XC Ski

XC Ski

March 8th, 2016 by Kate Hanni

Photo Credit: John Cheney

How many people knew that Sandy Creek had a cross country ski team? Well, for those who did not know, it is probably because only one person from Sandy Creek is on the ski team. The lone skier, is senior Emily Cheney. Cheney has been skiing since she was four years old and when 7th grade came, she started skiing for Sandy Creek. From grade 7 to grade 10, Cheney was the only person on her team and was coached by her father. However, in grades 11 and 12, Cheney started skiing with Camden, involving herself with a larger team and changing coaches from her father to Jeffrey Moore. The Camden team she combined with has about twenty people at the varsity level, with an extra twenty people at the modified level, obviously being much more involved with skiing than Sandy Creek.
So while I talked to Cheney about skiing, I learned there are two types of cross country skiing, skate and classic. Classic skiing is the common, regular type of cross country ski and mostly related to running or walking. Think about your body movement when you run. As you put one foot out, your opposite arm moves with the foot. Each step you take, the diagonal arm moves as well. That is just like classic skiing. Not to mention, for classic skiing a person does not necessarily have to be fit, but they do need a decent amount of endurance to last. On the other hand, skate skiing is different. For the most part, skate skiing requires a person to be fit and in shape, because of the muscle it takes to do it. Think of ice skating or rollerblading, that movement is the same movement it takes to skate ski. Also, when skate skiing the person's' arms move with the same leg, giving them more power, but making them more tired as well. Cheney claims that her favorite type of ski is classic because she is better at that technique.
Most of the meets take place in Old Forge, Osceola, Holland Patent, and Whitesboro and are anywhere from 2 km to 7.5 km long. In a 5 km classic race at McCauley Mountain, Cheney placed 8th out of 31 girls, with a time of 00:22:10. In a 6 km skate race in Osceola, Cheney placed 10th out of 19 girls with a time of 00:31:13. In two other races, Cheney placed 9th out of 32 girls in a 2 km race race with a time of 00:06:24 and placed 18th out of 27 girls in a 2.5 km with a time of 00:13:50. In her most recent race, Cheney placed 8th out of 28 girls in a 7.5 km classic with a time of 00:31:12. With fantastic times like these, Cheney qualified for sectionals. This will be her 5th year going to sectionals, in which she is ranked 8th in her section. Sectionals will be held on Wednesday, the 10th and Friday, the 12th of February. The 10th will be a skate race held at McCauley Mountain and the 12th will be a classic relay sprint race held in Osceola. After these two races, Cheney will go to an award ceremony to see if she is ranked for states! Hopefully we have enough snow for Emily to be successful! If you see her in the halls, congratulate her on a terrific season and wish her luck as she proceeds to sectionals and potentially states!

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