Superiorland wins HS Championships after 13 year drought

Wed, Mar  5, 2025 - By Mike Muha

The Superiorland Ski Club’s High School Teams are the 2025 Michigan State High School Champions, as the girls and boys team went 1-2 at the Michigan Nordic Skiing State Champions in Houghton this weekend.

SSC claimed the title for the first time since 2012 with several podium finishes on the boys and girls teams.

High School

Senior Monet Argeropoulos claimed all four state titles in the girls races – finishing first place in the classic, sprint, freestyle and pursuit races. Junior Olin Slette took first in the classic race. Podiums at the State Championships include the top six in each race. Other medal winners include: Ida Larsen in second place in the the girls classic, freestyle and pursuit, Evelyn Grant taking third place in the girls classic, freestyle and pursuit, Elisa Malherbe taking fifth place in the girls sprint and sixth place in the classic race, and Rosemary Elenbaas taking sixth place in the sprint race. On the boys side Slette also took fourth in both the boys pursuit and sprint races and sixth in the boys freestyle. Henry Plummer took second in the boys sprint, fourth in the boys freestyle, fifth in the boys pursuit and sixth in the boys classic race. Peter Argeropoulos took sixth in the boys freestyle race.

Both Monet Argeropoulos and Olin Slette head to Soldier Hollow to compete for the Great Lakes Division in the US Ski and Snowboard Junior Nationals next week. Larsen and Plummer will represent the Great Lakes Division in the U18 class at Canadian Nationals in Canmore in two weeks.

Photos by Chris Schmidt

The Vasa Raptors took second overall, winning the boys event. The Raptor girls took third. Olin Kasperowicz won the freestyle and the pursuit, plus finished third in the sprint and third in the Classic. Liam Wierzba was third in the classic and the freestyle, and took second in the Pursuit and fifth in the sprint. Kasperowicz is headed to Junior Nationals.

Emma Dykstra was the top Raptor girl in the sprint, taking 12th. Lulu Cole had the best place - 8th - in both the classic and freestyle. The top girls in the pursuit were Lulu Cole (9th), Isabelle Sketch (10th), and Anabelle Sketch (11th).

In third place was Peninsula Nordic, taking second in the girls competition and fourth in the boys'. The only beat the Copper Country Ski Tigers by a single point. Copper Country took second for the girls and third for the boys. Copper's Birk Seagren won the boy's sprint and took third in the pursuit race (4th in classic and 3rd in the skate race). Seagren is also going to Junior Nationals.

Top Peninsula girls were Allie Pietila and Katelyn Pietila, taking 2nd and 3rd in the sprint, 2nd and third in the classic, and 4th and 5th in the freestyle. They ended up finishing 4th and 5th in the Pursuit. For the boys, Emmet Kangas took 8th in the sprint. Elliot Isaacson was 8th in the classic and 7th in the freestyle, for n 8th in the pursuit.

Middle School

There were also races for middle school. In the girls pursuit, Ava Higley (Crystal Nordic Ski Club) was first, followed by Emm Ziegler (Superiorland Ski Club) and Myla Pietila (Peninsula).

 The boys podium had Gideon Talbot (Copper Country Ski Tigers) in first, followed by Traverse O'Hearn (Vasa Raptors) in second and Paul Isaacson (Peninsula Nordic) in third.

In the sprint, Ava Higley (Crystal Nordic Ski Club) took another first, followed - again - by  Emm Ziegler (Superiorland Ski Club) and Myla Pietila (Peninsula). The boys podium featured the same three skiers as the pursuit, just in a slightly different order. Gideon Talbot (Copper Country Ski Tigers), first followed by Paul Isaacson (Peninsula Nordic) and then Traverse O'Hearn (Vasa Raptors).

2025 Michigan State High School Championship Team Standings

There was also a relay event that was not used for team points (no results seem to be available) and the Sprint was not included in Team Total.

Complete results can be found at https://my.raceresult.com/groups/6500/

The Copper County Ski Tigers have posted lots of photos from the race on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/coppercountryskitigers.

Team	FS Girls	CL Girls	Sprint Girls	Total Girls	Girls Rank	FS Boys	CL Boys	Sprint Boys	Total Boys	Boys Rank	Team Total*	Team Rank
Superiorland Ski Club	6	6	12	24	1	15	14	13	42	2	66	1
Vasa Raptors	29	31	35	95	3	11	18	18	39	1	134	2
Peninsula Nordic	27	32	23	82	2	36	36	40	112	4	194	4
Copper Country Ski Tigers	41	38	42	121	5	26	26	20	74	3	195	3
Ishpeming Ski Club	44	42	31	117	4	51	51	51	150	5	267	5
Crystal Nordic Ski Club	39	40	44	123	6	63	63	58	184	6	307	6
Lake Michigan XC Ski Team	53	53	53	159	7	64	64	64	193	7	352	7

*Team Sprint not included in Team Total