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AOTW: Lake Orion’s Dohm skies to state title on final run

Dan Stickradt | March 1, 2012 | Comments (1)

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

HARBOR SPRINGS, Mich. — Marie Dohm was accustomed to walking off the slopes this season and hearing the announcers read off the times of the competitors. So when they didn’t read hers following her second run of the giant slalom at Nub’s Knob, she was confused.

Actually, nervous and anxious would be more fitting for the situation.

“For some reason they forgot to read of my time. They usually do that within a minute or so after you race,” said Dohm, a Lake Orion senior. “They didn’t do it this time and I was confused. I thought there was a problem that I didn’t know about.”

The wait turned out to be well worth it.

Dohm’s second run of 26.76 was the second fastest of the run. Combined with her 25.99 in her first run of GS, Dohm posted a 52.75 clocking, good enough to win the individual state championship.

With the win, Dohm became the first female skier in school history to win an individual state title in skiing and she became the Dragons’ first female athlete to win a state crown since track standout Ashley Patton won the Division 1 title in the 800 meters a decade ago.

“When they finally announced it, I knew I had a great chance,” she said. “They made me wait about 20-25 minutes until I found out that I won. It was nerve-wracking.”

Dohm won by less than two-tenths of a second, as runner up Whitney Stilwell of Marquette finished with a combined time of 52.90. Mallory Slicker of Walled Lake Central was close behind in third place (53.05).

“It was so close,” sighed Dohm. “That means if I had one little (stumble) on the hill, I wouldn’t have won.”

Dohm’s goal was to just finish off prep her career with a top 10 finish, and she did more than that with a state title and two top-10 showings. For good measure, Dohm also finished seventh in the slalom (1:17.30).

“Sure, I wanted to finish in the top 10 in both races, but I honestly didn’t really expect to finish in the top 10 of the slalom,” she added. “That made it even better. I was really hoping that I could get into the top five in the GS, but I would have been happy with just a top-10 finish. I had never finished in the top-10 in the state before. Winning the state title…I wasn’t really expecting that.”

FAST TRACK: Lake Orion's Marie Dohm emerged as the Division 1 giant slalom state champion at Nub's Knob this season. Courtesy Photo | Dan Teetor, Digital Outdoors, www.digitaloutdoors.com

Dohm was a four-time state qualifier during her high school career.

She was 20^th in the GS as a freshman, was 12^th in the GS and 50^th in the slalom as a sophomore and came back and finished 12^th as a junior in the slalom.

Dohm earned multiple honors in her prep career, including All-State, All-County, All-North Oakland Area, All-Pine Knob Division and All-Region and will also earn those same honors this season as well.

Next year, she plans on racing with the club team at Michigan State.

“That should be a lot of fun,” she laughed. “Racing in college will be fun. I still want to compete. But it won’t quite be like racing high school. It won’t be like winning a state championship.”

Winning a state championship is an once-in-a-lifetime groove for Marie Dohm.

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Tags: Athlete of the Week, featured, High School Skiing, Lake Orion Skiing, Marie Dohm, Prep Skiing, skiing