East notebook: Stillwater skiers rally at Buck Hill

Disappointing finishes at last month's Wild Mountain Invitational had Stillwater's Alpine skiing teams in search of redemption.

The Ponies could not have asked for much more at last week's Buck Hill Invitational. Facing a field of strong teams, both the boys' and girls' teams won their respective team titles.

"I feel like this gave the kids the confidence they needed," said Mary Parcheta, coach of both teams. "This could be a good building block for them."

Senior Blake Radke placed first on the boys' side, followed by sophomore Jay Brooks, Luke Dewall, Scott Sievert, Jamie Crist and Tucker Libby.

The girls followed the lead of junior Carly McDowell. Alexandra Anderson, Claire Carlson, Ally Campbell, Olivia Raedeke and Sydney O'Reilly helped Stillwater edge second-place Benilde-St. Margaret's by less than one second.

"The girls were great but I see them holding back just a little bit," Parcheta said. "We're going to work on that."

The two teams qualified for their respective state meet races last season, with the boys' finishing sixth and the girls' finishing third.

Stillwater won the Wild Mountain Invitational last season, but the girls took third and the boys took fifth last month.

"It might have been a good thing," Parcheta said. "But they have worked hard, and I'm so proud to see them come back and win at Buck Hill."

Park of Cottage Grove senior forward Tina Fisher is out for the basketball season after completely tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee and partially tearing two other ligaments.

Fisher was second on the team in scoring (11.5 points per game) when she suffered the injury on Dec. 22 against Minneapolis South. She will have surgery in February to repair her ACL and hopes to be healed by next fall. She signed to play basketball at Ohio University.

Entering this week, New Life Academy senior guard Jenny Ramey ranks as the fourth-best scorer on her team, but no one in program history is more prolific.

Ramey recently reset the program record for career points, passing former No. 1 Bethany Woelffer (1,230 points). Ramey currently has 1,278 points.

New Life Academy, located in Woodbury, is 8-3 and led by Cara Lutes (14.4 points per game), Danielle Schmidt (13.7), Rebekah Schmidt (11.1) and Ramey (9.6).