Ski Tigers win HS State Championships
Tue, Feb 23, 2010 - By Mike Muha
The Michigan High School State Nordic Ski Championships were held Friday and Saturday, February 19 and 20, 2010 in Marquette. Sponsored by the Superiorland Ski Club, the championships consisted of a classic sprint race on Friday and a pursuit race on Saturday.
Sprint Race
Traverse City Central's Hilde Gronvold won the Girls Classic Sprint and also had the best qualifying time of the day. Ruth Oppliger for the Copper Country Ski Tigers was second. Another Traverse City racer, Hannah Meachum from St. Francis was third.
Ann Ward (128, Traverse City Central Trojans) and Molly Tucker (127, Traverse City Central Gold) duke it out in the sprint qualifer round. (photo: Maureen Perkins)
In the Boys Classic Sprint, the top three spots were taken by Ben Noren of Gogebic and two Ski Tigers, Kai Sharp and Elias Featherly. Noren also had the best qualifying time of the day.
Pursuit Race
The pursuit race consisted of the combined times from a skate race followed by a classic race.
Ellee Wiitala (Marquette Senior High School Varsity) won the girls pursuit with the fourth best skate (17:39.3) and fastest classic time (17:48.7) for a combined time of 35:28.0. Ruth Oppliger (Ski Tigers) was second overall in 35:47.2 after winning the skate race in 17:22.6 and finishing fifth in the classic (18:24.6). Rounding out the top three was another Ski Tiger, Emily Humes. Humes was third in the skate (17:38.3) and fourth in the classic (18:21.4) for a combined time of 35:59.7
The boys pursuit was won by Kai Sharp. Sharp had the third fastest skate time (14:23.3) and fastest classic race (18:41.7) for the lowest combined time of 33:04.0. Traverse City Central's Ross Williams was second overall in 33:26.8. Williams had the second fastest skate (14:20.8) and classic (19:06.0) legs. Sprint winner Ben Noren took third with the fastest skate leg of the day (14:13.9) and fourth fastest classic race (19:06.0) for an overall time of 33:51.7.
Raymond Innis from Traverse City Central Trojans makes it to the Quarter Finals in the sprint to take 14th overall. (photo: Maureen Perkins)
Michigan State Team Champions
Overall, the Copper Country Ski Tigers won the Michigan State Championships. The Ski Tigers had both the top girls team (203 points) and top boys team (166 points) to finish the weekend with 369 points.
The Traverse City Central Trojans came in second with 342 points. The Trojans girls and boys both finished second overall with 184 and 158 points respectively.
The Marquette Senior High School Varsity team took third place with 210 points. The girls finished fourth overall (behind the Traverse Cit West Titans) with 141 points. The MSHS boys finished third with 141 points.
Related:
- Photos from the Michigan High School Championships
- Girls Sprint Heat and overall Girls Sprint Results
- Girls Pursuit Results
- Boys Sprint Heat and overall Boys Sprint Results
- Boys Pursuit Results
- Team Results