GIANTS RIDGE— The Ely girls Nordic ski team is headed to next week’s state tournament for the second straight year, after finishing second in the Section 7 meet held here on Wednesday. The young Ely boys team narrowly missed their bid for a state berth, finishing a close third behind Duluth East and Mora.

“In the end, it was a great day for the program,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein. “It all came together for the Ely ski community.”

Ely senior Zoe Devine continued her recent dominance in the section and heads into next week’s state tournament as one of the top female high school skiers in Minnesota. Devine, who finished sixth in the pursuit competition at last year’s state tournament, looks poised to move up in the ranking in her final season as a high school skier. She took first in the pursuit on Wednesday, with a combined time of 32:39, a full 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Rowan Bixler of Duluth East.

Bixler did manage to beat Devine in the freestyle portion of the pursuit competition, but Devine blew the field away in the classic portion with a time of 16:02, topping the second-place finisher by a full 40 seconds.

“Zoe had a great day,” said Hohenstein, who noted that Devine brings the full package to excel as an athlete. “The formula that physical fitness plus ski technique equals a great skier is missing a big variable,” noted Hohenstein. “The missing piece to the equation is mental toughness. It is also the one variable that can be affected on race day. Zoe put two great races together and maintained her personal standard.”

While Devine led the way for Ely, she had plenty of backup. Fellow senior Phoebe Helms, who has been recovering from an early season injury, posted one of her best outings of the season, finishing eighth in the pursuit with a combined time of 35:32.

“Phoebe put it all together with a top season performance,” said Hohenstein. “I think all the senior girls who skied today had a little something extra to put out there. I saw evidence of that in the pursuit and in the sprint relay with Kelly [Thompson] and Sydney [Durkin].”

Hohenstein said he was equally impressed with the results of the sophomore-dominated boys team.  “As I've said before, we are a young team and there was a lot of learning going on. But I like to look at the fact that in the section most of the field is dominated by juniors and senior level athletes.  Of the dozen or so sophomores that competed yesterday, Ely's sophomores were the top four.” Hohenstein said he’s excited to see what boys team can accomplish over the next couple years.

Wednesday’s competition was held under unusually warm conditions, which can greatly complicate waxing. Hohenstein said the conditions simply emphasized the importance of the work done behind the scenes to ensure that the skiers can compete under the best circumstances possible. “With three different races, including classic, skate sprint, skate pursuit, we had three different combinations of ski prep,” noted Hohenstein. “There is a ton of work behind the scenes done by coaches and volunteers to test and wax the athletes’ skis.”