It's the final French course for Wayzata cross-country skier

Every time Anna French goes to a state tournament, the Wayzata senior comes home with just a little bit more luggage than she left with.

A slender, almost waifish 5-foot-3, French isn't the physically imposing type one might picture when thinking of one the state's most decorated athletes. But teammates and competitors in two sports have learned not to be mistaken by appearances with French and her dogged focus on her athletic goals.

By the time this week is over, it's a good bet that French will clutching another state championship medal. The Wayzata senior has been a fixture on the girls' cross-country and Nordic skiing teams for the past half-dozen years, joining the varsity as a seventh-grader.

The Trojans have won three consecutive Class 2A cross-country championships, their most recent coming last fall. The Nordic skiing team has kept pace, winning the last two state meet team titles and are heavy favorites to win a third at the state meet on Thursday at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.

Throw in a well-publicized national championship for the cross-country team in 2013 and it's fair to say that French goes with success as well as it does with pastry.

"I've been pretty lucky to have great teammates and older girls I have been able to look up to," French said.

It wasn't always that way. When she first joined the Wayzata cross-country team, winning championships was not even in the conversation.

From those humble days has sprung a juggernaut, whether it be running across wooded trails or skiing through them. The Wayzata girls have become synonymous with endurance-sport success, much of it because of French.

"I remember my first year, when I was just a little seventh-grader who didn't know anything, our goal was just to make the state tournament," French said. "We didn't make it that year, but when we made it the next year, it was such a big thing."

State team titles have gone from nonexistent to normal in the years since. And while French has played a vital role of them all, she has yet to take home an individual state championship in either sport.

She has been close, taking fifth in the 2014 Nordic skiing state meet and seventh in the Class 2A cross-country meet last fall. Always on the short list of potential favorites, French goes into the state meet ranked second and as a two-time Section 2 champion after comfortably defending her title last Thursday.

While individual goals drive French, her overall development and the sheer enjoyment of what she's doing trump all else.

"I just love training," she said. "If I've got some free time, I'll call up a teammate and say 'let's go for a run' or 'let's go ski.' "

Until this year, French thought that her best shot at an individual championship would have been her junior year, when she was touted as a favorite in the Class 2A cross-country field.

"I think I wanted it too much and it got in my head," French said. "And I got sick right before the race, so that didn't help."

She finished a disappointing 14th, deciding then and there that she would never again worry about the outcome instead of the race itself. "That," she admitted, "was probably the hardest one."

For most of her high school career, French has been looked upon as a runner who has become a good skier. She agrees, noting that she will most likely pursue running in college. But her skiing coaches say that, through sheer work ethic, she has willed herself past good and approaches elite status.

"She's stronger than she looks and she obviously has natural talent, but what makes her stand out is that she works very, very hard," Wayzata Nordic skiing coach Larry Myers said. "When she started as a seventh-grader, everybody knew she was already a great runner, but she wasn't a great skier right away. She has gradually made herself into that."

French doesn't deny that she would be thrilled to come home from with an individual crown, but her primary goal is to help Wayzata put the finishing touches on another three-peat.

"I wouldn't trade any of the team championships for an individual one," she said.

Jim Paulsen • 612-673-7737