February 23, 2023 at 7:30 a.m.
Springer sweeps way to state ski title
RHS/NPHS boys take 9th in D2
Springer sweeps way to state ski title
A missed gate and a disallowed re-run in slalom cost her a shot at a state title as a sophomore and a knee injury kept her from skiing last year.
Over the weekend, in her final crack at the state meet, Springer would not be denied.
Springer put on a dominating performances, sweeping all three races en route to the WIARA individual girls' state championship that concluded Monday in La Crosse.
"It was really nice. I couldn't imagine going out in my high school career any other way," Springer said.
It was the first time in coach Rod Olson's more than two-decade run with the Hodag program that he coached an individual ski champion. He's guided five different snowboarders to state titles, but finally got a skier on the top step of the podium.
"I'm glad it happened," Olson said. "You never envision with an athlete that a big chunk of their career is going to be missing or hampered or hurt by injury, but to come back from all of that is awesome. We're super pumped.
"A lot has happened since then. She's really worked hard and her and the family have just dedicated themselves to making this happen and it paid off."
Springer was skiing out west in April 2021 as she worked to latch on with the U.S. Ski Team Olympic Development program. She originally planned to head back out west this January to continue those pursuits, but a setback with her knee brought her back home for one more crack at the state title.
"I'm definitely not at 100%. If I had to put a number on it, I'm probably mid-70s," she said.
That hardly seemed to matter over the weekend. Springer skied to a 0.58-second win over Divine Savior Holy Angels' Payton Bradford in slalom to open competition on Sunday morning. She followed by edging West Bend's Olivia Hutchins by 0.21 seconds to win giant slalom on Sunday afternoon.
"My slalom was pretty clean," she said. "I wasn't as aggressive as I'd like to be, but I still pulled it off. My GS run, I got a little late in the bottom section but, thankfully, everyone else made the same mistake and I just saved it a little better."
"I know she can go faster than what she did, but she still won because she's that good," Olson added. "She was remembering a couple of years ago. We had DNF in a couple of races. Those kind of weighed on her. We talked about it and wanted to make sure we didn't make the same mistakes. I'd say we didn't take as much change, but her superior ability still landed her first in every race."
That put Springer in a good position entering Monday's Super G race, the final event of the competition. She put down a blistering 38.16-second run and her nearest pursuers could not match. Bradford went 39.15, good enough for fifth-fastest while Hutchins fell and did not finish. By the time all the skiers completed their runs, Springer skied to a 0.42-second win in the event and finished seven points ahead of Bradford for the overall title.
"My Super G was pretty good, wasn't much to complain about during that," Springer said.
That was the highlight of the weekend for the Hodag skiers. The RHS/NPHS boys' squad did not have as strong of a time, taking ninth out of 10 teams in Division 2.
Their weekend was marked by a number of slips and mishaps that dropped the team down the standings.
"When your ones and twos go down, you've got to radio up and say, 'next four, you've got to finish,' so their performances are going to be not typical," Olson said. "You kind of hold them back. The rest of the boys reacted well. After that we didn't have one issue. They hung on to good results for them and the team."
Lukas Bishop had the best individual performance for the team, taking 55th overall out of 157 skiers who attempted at least one run over the weekend. He was 63rd in Super G, 72nd in giant slalom and 74th in slalom.
Jason Linn had a pair of 64th-places in giant slalom and slalom, but a 90th-place run in Super G dropped him to 58th overall. Brandon Bacon was 63rd overall.
"Jason Linn skied sick. We had left him alone and let him sleep til 9:30 yesterday. He did well for being not 100%," coach Olson said. "Brandon and Lukas Bishop really did a good job anchoring us, getting that third and fourth skier in. I'm real proud of them."
Freshman Ben Olson had the fastest individual run of the weekend, finishing 37th in Monday's Super G, and that was despite nearly crashing after catching too much air on a jump near the top of the headwall. Olson had mishaps in the other two runs, however, finishing outside the top 110 in both and took 75th overall.
"Ben went a little too hard, and that's what you learn when you're down here. He's a freshman and you have to take what the hill gives you and not ask for any more," said Rod Olson, Ben's father.
Brody Kowieski finished 101st overall for the Hodags and senior Riley Zarm was 122nd.
"We had 12 finishes we had to do and we made them all," coach Olson said. "We didn't want to end up in ninth. We had higher hopes that that, but we'll take it and we're returning 75% of the team. We're pretty excited about our years to come.
"We're going to have to work hard on our girls' numbers and our snowboard. We're going to have to rebuild some there, but that's the part of love is developing the young ones."
Meanwhile, Springer will have one more race in her high school career. Her performances earned her a spot on the Wisconsin team for the Eastern High School Nationals, which take place next month in Maine.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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