns out well, since there really isn’t a way to train for bad conditions.  While the West team only practices in the winter, York also practices during the summer with APU using roller skis and doing mountain runs.  She’s been skiing since she was six and loves the sport and all the friends she gets to make doing it.

 Amy Johns, Luke Jager’s mom, says the schedule is crazy.  “It’s expensive getting new gear since they outgrow it almost yearly. My work schedule had to be worked around his ski practices and if he goes out of state it depends on if I can get time off to go support him or cheer him on from home.”  It’s easier now that he drives so all she has to do is support him during meets and make sure there’s dinner on the table when he gets home.  Since Jager is such a competitive skier he’s going to Junior National in Wisconsin and he’s training for that.  She’s proud of him for doing so well and keeping with it since he was four.  She hopes he wants to continue skiing in college and maybe even having a future in it.

 Anson Moxness, West’s head coach, thinks this year has been awesome for the team and likes how they are at the top of the score sheets in almost every event.  This is his fourth year coaching for West, and third as the head coach.  “I skied for West and during college and missed the community when I got out of it, it was such a huge part of my life when I was younger and I wanted to give back to others,” he explained.  Moxness doesn’t plan on quitting any time soon no matter how hard the conditions get throughout the years he wants to keep up with it.