(L-R): Mark Thorkildson, Jen Thorkildson, Nastar National Champion Mary Parcheta, Scott Shields, Joe Blaha, Sara Ronholm, NASTAR Silver medal winner Lisa Rambol

Missing: Tom Chapin (broken ribs), Tom Arsenault (fractured hip), Dan Dahlring

Joe Blaha

At a meeting before the race season started I shared with Joe that the Sunday league was a serious beer league.  Fine with Joe.  After the first race I saw Joe caring a glass of beer to the team table.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Lisa Rambol wanted to make herself welcome on the team, and was walking behind him with a picture of beer in each hand.  Happily Joe figured out the meaning of "beer league".  By the end of the year he had figured out how to drink beer from a pitcher, and was knocking on the door of a platinum medal.

Tom Chapin

Our Team Captain had a rough year.  He was doing practice gates in a clinic before the season started, went down on the first run and injured several ribs, which kept him out for the first half the season.  He made a good recovery and was able to race the second half of the season.  But, on the last gate of the last run of the last race of the season, somehow he caught his downhill ski wiped out the gates in both runs, and knock himself unconscious for several minutes.  Thankfully daughter Evelyn, son Paul, and son-in-law Mark were also racing and there for him immediately.  Paul and Mark are members of the ski patrol so he was in good hands.  Tom’s OK but his ribs are all banged up again.

Dan Dahlring

A very quiet member of the team.  Last year he bought a pair of Fisher Progressor 9’s, generally regarded as one of the very best racing skis.  His times this year really showed it, with a 18.02 overall handicap for the year.  Not sure about Wild Mountain, but any time you are in the teens at Buck Hill you are traveling at better than 40 mph down the hill (Buck has a very accurate radar gun) and Wild is just about the same.

Mary Parcheta

Mary is too modest to tell, but, I finally found out.  Mary went to Nationals again this year.  And, she not only beat every lady in her age class, but she also beat every lady in the next younger age class.  On top of that, she could have raced two age classes younger, and still made the podium.  Mary is a true champion.

Lisa Rambol

Lisa is the league's Most Improved Female racer for the entire season.  She qualified for nationals, and a tremendous racer, she got the second step on the podium with a silver.  On top of that she has a Norwegian gypsy for a sister in law, and took a super picture of Mary Parcheta with her National Champion Gold Medal.

Sara Ronholm

In her Junior year at the University of Minnesota, Sara broke her leg during time trials and graduated before she was completely healed.  Very distraught over not being able to complete her collage racing carrier, she consoled her self by moving to Steamboat Springs Colorado.  Poor thing, it took her 11 years of living out there to console her self to the point where she could return to the cities.  She did not return to racing until last year when Jen asked her to  the join the Foggy Goggles.

Scott Shields

It’s a small world.  Scott’s nephew and niece, Kevin and Megan Shields, coach the Bloomington Jefferson High School Alpine race team,and are friends of our Stillwater coach Mary Parcheta.  Scott tells me that his goal is to be able to have race times as good as Mary’s.  This is Scott’s second year on the team.

Jen Thorkildson

Again Mark and Jen both qualified for NASTAR Nationals, but, this year they didn’t race.  Both daughter Madi 8 and son Joey 9 qualified.  They stayed with their children and mentored them as they raced.  Joey got the second step on the podium with a silver.  Competition was intense and Madi was only a fraction of a second away from the podium.  Her time was within 5 seconds of pacesetter A.J. Kitt’s pace time.  (A.J. is an Olympic medallist and the national traveling pacesetter)

Mark Thorkildson

Mark and Jen celebrated their 10th  anniversary by buying a condo in Eagle Colorado.  It’s about 20 minutes away from Vail and Beaver creek.  Wife Jen confesses that she is a Norwegian gypsy married to a type “A” Swede.  Poor Mark, now he not only has to make payments on a condo that’s 1,200 miles away, but, he will have to buy four season tickets at almost $700 each.  Jen confess that this year, Mark’s times on the hill are better than hers.

Not Pictured: Tom Arsenault