Battle Mountain girls Nordic team wins Colorado High School 撸先生 League meet in Leadville
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
In terms of grip waxing, falling snow often presents a Nordic nightmare. On a picturesque winter Saturday in Leadville, however, skis achieved the magical 鈥� and paradoxical 鈥� slick and sticky status, especially for Battle Mountain.
“It was pretty good. On the hills we had good wax,” Ruthie DeMino said after leading the Huskies to a team victory with her fifth-place overall finish in the Colorado High School 撸先生 League 6.6-kilometer classic wave start at Colorado Mountain College.
“Our coaches like to tell us there’s no such thing as bad wax, only weak arms 鈥� but I feel like it was good wax this race,” Bella Williams added after coming through in sixth.
The Huskies put four scorers in the top-12, with Eden Demino and Eliza Pyke placing eighth and 12th, respectively, to total 213 points. Lake County, which had a couple key cogs competing at a Junior National Qualifier race the following day, finished second with 209 and Middle Park was third at 198. Summit’s Ella Hagen won the individual race by a wide margin, completing the two-lap course in 27 minutes, 10.0 seconds.
“Definitely some challenging aspects with the weather, snowing off and on,” said Hagen, who used the unrelenting climbs to win her third race of the season.
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“It was a good reminder to keep working hard, keep pushing all the sections. Especially on this course, there’s not a lot of rest,” Hagen continued. “I try to lean onto the kick side because I know the climb is going to be more of my strength rather than the descent.”
Groups of four departed the start area in 1-minute increments. Hagen said for the most part she disregarded her competitors and approached the race like a true individual start.
“Just hunt down as many people as I could,” the defending state skate champion said. “I told myself to take it easy on the first lap. (I) kind of didn’t end up doing that, but definitely wanted to push the second lap hard and try to cement the pressure on all the groups.”
Lake County’s Aimee Lenhard (28:17.3) finished second and Poudre’s Ellayna Potter (28:19.0) rounded out the podium.
“I think it went really well for all of us. We all crossed the finish line smiling,” said Potter, whose team was fourth overall.
“This is a really high elevation race for us 鈥� we came up like 5,000 feet 鈥� so we just had to start off a lot slower than we probably would have liked to, but I think it worked out in the long run.”
While fresh, falling snow at 10,200 feet typically is sandpaper slow, Saturday’s powder was moist and fast and allowed athletes to stride-and-glide smoothly up the major climb opening each lap. A fast descent sent skiers into a wall, but after the herringbone section, a gradual kick double-pole ascent went right into a long, flowing downhill back to the campus.
“Just a fun experience once you got into the race,” added Potter’s senior teammate Diana Hunt. “A lot of nerves before, but it was good overall.”
Eagle Valley placed eighth in the team scoring, with Hailey Ehman (34:46.8), Eva Klesner (35:15.5), Tovah Pollack (35:36.6) and McKinley Packert (41:07.8) scoring in 31st, 37th, 40th and 54th, respectively.
Battle Mountain has finished either . In addition to claiming the first win of the year, head coach Lisa Isom was happy to see some athletes punch their tickets to the state meet Feb. 27-28 in Steamboat Springs.
“We see the same kids qualify week after week, and we love to show up to these last races of the year and see who can make it in,” she said before adding that while the girls team is smaller than previous seasons, the Huskies have qualified the same number to state as they did last year, when they won the skate and classic team titles.
“Which means our girls just stepped up and stepped up,” she said. “It bodes well for the future of the program.”
Team
- Battle Mountain – 213
- Lake County- 209
- Middle Park – 198
- Poudre – 189
- Summit – 187
- Steamboat – 156
- Nederland – 137
- Eagle Valley – 133
- CRMS – 110
- Clear Creek – 109
Top-10 individuals
- Ella Hagen, Summit – 27:10.0
- Aimee Lenhard, Lake County – 28:17.3
- Ellayna Potter, Poudre – 28:19.0
- Susie Bullock, Lake County – 29:56.1
- Ruthie DeMino, Battle Mountain – 30:16.1
- Bella Williams, Battle Mountain – 30:23.9
- Corinne Schmanke, Middle Park – 30:40.7
- Eden DeMino, Battle Mountain – 30:44.8
- Marin Little, Summit – 31:07.7
- Anna Lantermans, Middle Park – 31:15.5
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Eden DeMino of Battle Mountain tackles the steepest hill on the Colorado Mountain College course.
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
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Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
