GIANTS RIDGE— Where there’s a will there’s a way and the Timberwolves Nordic ski team found more than one way to qualify for the state ski meet at sectional competition last Wednesday, Feb. 7.
Both boys and girls skiers qualified to take part in the state ski meet, set for Feb. 14-15, again at Giants Ridge. Results of that contest won’t be available until after this week’s Timberjay presstime but will be available online at timberjay.com as well as in the Feb. 23 print edition.
Outstanding Ely
performances
The Ely boys pursuit team notched their best outing of the season at the Section 7 meet, finishing five skiers in the top 15 to qualify for state as a team. Several Ely boys have been steadily improving all season and they continued to outperform expectations at the section meet. Junior Dylan Durkin finished in fourth place overall with a combined time of 27:57, cracking the Duluth East juggernaut that has dominated the top five in competitions leading up to sections.
Right behind was standout Ely freshman Oliver Hohenstein, who powered to a sixth-place finish with a time of 28:06. Junior Milo McClelland, who has shown remarkable improvement in recent weeks, finished in ninth place with a time of 28:52. Junior Eli Olson finished 11th out of 44 racers, in a time of 28:56, while freshman Caleb Larson took 15th with a time of 30:15.
The boys pursuit team used a strong skate performance to boost their rankings in the wake of the classic race earlier in the day. The final pursuit time is a combination of the racers’ classic and skate performances.
Meanwhile, Ely’s dynamic duo in the sprint relay competition, Aksel Skustad and Silas Solum, notched Ely’s top Nordic finish of the day, as they outpaced the Duluth East sprinters by 14 seconds to finish first in the competition with a time of 14:48. They’ll be moving on as a relay team to the state competition as well.
On the girls side, senior sprinters Ava Skustad and Claire Blauch finished second behind the Duluth East pair to qualify for state in the sprint relay competition.
Head Coach Todd Hohenstein said the girls relay finish was a nice surprise, but was consistent with the team’s approach to competition. “We have talked about having clear goals for both teams all throughout the season,” said Hohenstein. “Knowing what you collectively want to achieve makes putting in the time training much easier.”
That approach proved its value in last week’s sectional competition. “The boys team has had their sights on a second place finish at sections since last season,” said Hohenstein. “This is a group of boys who wrote down on paper in November of 2022 what they wanted to accomplish in February of 2024. They’re a special group that takes the concept of team to its best outcome. That doesn’t mean we don’t have our ups and downs, but these guys are skiing for each other out there and when they do that, they ski fast.”
Hohenstein used the same goal-oriented approach with the girls team. “We decided a couple weeks ago that our senior girls would have the best chance of qualifying for state as a relay team,” he said, a premise that proved right on target. “They both made the transition to the relay seamlessly. We spent a few sessions working on handoffs, which neither of the girls had experience with, and in a short time they looked very comfortable.  They were very happy with their second-place finish to one of the best relay teams in the state with Duluth East.”
In the pursuit, Ely’s girls team finished in the middle of pack, although three skiers made it into the top 25 among the 50 racers in the field. Junior Anna Dunn notched Ely’s best performance, finishing 15th with a combined time of 35:54, about five and a half minutes back of first place finisher Della Bettendorf, a junior from Proctor-Hermantown. Ely junior Anna Larson came in 19th with a time of 36:58, while Junior Rena Johnston finished 21st with a time of 37:25.