Nordic skiers complete season

Illness took its toll on the Sisters Nordic Ski team in its final competition of the season at the Oregon High School Nordic/Northwest Ski Championships held at Mt. Bachelor February 21 and 22.

The girls team was short its No. 2 skier in Courtney Blust and fell to fourth place overall among six OHSNO teams behind Summit, Redmond and Bend.

Molly Blust led the way for the team, placing second in Saturday's five-kilometer skate race (17:18). Backing her up were Amity Calvin in ninth (19:50) and Janelle Hjelmstad (20:32) in 11th.The race winner, Bella Smith of Summit, clocked 15:14.

The 3x1 kilometer relay team, made up of the same trio, placed third behind Redmond and Summit. Times were not available.

"I had a real feeling of elation that our relay team placed third," said Hjelmstad. "The relay is pretty intense."

In Sunday's 7.5-kilometer classic race, Blust placed fourth in 32:17 behind three Summit skiers lead by winner Smith in 26:30. Calvin and Hjelmstad placed 19th and 22nd.

The boys only had Wes Ford for one of the two days due to illness, which hampered their team effort as they finished fourth among four OHSNO teams in the standings. Parker Bennett just missed the top 10, finishing 11th in Saturday's skate race in 16:02.

Pat Madden led a sweep of the top eight placed by Summit in 13:09.

Wes Ford, only nine seconds back, placed 14th in a highly competitive field. Alex Yinger completed the scoring for Sisters, placing 18th in 17:08.

Bennett, Yinger and Ford placed third among four teams in the 3x1 kilometer relay. Bennett showed great consistency, placing 11th in Sunday's classic race, matching his place of the previous day. His time of 28:13 was 40 seconds ahead of Yinger, who finished 14th. Madden won the race in 22:19.

Jake Lasken came up strong for the Outlaws with a 19th place finish in 31:37.

Also competing for the Outlaws were Andy Thomas, Mason Calmettes, Remington Bruce and Jenna Rheuben.

Coach Tom Blust felt his team competed well despite some hardships.

"We weren't as well physically as we would have liked, but the effort put out by all of the Outlaw skiers was very strong," he said.