Raleigh Goessling had a big week for the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Nordic ski team last week. Goessling took first place on Dec. 9 at the Grand Rapids Invitational and then he garnered a fourth-place finish on Saturday at the Ely Invitational.
"Goessling skied real well," said CEC coach Brent Smith. "He is a real endurance athlete who roller skis, bikes and runs, plus he is technically a very good skier."
In the Grand Rapids Invite Goessling captured first with a time of 12:28. CEC's Paul Quiram was sixth, Matt Palmquist took 17th and Taylor Nordvall finished 59th.
"Right now we have three skiers in the hunt every meet," stated Smith. "We need to find that fourth guy who can help us out."
Overall Proctor won the boys race with 57 points, Grand Rapids was second with 64, CEC took third with 77 points followed by Bemidji, Duluth Marshall, Anoka, Denfeld and Two Harbors.
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Becky Cook took 13th to lead the CEC girls, Neysa Granholm was 19th and Amanda Norbie was 35th.
"Becky Cook has been skiing well and we are getting Mollie Juntunen back," mentioned Smith. "Mollie has been out with an injury and we are going to bring her along very slowly and let her dictate how much she can really do. We want to be very cautious with her because she does have aspirations of skiing after high school."
Helping Smith this season is Jeremy Roseth, who has a background in sports physiology. Roseth has been handling most of the coaching chores with the varsity while Smith is helping to focus on the junior varsity athletes in an attempt to improve their times and techniques.
- On Saturday Goessling took a fourth-place finish in the Ely Invitational which was held in Coleraine. Quiram was 10th, Palmquist took 16th, Neil Smith was 30th and Nordvall was 41st.
Overall, the CEC boys finished second, 19 points behind Bemidji. Duluth East was third followed by Proctor Grand Rapids, Brainerd, Marshall, Two Harbors, Little Falls and Denfeld.
The CEC girls finished sixth in an eight-team field with East winning and Grand Rapids taking second.
Neysa Granholm led CEC with a 19th-place finish, Megan Mattson was 27th, Amanda Norbie took 44th and Kamilla Simensen took 49th.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
