Century's Soren Krych can't wait for second stab at state Alpine ski meet
Feb. 12—ROCHESTER — Soren Krych reflects on last year's state Alpine ski meet, visualizes his disqualifying slip on his first of two runs, and gets energized.
He really does. It fires him up. It's been that way the past 12 months and is a great reason he's headed back to Tuesday's state meet at Giants Ridge in Biwabik, now better and more motivated than ever.
"I was upset that I fell last year at state and didn't perform like I wanted to," the Century junior said. "That fueled me in the offseason."
It fueled Krych to do a number of things. That included him making steady trips to the weight room to increase his upper- and lower-body strength, as well as a nearly weeklong trip apiece to the mountains of Oregon and Colorado where he refined his downhill skills. The Oregon trip, to Mount Hood, came in June. The Colorado trip, to Loveland, was in late fall.
Now, he's where he wants to be. He's also where first-year Rochester Alpine head ski coach Curt Storlie wants him, looking like the best version of himself.
"Watching video of Soren last year, he looks like a completely different skier now," Storlie said. "He is much more dynamic this season. He was fine last year, but when I look at his video from the state meet, he was skiing tentatively. As a skier, you also have to know your limits, and he can recognize where his line is now and he's done a good job of pushing to (that line)."
On boys and girls Rochester Alpine ski teams that had a number of state-meet hopefuls, Krych will be Rochester's only representative for the second straight year.
As the season progressed and Storlie watched Krych do his thing, he figured that the junior was the one virtual lock to make it.
Storlie watched Krych finish in the top three in all six of the team's regular-season meets and sometimes not far behind the top skier in the state, Hastings' Jackson Reents.
Storlie watched Krych perform even better than that in practices.
That leads Krych and his coach to believe that he's capable of something special at state. It's a matter of duplicating a couple of those practice runs.
That, of course, is often easier said than done. But Storlie says that Krych has greatness in him.
"Soren is absolutely as good as the (best kids) for almost every turn," Storlie said. "But they are just a little bit more consistent than he is. Soren can ski right with (Reents) if he does it at every turn. He has it in him. His upside is enormous."
Krych will show up at Giants Ridge with confidence soaring. His added strength has bolstered him, especially as he pushes off to begin races.
His mind is also on track now after doing lots of skiing visualization excercises, and he's improved technically.
Now, it's just a matter of laying it all out there.
"Last year I was just nervous going into state," Krych said. "I plan to go in with a much more confident mindset this time. I'm ready to give it everything that I have and not be afraid of the name — state. I have confidence now that I can really do well. I'm just really excited to be back at Giants Ridge. I'm excited to prove myself."
