Brookfield East Skiier Claims 2nd State Championship

Just stand up.

You see, it’s not always the fastest who wins the crown, or the smartest who wears the special gown. Life often picks off the best and brightest with its remarkable array of obstacles and challenges, and success comes to those who remain standing, day after day, while others fall away.

Brookfield East junior Erica Engstrand gleaned this lesson from the parents she admires. Her mother was a migrant worker from Texas, off to the fields at age 11. She endured, completed medical school and became an anesthesiologist. Erica’s father, son of a construction worker, is now a general surgeon.

Erica might not face similar challenges in everyday life, but the perseverance she saw in her parents’ lives works well on the ski slopes. On Feb. 20 at Mt. LaCrosse, Erica stayed upright while rivals fell to capture her second consecutive female overall title in the Wisconsin High School Ski Championships.

The 17-year-old took third in the slalom, fourth in the giant slalom and sixth in the Super G; the sum of her three finishes gave her 13 points, best in the competition.

“My goal this year was to stay in the game,” said Engstrand, who added that she hadn’t fallen in a race since December. “I didn't necessarily go for it, but I wanted to be consistent. I wanted to stand up and not fall."

By skiing fast but avoiding the big mistake, she bested her friend and training partner Sydney Rogers of Kettle Moraine, who won the slalom and was second in the giant slalom, but fell during the Super G in tough conditions after heavy snows softened the course.

It was a near repeat of 2010, when Engstrand won the slalom, took fourth in the giant slalom and eighth in the Super G, again scoring 13 points. Danielle Dawson of Kettle Moraine won the giant slalom and the Super G, but was 35th in the slalom.

"I knew what happened to Danielle the year before,” Engstrand said. “This year I had so much going against me, so much pressure going against me, I just wanted to get down the hills."

Engstrand began skiing at age 4 and progressed up through Wisconsin Junior Racing and the United States Ski Association. She qualified for the Junior Olympics Championships four consecutive years, and said those early teen years were when she really took to the sport.

Bill Wong is her coach at the private Ausblick Ski Club in Sussex and has known Engstrand for seven years. He has seen the same perseverance and competitiveness that helped her win the state high school titles.

"Skiing is a lot about taking a risk and exploring your comfort zone," he said. "Many times, an athlete will have things that don’t go necessarily their way. The strength of a competitor is one where they accept some of the challenges … and they get up and make it happen."

Wong recalled a Junior Olympics championship meet a few years back in Vail. It came on the heels of a bad fall for Engstrand, and then her grandfather died just before the meet. Yet she toughed it out and had a very good performance, Wong said.

Engstrand's non-school races now are part of the International Ski Federation, (FIS), which is the world’s governing body. She went to a meet in Steamboat Springs, CO, in December but mostly competes in the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Michigan area. FIS ranks skiers through a countdown point system, and Engstrand said she has lowered her slalom points down around 70, which is creeping into the level equal to most NCAA Division III skiers. Slalom is her favorite event.

“It’s more fast-paced, and there’s a lot of fast-twitch,” she said. “I’ve always had good agility.

“Slalom is so creative. There’s so many different ways you can set up a slalom course.”

She is happy to have won state again but can’t help feeling Rogers, who like Engstrand skis at Ausblick, was better.

“I was really set on being second because of my friend Sydney,” she said. “I feel like she deserves it a little more than me.”

Also a competitor in lacrosse and tennis for Brookfield East, Engstrand plays for the orchestra that performs in Carnegie Hall over spring break. So achievement is nothing new. She said she’s “fascinated” by medicine but has no plans to be a surgeon. Law is also a career interest.

"She balances a lot," said Wong, who praised the support of parents Dave and Gracie Engstrand. "She’s got a lot of things she has to keep organized.

"To balance all those things at her age is pretty remarkable, and then also to perform well in ski racing."