The Lander Sabers Middle School Nordic ski team finished the season with both boys’ and girls’ teams handily winning the State Championships. On Saturday February 22nd, all middle school teams were finally able to compete together at the Beaver Creek Nordic Ski Trails, maintained by Lander Nordic Ski Association. The boys team scored 135 points, to second place team Casper Classical with 86 points. The girls team totaled 130 points to second place Cody at 98 points.
“I was pretty confident that would be the outcome, based on both the boys and girls winning the previous three events. However, mechanical issues and weather kept all the teams from participating until this event,” noted coach Missy White. “They’ve worked so hard to develop their skills this season, and everyone was motivated to ski their hearts out. And did they ever! All of us coaches are so proud of their skiing, and even prouder of how they cheer each other on and support their teammates.”
Combining all boys across the 3 grades, Lander skiers claimed 2nd-9th place, showing impressive dominance. Nora Strike, 8th grade Saber skier, finished with a time of 16:10.50, opening up a tremendous gap to the second-place finisher at 18:29.71. In all 4 races this year, Nora placed first by wide margins. Six of the Lander girls placed in the top 15 at State. With only 11 girls on the team, it’s noteworthy that more than half of the team placed so high.
In reflecting on the season, coach Ashly Kraenzel, known as Coach K, said, “The Sabers are a great group of kids. It was a very humbling experience to get to coach and watch these athletes grow in confidence as teens and in skill as skiers. I was truly honored to get to be a part of this amazing group of both kids and coaches.”
Coach Morgan Schubring added, “Getting to witness, and be a small part of, middle schoolers forming new friendships, pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone, and learning a new life-long sport fills my cup with joy every winter. I look forward to the winter season thanks to these athletes, their families, and our Nordic skiing community. We are so lucky to have a school district and community that supports Nordic skiing!”
Following on that comment, Coach Missy White said, “It’s rewarding to watch kids get the bug and work hard to be competitive. It’s also incredibly rewarding to witness kids who struggled to ski more than a few feet before falling down at the start of the season have tremendous learning curves over just a few weeks. Those kids ended up skiing a technical 4.5km route at 8,000 feet, and that’s incredible! All of us coaches hope that in addition to learning skiing, the kids realized that they can learn to do hard things.”
The LMS Saber team gives thanks to the FCSD1 district for supporting this sport, and to the many event volunteers from parents and the Lander Nordic Ski Association community. Wrangling 275 middle school skiers from around the state to get to the start line on time takes a lot of work. Events wouldn’t be smooth and successful without lots of help.
Next year’s middle school Nordic season will begin in January of 2026, on the return to school after the winter holiday break. All interested middle schoolers are welcome to join the team, whether they attend Lander Middle School, Academy of the Winds, or are home-schooled.
The above information and photos were provided to County 10 by the Saber Nordic ski team Head Coach Missy White on March 5.