SARTELL -- The Sartell/Cathedral Nordic Ski Team has a new home for practices and meets.

A ribbon cutting was held in Sartell Monday for a new Nordic Ski Trail. The trail is near the soccer fields east of the old Sartell High School.

Head Coach Joe Teff says besides using the trail for practices, they plan to hold their first two meets at the location.

We are going to have our first two races here. They are going to be pretty short but they always were when we made snow. They will be sprint races where people can just come and ski.

The ski trail was made possible thanks to some funding by local donors and the partnership between the St. Cloud Nordic Ski Club, the city of Sartell and Sartell-St. Stephen school district.

Teff says he doesn't view the trail as an advantage, but rather as way to help them stay competitive.

I wouldn't say it's that much of a leg up, but rather we are more competitive with the folks in the Twin Cities and up north that get more regular snow than we do.

Teff says the course is just under 1K and once the actual snow falls the course will extend behind the school lengthening the trail to about a 5K.

The Sartell/Cathedral team has been practicing on the snow-cover trails since last Monday. Their first meet on the new trail course will be December 5th.

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