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Riding a snowmobile is a rare combination of being exciting, often exhilarating, and a uniquely high-tech way to have fun. Taken to extremes, the snow machine you buy from a dealer is close to being high-performance enough to race.

The most sophisticated snowmobile racing is conducted in the AMSOIL Snocross Nationals, and the season-opening event is annually held at Spirit Mountain on Thanksgiving weekend. It happened again this year, and was even more spectacular than usual.

Usually, Tucker Hibbert of Pelican Rapids rides his Arctic Cat to victory in the Pro Open category, for the top professional racers. He won Saturday’s feature, indicating it might be more of the same this year. But Tim Tremblay won the Dominator sprint race Friday night on his Ski-Doo, and Polaris rider Kody Kamm won Sunday’s final finale.

Kamm had to hold off the charging Hibbert Sunday, but the highlight of the weekend was that all three top manufacturers – Arctic Cat, Polaris and Ski-Doo – shared the top prize money with different winning performances each day. Polaris, of course, is made in Roseau, while Arctic Cat is built in Thief River Falls.

Another key element of the race weekend was to gain further appreciation for the amateur classes – Pro Am Women, Pro Lite, Sport Lite, Junior, and the age categories for boys and girls. All of them competed on the well-groomed track atop Spirit Mountain.

The Saturday half of the event will be televised by CBS-Sports on December 12 at 9 a.m., and the 14th at 10 p.m., and the Sunday final day on December 19 at 9 a.m., and again on the 21st at 10 p.m.

Randolph: No More Scrimmages

Duluth East kicked off another big season last Saturday by beating Wayzata 4-1 at Heritage Arena. But something was missing.

Missing from East’s lineup were a few players, most notably forward Luke Dow and defenseman Alex Spencer, both seniors. A string of injuries knocked out several players during some preseason scrimmages, which have long been coach Mike Randolph’s maneuver to get the Greyhounds ready for what is annually the toughest schedule in the state.

“Next year, I’m not scrimmaging,” Randolph said after the Wayzata game. “We’re missing seven players, although some of them are back now. But it’s getting ridiculous. I’ve got control of my players.”

Randolph wouldn’t say which teams got carried away and led to enough injuries that he had to cancel a scrimmage last week. The season is hectic enough, as East played at Cambridge Tuesday, and will play at Apple Valley Thursday, then come home to Heritage to face Andover at 1 p.m. Saturday.

This is looking like a strong season for East, and for Grand Rapids, Hermantown, and maybe Cloquet-Esko-Carlton before it’s over. In East’s case, watching the Wayzata game was impressive.

Brendan Baker scored two goals in a 3-goal second period, while Ian Mageau and Ryan Peterson got the others, and goaltender Kirk Meierhoff was solid. Here’s the bottom line: Baker was solid, and a little lucky, by getting his second goal off the stick of a defenseman, but he was not listed on the East roster. He is a ninth-grader, listed on the adjacent junior varsity. But getting a chance to play – possibly because of the injuries – Baker is going to make it difficult for Randolph to send him back to JV.
Mageau is a sophomore, Meierhoff a junior, and Peterson a senior, but the lineup is indicative of East’s talent and depth.

Hermantown, by the way, remains in Class A while arch-rival Marshall moves up to Class AA. But the class system was proven imperfect Friday, when the Hawks beat Wayzata from Class AA 5-3 with Ryan Sandelin scoring the last two goals after Wayzata had scored twice in the third period for a 3-3 tie.

UMD Teams Offer Post-Holiday Feast

For those sports fans who think UMD’s schedule alternates between feast and famine, this weekend definitely falls on the “feast” side of the ledger.

First off, there still is football. Remember football? The Bulldogs are off to play Emporia State in the Mineral Water Bowl on Saturday after resting up over Thanksgiving weekend.

But right here at home, it will be difficult if not impossible to catch even a glimpse of everything going on.

Friday, for example, you can go to AMSOIL and watch UMD’s women face St. Cloud State at 3 p.m., then you could run over to Canal Park for a little dinner, and come back to watch the UMD men face Western Michigan at 7. That same routine follows on Saturday, with the women playing at 3 and the men at 7.
On the other hand, you could head up to Romano Gym, where the UMD women play Minnesota-Crookston at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by the men’s teams from both schools playing at 8. On Saturday, both are home again, with the women playing Bemidji State at 4, and the men playing Bemidji at 6.
Last weekend, the women’s hockey team was able to spring a 4-2 victory over Harvard before losing 4-1 in the nonconference series at AMSOIL Arena.

It was a major victory for UMD, because new coach Maura Crowell and her whole staff came in from Harvard for this season, and none of them really expected to knock off the Crimson. Assistant Laura Bellamy is from Duluth, of course, and Samantha Reber just finished playing at Harvard last year.

Freshman goaltender Maddie Rooney had an outstanding day, with 28 saves, but the aroused Bulldogs outshot the Crimson 37-30. It was 1-1 after one, and 2-2 after two, before Ashleigh Brykaliuk’s second goal of th game put UMD ahead 3-2 in the third, and Catherine Daoust’s power-play goal cinched it.


On Saturday, Harvard coach Katey Stone convinced her skaters to not allow their former staffers to have too much fun for the weekend, and the Crimson jumped ahead 2-0 in the first period, and Grace Zarzecki knocked in a rebound to make it 3-0 after two. Harvard countered Lara Stalder’s third-period goal with another tally for the 4-1 triumph.

Rooney faced some tough shots, as the Crimson moved the puck efficiently, even though they were outshot 31-26 by UMD.

UMD’s basketball teams also were home last Saturday for their home Northern Sun openers. The women suffered a 65-53 loss in their half of the St. Cloud State doubleheader, but the men stopped the Huskies 68-66.