GIANTS RIDGE— While Zoe Devine’s girls title clearly received top billing locally from last week’s Nordic ski state tournament, several other Ely skiers posted strong performances as well, and it helped the Ely girls team finish in eighth place while competing against some of the largest schools in the state.
“It was a great day for the Ely Nordic Wolves and the culminating event for our four senior state skiers,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein. Success comes in many forms, noted Hohenstein, and is different for each athlete.
“All of the skiers participating in the state meet came in with different goals and benchmarks that would define success for them personally.  We try to frame the competition as a chance to publicly show what your best effort is on any given day.  The place that the skier earns is only a product of the effort.”
It turns out that all of Ely’s pursuit racers moved up in the rankings over their appearances at the state tournament last year, and all improved their combined times considerably, thanks in part to the fast snow conditions. Senior Phoebe Helms finished 45th this year, with a combined [classic/freestyle] time of 33:38.0. That was nearly five full minutes faster than her time at the 2022 state tournament, when she finished 53rd.
Junior Claire Blauch shaved more than eight minutes off her combined time from last year, improving her ranking from last year’s 91st to 51st this year. Junior Ava Skustad finished 61st, up from 67th last year, with a combined time of 34:49.6, more than five minutes faster that her 2022 mark. Sophomore Anna Dunn took more than seven minutes off her time, finishing 79th with a combined time of 35:46.9, up from 93rd last year.
The improved performances, combined with the team sprint efforts of Kelly Thompson and Sydney Durkin, who finished 18th with a time of 18:21.43, earned Ely an eighth-place overall team finish in the 16-team field, all of which hail from much larger schools.
While the young Ely boys team didn’t qualify for state competition, Ely sophomore Dylan Durkin qualified as an individual and finished 65th in his first state competition, with a combined time of 29:48.6.
Ely’s continuing success in Nordic skiing has become a tradition that helps build for the future, notes Hohenstein.
“One great outcome of having a successful state meet performance is that it makes talking about next year’s season so easy,” he said. “We know how special an athlete Zoe is and that state championships are rare occurrences for small town programs.  However, the process of setting goals and then working hard to reach that potential, we can do that each year and find success.”