Nordic skiers compete at state meet

The Sisters High Nordic ski team completed its season at the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association-Nordic (OISRAN) State Championships held February 24-25 at Mt. Bachelor.

Ella Bartlett finished in the top quarter, in 20th place among 82 racers, in Friday’s five-kilometer skate race in a time of 19:59.4. Nevaeh McAfee placed 64th in 27:59.

Neve Gerard of Bend High School won the race handily in a time of 14:35.6, nintety seconds ahead of runner-up Piper Widmer, also of Bend High.

In Saturday’s four-kilometer classic race, Bartlett placed 23rd in the field of 84 with a time of 21:43.3, while McAfee took sixty-fourth in 28:32.6.

Gerard and Widmer once again took the two top spots leading Bend High to the team title over Summit and nine other teams.

Spencer Tisdel led the boys team with a 26th-place finish on Friday in a time of 17:41.3. John Berg came through next (21:03.8) in 51st, and Jack Turpen took 64th in 24:30.1.

Reed Wuepper of Summit edged Fergus Wang of Hood River Valley by 0.6 seconds to win the individual title in 13:42.5.

In Saturday’s classic race the trio finished in the same order, as Tisdel clocked 20:10, Berg 22:46, and Turpen 26:16.

Zachary Shockey of Mountain View High School held off Wuepper by 15 seconds to win in 13:48.1.

Summit won the boys team title over Bend and four other teams.

During the awards ceremony freshman Weston Dean was named one of the most improved skiers for the season.

Head Coach Jeff Husmann said, “We’ll continue to build the program. These kids showed great heart and improvement. We shared a lot of kids with the Alpine team, which resulted in some schedule conflicts, but I’m certain we will come back bigger and stronger next year.”