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Wayzata Follow Up - 2013 NXN champions - DyeStat

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DyeStat.com   Dec 9th 2013, 9:50pm
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Anna French returns to form for Wayzata

 

Nordic ski training pays off for NXN champions from Minnesota

 

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor


By Monday morning at Wayazta High School, the members of the 2013 national championship girls cross country team were already shifting gears.


McKenna Evans, No. 6 for the winning team Saturday and 77th overall, was returning to basketball. In a school of 3,400 students, Evans is also the captain of the varsity girls basketball team.


Four others on the team -- Anna French (8th overall), Annika Lerdall (54th), Michaela Keller-Miller (65th) and Alayna Sonnesyn (73rd) -- all switch to competitive nordic skiing.


Sonnesyn, in particular, is one of the top junior cross-country skiers in the U.S. and could make national teams in that sport some day soon.


"Sometimes the news of our sport is a little slow to get around, but I can tell it's picking up a bit," said head coach Dave Emmans, a P.E. teacher at the school. "(The buzz) is picking up. One of the local TV stations just called. I've been answering a lot of emails."


The celebration may be somewhat muted, but Emmans owes his girls after losing (or winning?) at bet. He will be dyeing his hair blue at some point.


In the aftermatch of Wayzata's fantastic run at Portland Meadows, which unseated seven-time defending champion Fayetteville-Manlius, there was still something of a disbelief that the whole thing really happened.


Did Anna French really get eighth place?


Yes. More than any other athlete in the girls championship race, French swung the outcome of the meet with her best performance ever.


French is a talent. The junior has been the fastest girl at Wayzata since she was in the seventh grade. And she was the top-ranked girl in Minnesota early in the season.
But then she got sick. She was 14th at the Minnesota state meet. She didn't even run at the NXN Heartland Regional. And she was 33rd at Foot Locker Midwest.


"I wish I could take credit for the national meet (title) and the savvy decision making of holding her out of regionals," Emmans said. "Going into the state meet (French's) expectations were so great and she was so disappointed. She was feeling sick going into the state met and right after it she was on her back.


"We knew we had a team that could make it to the national meet without her, so we decided to hold her out of (regionals). The decision to run at Foot Locker was hers. She wanted to go there and run it more as a time trial, as sort of a test. But she was really flat and knew it during the race. But she used it as a springboard (for NXN)."


Emmans and assistant coach Addy Hallen siphoned off some of the pressure by telling the girls that whatever they finished, they were already champions.


"We told the girls that had won," Hallen said. "We have four seniors and they learned to love each other and care about each other."


For French, the coaches held out hope for a performance like Saturday's. They weren't banking on it.


But when French put herself up near the front of the race, the coaches made sure the other girls on the team knew it. It was news that created excitement.


"We were yelling at them 'French is getting the job done!'" Emmans said.


In the final kilometer, Wayzata continued to rally and surpassed F-M by just 12 points. French's contribution, plus some very good days by her teammates, knocked nearly 100 points off Wayzata's projected score.


Wayzata's fortunes have turned dramatically in the past three years, driven by the current senior class -- Evans, Sonnesyn, Mary Franke and Annika Halverson. The girls cross country team almost never matched the achievements of the boys team, or exceeded them, until now.


And nordic skiing played a role in this win. Emmans is quick to credit roller-skiing as a secondary cross-training activity that has made an enormous impact on the team.


"The technology in nordic skiing is pretty incredible and they have some nice equipment to use in the summer (basically, skis on little wheels)," Emmans said. "So the girls were preparing for two things at once. I used to cringe at that. These girls have taught me that they can go run 45 minutes to an hour and then go roller-ski for another hour and a half. As a result, our strength has improved."


Emmans wasn't sure he wanted to admit it, but he has incorporated roller-skiing into the regular in-season training as well.


"Some people are going to think I'm crazy," he said. "But I've started letting them do (roller-skiing) during our season. On one hand, I wanted to give back (to the nordic ski team) a little bit, and it's turned out to be a great supplementation of what we're doing."


And there was one other thing about these nordic skiers: They know how to dress for the cold.


"We saw many teams out there that went with shorts," Emmans said.


Wayzata dressed almost like it was a ski race. Every one of them wore full black tights.



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6 comment(s)
Nelly

Sean O, on , said:

Minnesota used to have some of (and to some extent, still does) the most stringent state qualifying standards in the country. Individually, only the top 5 from each of 8 sections qualified, regardless of whether their team qualified.

I'm not the resident Minnesota historian, but over the years the individual qualifying process has expanded, first to the top 6, then 7, then 7 non-team qualifiers.

However, team qualification has stayed the same - two teams from each of the 8 sections. There are only 2 classifications in Minnesota, so the # of runners and teams that participate at state is much lower than many other similarly sized states. (Colorado, North Carolina, and Wisconsin come to mind)


Thanks! Those were pretty tight standards. When I was in high school it was top 10 from each section, regardless of how many team qualifiers were in the top 10. It's nice to see that the amount of runners at State has been increasing over the years. Although only 5 places from 92 to 2011 isn't much of an improvement. The 8 individual qualifiers is very nice now, especially in section 6AA.
Sean O'Day
Minnesota used to have some of (and to some extent, still does) the most stringent state qualifying standards in the country. Individually, only the top 5 from each of 8 sections qualified, regardless of whether their team qualified.

I'm not the resident Minnesota historian, but over the years the individual qualifying process has expanded, first to the top 6, then 7, then 7 non-team qualifiers.

However, team qualification has stayed the same - two teams from each of the 8 sections. There are only 2 classifications in Minnesota, so the # of runners and teams that participate at state is much lower than many other similarly sized states. (Colorado, North Carolina, and Wisconsin come to mind)
Nelly

Sean O, on , said:

1992 - his first year coaching the girls at Wayzata. He offered up his shaven head as a bounty for the boys team if we could produce the school's first state championship. We delivered, but just missed the ultimate prize - Bill Miles agreed to shaving his beard into a "W" if we placed 5 in the top 25. Our fifth was 27th.

Hearing about Dave's blue hair dare made me go to the basement and dig that picture up.


What were the qualifying standards for individuals that year? I see there were only 12 individuals in the meet.
Sean O'Day
1992 - his first year coaching the girls at Wayzata. He offered up his shaven head as a bounty for the boys team if we could produce the school's first state championship. We delivered, but just missed the ultimate prize - Bill Miles agreed to shaving his beard into a "W" if we placed 5 in the top 25. Our fifth was 27th.

Hearing about Dave's blue hair dare made me go to the basement and dig that picture up.
DougB
What bet did he lose that time?
Sean O'Day
I can vouch for Dave honoring a bet.

[attachment=236:coach dave 1993 bet.jpg]
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