Knights skiers compete at Marquette Mountain
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MARQUETTE -- Marquette capitalized on its home hill advantage as Norway High School's co-op co-ed ski team participated in the Marquette Invitational race on Thursday at Marquette Mountain.
Joining Marquette and Norway at the event were Houghton and Ironwood.
The Knights girls team struggled while the Marquette girls swept all three races that included one giant slalom and two slalom races.
"Last week at Pine Mountain, our girls skied great and won. This week we were a different team, and so was Marquette, and we did not have a chance," said Norway head coach John Bittinger. "In two of the events we only had three finishers when four results are needed for a team score. It was a not our best racing day."
In the giant slalom, Gabby Carey, Megan Bittinger, Brooke Bittinger and Peyton Johnson finished fourth, seventh, 10th and 13th, respectively. That earned the Knights a solid second place finish in the overall team standings.
Norway had a tougher day in the slalom events. The highlights of the two slaloms were Brooke Bittinger's fifth and sixth place finishes, Finnley Lutz's eighth and 10th place results and Megan Bittinger's ninth place.
"For our second race in a row, we were missing a key racer on the girls side. Maria Fornetti had to drop this week which put us down to five skiers again and the team event requires four finishers to earn a score," Bittinger said. "We had little room for error, and unfortunately we made some errors."
On the boys side, Jake Munn raced to a third place in the giant slalom and Max Mayol Massagues finished 15th. Munn added a seventh place in the first slalom and Mayol Massagues recorded a 14th and 15th place in the two events.
"We have some work to correct a few things, but the entire team is really skiing well," said Bittinger. "We showed last week what we are capable of doing and they have been practicing very well all month. We have some critical races including regionals and U.P.'s approaching soon and after a few minor adjustments we expect to finish the year strong."
Norway heads to Ironwood on Tuesday for a U.P. conference race. Regionals are scheduled for Feb. 8 at Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville in the Lower Peninsula.