Nordic skiers place second in race

The Sisters boys and girls Nordic teams both finished as runners-up to the Redmond Panthers at the Northern Division Championship Pursuit Race held at Hoodoo on Saturday, February 11.

The finish gave the Outlaws their highest combined placing in school history. The teams have a week off before the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association State Championships set for February 24-25 at Mt. Hood.

Redmond’s boys, led by Martin Aulie and Max Foster, swept the top five individual places and six of the top seven to dominate the event, which included a three-kilometer classic race followed by a three-kilometer freestyle pursuit.

Aulie won the race in 18:19 with Foster nipping at his skis in 18:21. Kelly Crowther, the Outlaws’ leader all season, finished sixth (20:24) and teammates Jacob Evan (21:02), Jeremy Evan (21:51), and Stefan Redfield (22:31) swept places eight through 10. Wesley Ford placed 13th (23:49) and Kyle Rickards 15th (24:17) among the 18 finishers.

Redmond blasted all four complete teams with a perfect score of six, followed by Sisters (21), Corvallis (35) and Cleveland (45).

Redmond swept the top three places in the girls’ race to wax the rest of the competition, but the Outlaws’ Audrey Tehan, Molly Blust, and Jena Rickards were the next three in to secure the team’s second-place finish.

Tehan (23:49) edged the freshman Blust (23:50) and Rickards was just 11 seconds back (24:01) for Sisters.

Redmond scored a perfect six to win the team trophy, followed by Sisters (18), Crescent Valley (33), St. Mary’s Academy (58) and ACMA (61). Sarah Hartley claimed the individual title in 21:45. Maren Burck placed 15th (26:23), Kirsti Burck 20th (27:31), Erin Kanzig 22nd (28:06), Mac Gould 31st (30:01), Rachel Sims 33rd (30:44), Nikki Thomas 34th (31:21) and Ryanne Conrads 37th (32:12) among the 46 finishers.

In pursuit races start times are established by finish times in the previous race. In other words the fastest finisher of the first race gets to start ahead of the next starter by his or her margin of victory in the first race. Everyone is “pursuing” the racers that beat them in the previous race.

Without a senior on either squad, Lee Fischer is both pleased with his young skier’s results and the fact that they will all return next year.

“I’m anxious to see how they stack up against the Southern Division teams at State in two weeks,” he said. “I think they will surprise some people and gain some invaluable experience.”