The Soldotna boys and Kenai Central girls were fastest among peninsula teams on Thursday, the first day of the state cross-country skiing meet at Kincaid Park in Anchorage.
The Kenai girls finished eighth overall among 17 full varsity teams on the first day of the three-day meet with a team time of 1 hour, 24 minutes, 5.1 seconds, which was about 11:21 behind the top team of West Anchorage.
In the state Skimeister standings, Jenna Difolco of West Valley led after one day, narrowly beating West’s Molly Gellert by a half second to win the 5-kilometer classic race in 17:35.2. Magdalen York of West finished five seconds behind Difolco. The top nine skiers enter Friday’s 7.5K girls freestyle race with less than a minute separating them.
Riana Boonstra led all peninsula skiers with an 18th-place finish for Kenai, 1:45 behind the leader.
The Homer girls were next fastest from the peninsula at 13th, while Soldotna sat 14th after day one. Kellie Arthur ended up 33rd to lead SoHi with a time of 20:31.3, while Katia Holmes paced Homer in 45th. Ruby Lindquist finished 35th for Seward, 3:06 behind the leader.
Gus Schumacher of Service won the boys 7.5K classic race with a time of 19:32.8 to take the lead in the battle for the state Skimeister award, beating West’s Luke Jager by 4.4 seconds. Hunter Wonders of South took third, 25 seconds behind.
The Region III champion Soldotna boys finished the first day ninth among 16 schools in the team standings, almost 11 minutes behind the leading Service boys. Koby Vinson led the Stars with a 23rd-place finish, 2:41 behind the leader, while Kenai’s Karl Danielson finished a tenth of a second ahead in 22nd to lead all peninsula boys. Danielson is fresh off a Region III Skimeister title.
The Stars added two more skiers in the top-36, with Jeremy Kupferschmid and Addison Downing rounding out the order within 3:30 of the leader. Jacob Davis led Homer in 51st, while Egor Sturdy brought home a 93rd-place result for Seward.
The state meet continues today with a 7.5K skate event for girls at 11 a.m. and a 10K race for boys at 12:30 p.m. Both races will be mass-start style, and will determine the state Skimeister awards, which combine times from the first two days of competition.
Saturday’s relay races will close out the meet and will determine the team champions. The girls begin with a 4-by-3K relay at 11 a.m., while the boys will contest a 4-by-5K relay at 12:30 p.m. The four-leg relay will feature a classic-classic-skate-skate combination.
Thursday
at Kincaid Park
BOYS
Team results — 1. Service, 1 hour, 22 minutes, 7.9 seconds; 2. West, 1:23:24.6; 3. South, 1:24:42.5; 4. West Valley, 1:27:52.8; 5. Dimond, 1:30:36.2; 6. Grace Christian, 1:32:03.6; 7. Chugiak, 1:32:48.5; 8. Colony, 1:32:55.6; 9. Soldotna, 1:33:02.6; 10. Lathrop, 1:34:13.2; 11. Palmer, 1:37:06.6; 12. Kenai, 1:37:18.3; 13. Eagle River, 1:43:19.6; 14. Homer, 1:43:39.3; 15. Wasilla, 1:51:02.6; 16. Valdez, 2:06:47.8; 17. Bartlett, inc; 18. East, inc; 19. Seward, inc.
Individual results — 1. Gus Schumacher, Ser, 19:32.8; 2. Luke Jager, Wes, 19:37.2; 3. Hunter Wonders, Sou, 19:57.8; 4. Canyon Tobin, Ser, 20:05.5; 5. Tracen Knopp, Col, 20:36.1; 6. Sam York, Wes, 20:44.6; 7. Zach Bassett, Ser, 20:58.9; 8. Andrew Hull, Sou, 21:03.3; 9. Noah Ravens, Wes, 21:24.7; 10. Hamish Wolfe, Sou, 21:30.5; 11. Eli Hermanson, Ser, 21:30.7; 12. Josiah Alverts, Pal, 21:33.6; 13. Ti Donaldson, WV, 21:34.5; 14. Tristan Wiese, Wes, 21:38.1; 15. Logan Mowry, Lat, 21:43.4; 16. Trent Fritzel, Gra, 21:50.0; 17. Ben Keener, WV, 21:52.8; 18. George Cvancara, Dim, 21:54.3; 19. Ben Koenig, WV, 22:08.2; 20. Luke Fritzel, Gra, 22:08.5.
Peninsula finishers — 22. Karl Danielson, Ken, 22:14.0; 23. Koby Vinson, Sol, 22:14.1; 35. Jeremy Kupferschmid, Sol, 22:58.5; 36. Addison Downing, Sol, 23:00.0; 45. Eric Kempf, Ken, 23:48.5; 51. Jacob Davis, Hom, 24:27.0; 52. Joshua Shuler, 24:50.0; 55. Jode Sparks, Sol, 24:59.8; 63. Caleb Rauch, Hom, 25:22.4; 64. Patrick Michels, Ken, 25:23.2; 65. Keyshawn McEnerney, Ken, 25:52.6; 69. Trevor Debnam, Ken, 25:57.7; 77. Denver Waclawski, Hom, 26:53.3; 78. Tadhg Scholz, Hom, 26:56.6; 83. Jack Harris, Sol, 27:34.6; 89. Josh Foster, Ken, 29:01.2; 91. Ben Kettle, Hom, 29:46.3; 93. Egor Sturdy, Sew, 30:18.5; 94. Eric Super, Hom, 31:13.8.
GIRLS
Team results — 1. West, 1:12:44.3; 2. Chugiak, 1:13:48.9; 3. West Valley, 1:14:19.0; 4. South, 1:17:36.5; 5. Service, 1:18:54.1; 6. Colony, 1:22:07.9; 7. Dimond, 1:23:58.1; 8. Kenai, 1:24:05.1; 9. Palmer, 1:24:45.6; 10. Lathrop, 1:25:36.1; 11. East, 1:25:46.8; 12. Grace Christian, 1:26:11.8; 13. Homer, 1:28:06.4; 14. Soldotna, 1:28:55.3; 15. Valdez, 1:32:38.2; 16. Eagle River, 1:33:24.6; 17. Seward, 1:36:06.9; 18. Bartlett, inc; 19. Wasilla, inc.
Individual results — 1. Jenna Difolco, WV, 17:35.2; 2. Molly Gellert, Wes, 17:35.7; 3. Magdalen York, Wes, 17:40.2; 4. Kendall Kramer, WV, 17:43.7; 5. Heidi Booher, Chu, 17:56.9; 6. Emma Nelson, Chu, 18:10.3; 7. Abby Amick, Sou, 18:21.1; 8. Aubrey LeClair, Wes, 18:25.7; 9. Rya Berrigan, Pal, 18:34.5; 10. Ruth Cvancara, Dim, 18:36.0; 11. Maggie Meeds, Sou, 18:39.0; 12. Annika Hannestad, Col, 18:39.1; 13. Adrianna Proffitt, Chu, 18:49.8; 14. Emma Sees, Chu, 18:51.9; 15. Alejandra Legate, Wes, 19:02.7; 16. Ivy Eski, Wes, 19:06.2; 17. Garvee Tobin, Ser, 19:13.7; 18. Riana Boonstra, Ken, 19:21.0; 19. Emma Jerome, WV, 19:28.8; 20. Maggie Druckenmiller, WV, 19:31.3.
Peninsula finishers — 33. Kellie Arthur, Sol, 20:31.3; 35. Ruby Lindquist, Sew, 20:41.9; 39. Katie Cooper, Ken, 20:48.4; 45. Katia Holmes, Hom, 21:28.8; 49. Ithaca Bergholtz, Ken, 21:36.2; 53. Katie Davis, Hom, 21:44.5; 56. Autumn Daigle, Hom, 21:55.4; 60. Cameron Blackwell, Sol, 22:19.3; 61. Maria Salzetti, Ken, 22:19.5; 66. Molly Erickson, Sol, 22:45.4; 71. Mia Alexson, Hom, 22:57.7; 72. Anya Danielson, Ken, 22:59.9; 73. Hannah Delker, Sol, 23:19.3; 82. Sadie Lindquist, Sew, 23:53.9; 84. Dareena Doyle, Ken, 24:01.6; 87. Selby Hill, Sol, 24:31.8; 91. Daisy Kettle, Hom, 25:34.1; 92. Emmalee Moore, Sew, 25:36.2; 95. Emma Armand, Sew, 25:54.9; 97. Eve Downing, Sol, 2:26.2.
