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Skiers shine at Giants Ridge Boys third at mega meet, with Olson, Durkin top individual racers
The Ely boys stood out on Minnesota skiing’s grandest regular season stage, and the Nordic Wolves had a big day overall on Saturday at Giants Ridge.
Fueled by top-10 individual finishes from seniors Dylan Durkin and Eli Olson, the Ely boys took third overall in a field that included most of the state’s top teams.
The girls were 18th on the day, at an event that brought more than 750 skiers to the Iron Range for the premiere meet of the regular season.
“With the field of just over 750 skiers, there ends up being eight different races between the varsity and JV, and we had a top-10 finisher in six of those eight races,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein. “So I’m very happy with the team aspect.”
The Ely boys have been stateranked throughout the year and wound up third at Giant Ridge, behind only megaschools Brainerd and Wayzata.
“You go into a statewide competition hoping that you have a good day, and our seniors really pulled through with their performances,” said Hohenstein. “And that trickled down to our younger guys.”
Durkin led things off and may have set the tone for the day by taking sixth among 113 skiers in the classic event, with a time of 13:47.8.
“Dylan with that morning classic race, he had a kind of tough position going out very early in the field and he ended up having to push himself and his race inspired some of the afternoon races,” said Hohenstein.
Olson matched his classmate by taking sixth in the varsity boys freestyle in 12:27.1.
The Wolves showed off their depth as Oliver Hohenstein placed 30th and Milo McClelland 34th in the classic, while Aksel Skustad completed the freestyle in 12:54.16 to take 17th. Otto Devine was 37th in the freestyle.
The boys’ dominance extended to the junior varsity division, with freshman Wyatt Devine winning the boys JV classic with a time of 14:19.8, nearly a minute in front of his closest foe.
“I can’t go without talking about Wyatt Devine winning the JV boys class,” said Hohenstein. “And he’s coming on very strong and going to be a major factor with the boys team going forward.”
Brooks Brenny of Ely was 11th in the boys JV classic, while Ely’s Tory Hughley was 10th and Tyde Brecke 26th in the JV freestyle boys race.
Duluth East, Proctor-Hermantown and Duluth Marshall were the only area girls teams to finish in front of the Wolves.
Anna Dunn was the top finisher among the Wolves, taking 25th in the classic in 17:23.9. Teammates Rena Johnston (45th) and Aila Harding (82nd) followed. In the varsity girls freestyle event, Ely was led by Anna Larson (52nd), followed by June Nelson (63rd) and Elsa Ellerbroek (77th).
A major highlight for the girls came in the JV classic event, as freshman Mattie Lindsay placed eighth (18:33.2).
“With Mattie in the top 10 in the classic JV race, that was a great performance,” said Hohenstein.
Izzy Macho placed 14th in the same event, while Molly Brophy took ninth in the JV girls freestyle race.
Two home meets?
With much of the area still lacking in snow, there could be not one, but two meets at Hidden Valley this week.
The Ely Invitational, set for Jan. 25 and to include a format that follows postseason competition, is on.
But a Jan. 21 event hosted by Two Harbors can not be held on the North Shore and instead it may be held at Hidden Valley, either on Tuesday or Wednesday.
“They don’t have enough snow so they’re asking to move it here,” said Hohenstein. “There’s a good chance it could be held on Wednesday because of the temperatures. That meet would be pretty low key and we would still do our big event on Saturday.” Olson first at CC
Olson’s big week continued Tuesday with a first place boys finish in the cold at Cook County.
“Eli Olson built off his great racing performance on Saturday and took his first overall varsity win of his racing career, ” said Hohenstein. “Eli found a new boundary of his physical limits. He is becoming more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Many of the other guys also had very strong performances. Our team depth on the boys side is going to be really important as we get into the pursuit racing format at the end of next week.
With a time of 15:30, Olson had a six-second edge on his next closest foe.
Five other Wolves made the top-10, with Skustad in fifth place in 15:56, and Durkin and Otto Devine skiing in 16:03 in a virtual tie for eighth.
Wyatt Devine (eighth, 16:05) and Oliver Hohenstein (ninth, 16:08) followed as Ely nipped Duluth East by a mere three points.
The Ely girls were second behind the Greyhounds and the top varsity finishers were Anna Larson (ninth), Mattie Lindsay (10th) and Anna Dunn (11th).
“The girls team continues to improve and get stronger every day,” said Hohenstein. “Senior Anna Larson had a great race on Tuesday. Skiers usually start the race with another athlete from a different school. Anna started with a very good skier from Proctor and told herself she just wanted to hang on with her as long as she could. She ended up finishing just one second behind her and had a big smile of satisfaction on her face when recounting the race.”
In junior varsity action, Brooks Brenny topped the field and took first in 17:18, with George Sponholz fourth, followed by teammates Oren Solum 10th and Blake Houde 11th.
Macho was seventh among JV girls.
Ely’s junior high girls had the top finisher as Addison Kannas topped a 35-athlete field. Cora Brecke was third with Beck Sponholz in fourth and Ivy Ohlhauser (seventh) and Siiri Nelson (ninth) also making the top-10, Grady Anderson took seventh and was the top Ely junior high boys racer. Teammate Emory Hohenstein wound up 10th.
The Wolves also had to brave the elements, skiing in frigid conditions.
“Our meet today was chilly but the kids skied great,” Hohenstein said after the event. “On cold days at practice, we like to bring up how important it is that we ski when it’s cold because we don’t get to choose what the weather will be like on meet days.
