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Boys eighth in state meet Skustad/Solum relay overcomes penalty scare as Ely moves up
Ely’s potent sprint relay duo of Aksel Skustad and Silas Solum survived a penalty score and finished fourth Thursday at the state meet at Giants Ridge - and that performance had huge implications for the Nordic Wolves overall.
The relay score lifted the Ely boys by five spots in the team standings, and the young Wolves finished an impressive eight out of 16 teams at the single-class state competition near Biwabik.
The Wolves were in 13th place after Wednesday’s individual competition, but coach Todd Hohenstein indicated afterward that there was room for his team to move up.
He proved to be correct as Skustad and Solum teamed up to take fourth in the finals in 12:15.03, about 20 seconds behind first-place Brainerd, with Duluth East in second and the Wolves less than three seconds behind the pair from Orono/Delano.
But the championship heat appearance nearly didn’t happen, as the Wolves were initially penalized by 15 seconds in Thursday morning’s preliminary heat.
The penalty would have been enough to keep the Wolves out of the final eight and the championship heat, but Hohenstein successfully appealed the decision, which was the result of an awkward handoff.
“We were in limbo there for awhile,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein.
An official first ruled that Solum intentionally got in the way of a Brainerd skier during an exchange, but Hohenstein appealed and the state meet “jury” agreed with the Wolves’ interpretation.
“The biggest thing was I thought it should be classified as a ski altercation, which did not change the outcome of the race, where an intentional obstruction by definition changes the outcome of a race,” said Hohenstein. “Because Brainerd got first place in the relay they ended up reversing (the penalty).”
Ely moved on, and Skustad and Solum came up with a huge effort in the finals.
“We had that snafu with the first race and that kind of threw another element in there, but when they got back the chance to ski I think it helped motivate them,” said Hohenstein.
The top-eight finish at state was perhaps a sign of things to come for the Wolves, who did not have a senior on their roster at state.
The relay was made up of a freshman (Skustad) and junior (Solum), while junior Dylan Durkin took 52nd overall individually with freshman Oliver Hohenstein 56th and junior Eli Olson 58th.
The rest of the roster was made up of freshmen Milo McClelland and Caleb Larson.
• The Wolves also had a girls relay at state - the all senior combination of Claire Blauch and Ava Skustad.
They were knocked out after the preliminary heats, finishing 13th in a field of 24 with a combined time of 15:57.62.
They qualified for state after taking second in Section 7.
“They had a good race,” said Hohenstien. “I think they both felt satisfied with that being their final race. There was nothing left undone. It was a great culmination to two very successful skiers for the Ely Nordic Wolves.”
