Xavier’s Lenss has passion for skiing

CEDAR RAPIDS - Although Cedar Rapids does not have a cross country ski team, that has not stopped Megan Lenss.

Lenss, a junior at Xavier High School, moved to Iowa last year from Rochester, Minn. Cross country skiing is a popular sport in Minnesota. As a ninth grade student in Rochester, Lenss found many of her cross country teammates also were on the cross country ski team.

That appealed to her.

'I was like I can do it, I can do anything,” Lenss said. 'So I went to this park all by myself and I followed these two men and I watched their form. So I'd be like, OK they're pulling, I'm going to pull, OK they're stepping. That's how I learned how to ski.”

Lenss joined a ski team, consisting of 200 others. They were required to practice three days a week right after school until sundown. She also practiced on her own by watching her friends ski and mimicking their form.

'There's a form involved,” she said. 'Everyone can run, but to be a fast skier you have to have good form. Fast form makes a fast skier and that's tough.”

All of her hard work and practicing paid off. By the end of her first season, she was able to win a junior varsity race. At the beginning of her sophomore year, she moved to Cedar Rapids but was not ready to give up her cross country ski team. Her family encouraged her passion and drove her up for a few competitions. She also was able to attend a ski camp at Maplelag Resort.

This season, Lenss plans on skiing as much as she can and making it back up to Minnesota to go to Maplelag Resort with her team.