January 2: Skiers begin season Wednesday

By CRAIG OTTO/craig.otto@lee.net

There have been years in the recent past when the Aquinas-Onalaska-West Salem high school skiing team was struggling to conduct meets in January due to warm and dry weather. That won’t be a problem for AOWS this winter, with the squad beginning its season with a Western Conference giant slalom meet at Mount La Crosse at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The AOWS boys return two of six skiers from last year’s state meet, Kaleb Christian and sophomore Nick Mathy, with those two helping AOWS take seventh among 25 teams. Those two will see vastly different roles, however, following the graduation of top skiers Will Mathy and Sam Irons.

“Kaleb is coming along nicely,” AOWS coach Cindy Patza said. “And Nick will be right with Kaleb in terms of times this year. “We won’t be as big of a team on the state level, but we’ll be respectable for sure and build for the future at the same time,” Patza said. “We’ll be solid, but the Eastern side of the state keeps getting more and more intense in regards to skiing.”

AOWS returns its top girls state finisher from a year ago, Kelsey Pischke. The girls will be aided by the addition of Westby to the tri-op this winter, with Katelyn Sherpe and Atle Saterbak among the squad’s 12 girls.

The boys feature approximately 25 skiers. Also back from last year’s girls’ state team is Emily Wittchow.

“Kelsey probably will be our best skier, boy or girl,” Patza said. “She and Katelyn both are looking really good so far.

“We’ve got a ton of snow and a ton of kids out for the team. We’ve got a lot of younger kids, but they’ve got good work ethic.”

The boys snowboarding team returns three of its top four performers from last season’s fourth-place state team, A.J. Petras, Cory Jacobson and Max Irons, though an injury to Jacobson will hurt the squad’s depth. Jacobson is probable to return to the team at some point in January, Patza said. The top AOWS girls snowboarder from last year’s state meet, Anna Kresky, also is back.