State skiing: Homer sweeps Division II team titles; Soldotna girls take 3rd overall

The Homer girls and boys swept the Division II team titles at the state Nordic ski championships at Birch Hill in Fairbanks on Saturday, while the Soldotna girls finished third in the overall team standings.

The Colony boys won the team title with a three-day time of 2 hours, 38 minutes and 0 seconds, with Homer coming in sixth overall at 2:55:15. The boys topped Division II for the second time, adding to a 2023 title.

Soldotna was eighth, while Kenai was 12th.

The Service girls won the team title at 3:09:01, with Soldotna taking third at 3:20:10. Colony was fifth, so the Stars got back at the Knights for Colony’s team title win at the Region III meet.

Homer was 11th in 3:49:23 for the first DII title since 2020 and sixth overall. This is the first time the Mariners girls and boys finished atop Division II in the same year. Kenai, which had won the previous four girls DII titles, was 13th.

“I think the key to getting it done was really just the support this year from our school and my assistant coach (Katie Miller) and the parent volunteers, because we’re a small program,” Homer head coach Jessie Goodrich said.

Goodrich extended credit to the other programs on the Kenai Peninsula. Due to a low-snow winter, there were just three high school races at Tsalteshi Trails, and three in Homer.

The programs didn’t get a chance to compete off the peninsula until state and had to stick together to make competitions possible for the athletes.

The boys title was expected, with the Mariners skiing so well they only finished 19 seconds behind West Anchorage.

Goodrich said the Homer girls defeating Kenai was not a sure thing.

“We talked all weekend about not skiing for yourself,” Goodrich said. “When you’re tired, think about your teammates, and not just yourself.

“I really saw that in the girls and boys this weekend. Their tempo was higher. They were trying harder. It was like watching a different girls team.”

Soldotna head coach Isaac Erhardt was thrilled with junior Tania Boonstra finishing third overall and senior Ariana Cannava taking 10th to lead the team to third.

The coach said Boonstra is a very talented skier with three Region III Skimeisters to her credit, while Cannava was someone who showed top-10 potential back as a freshman and worked to get there.

“It was cool to see them finish that high and be up there together,” Erhardt said. “That was pretty special.”

The girls made some history by finishing third. The Clarion could only find records back to 1996, but in that time, the only peninsula squad to finish in the top three is the 2001 Soldotna boys. That team also finished third.

“We definitely staked our claim as a pretty dominant girls team, and that felt like redemption after losing regions,” Erhardt said.

The coach said it also was neat to see Region III skiers from the peninsula and Matanuska-Susitna valleys skiing right with Fairbanks and Anchorage skiers.

The best example was the Colony boys winning for the first time since three straight from 1997 to 1999.

“That was really fun to watch and cheer them as well, and see them be able to do something they hadn’t done since the late ’90s,” Erhardt said.

State concluded with the 4-by-3-kilometer relay Saturday, with the first two legs classic and second two freestyle.

On the boys side, Colony edged West Valley by .4 seconds to win at 30:54.

The Soldotna team of Michael Davidson, Noble Cassidy, Parker Richards and Ollie Dahl took fifth at 34:19.

Homer’s team of Jody Goodrich, Rockwell Bates, Leif Jaworski and Johannes Bynagle was seventh at 34:30, while Kenai’s Chase Laker, Levi Strong, Silvan Kreig and Fletcher Darr were 11th at 35:47.

“The boys had a really good day,” Erhardt said. “We beat Homer, who we had been losing to all season.”

Erhardt said Richards and Dahl had really good freestyle legs to key the victory.

Goodrich said Bynagle put down the third-fastest freestyle leg of the day but couldn’t quite catch Dahl.

“They worked as a team,” she said. “It was a huge team weekend for us. Every single kid would just go out there and kill themselves for their buddies.”

The Service girls won the relay at 37:39. SoHi’s team of Tania Boonstra, Inga Smith, Kathryn Cox and Ariana Cannava missed out on third by .2 seconds.

East finished at 39:37 to defeat the Stars.

Homer’s Cassidy Carroll, Jaela Marchbanks, Etta Bynagle and Myra Kalafut were 11th at 45:08, while Kenai’s Isla Crouse, Teresa Fallon, Mya Taylor and Ruby Davis were 12th at 46:06.

Goodrich said seniors Carroll and Marchbanks set it up with solid classic legs, then freshmen Bynagle and Kalafut brought it home.

“That was probably the best skate races I’ve seen them do all season,” Goodrich said.

State Nordic ski championships

Saturday at Birch Hill

GIRLS

Team scores: 1. Service, 3 hours, 9 minutes, 1 second; 2. West Valley, 3:16:05; 3. Soldotna, 3:20:10; 4. East, 3:21:22; 5. Colony, 3:23:05; 6. South, 3:27:00; 7. Palmer, 3:34:49; 8. Chugiak, 3:40:44; 9. Dimond, 3:44:44; 10. Juneau-Douglas, 3:47:36; 11. Homer, 3:49:23; 12. Eagle River, 3:56:19; 13. Kenai, 3:56:54; 14. Lathrop, 3:57:59; 15. Grace, 4:09:06; 16. North Pole, 4:37:45.

4-by-3-kilometer mixed relay (classic-classic-free-free)

1. Service, 37:39; 2. West Valley, 38:11; 3. East, 39:37; 4. Soldotna (Tania Boonstra, Inga Smith, Kate Cox, Ariana Cannava), 39:37; 5. Colony, 39:55; 6. Palmer, 40:43; 7. South, 40:44; 8. Chugiak, 42:58; 9. Dimond, 43:13; 10. Juneau-Douglas, 44:53; 11. Homer (Cassidy Carroll, Jaela Marchbanks, Etta Bynagle, Myra Kalafut), 45:08; 12. Kenai (Isla Crouse, Teresa Fallon, Mya Taylor, Ruby Davis), 46:06; 13. Eagle River, 46:08; 14. Lathrop, 46:25; 15. Grace, 47:06; 16. North Pole, 54:23.

BOYS

Team scores: 1. Colony, 2:38:00; 2. West Valley, 2:38:48; 3. South, 2:42:29; 4. Service, 2:43:32; 5. West, 2:54:56; 6. Homer, 2:55:15; 7. East, 2:55:38; 8. Soldotna, 2:56:29; 9. Dimond, 3:00:45; 10. Lathrop, 3:03:15; 11. Palmer, 3:04:17; 12. Kenai, 3:05:22; 13. Juneau-Douglas, 3:07:13; 14. Chugiak, 3:10:21; 15. Grace, 3:10:57; 16. Eagle River, 3:29:18; 17. Glennallen, 3:30:33; 18. Valdez, 3:38:04; 19. North Pole, 4:02:19; 20. Bartlett, 4:19:28.

4-by-3-kilometer mixed relay (classic-classic-free-free)

1. Colony, 30:54; 2. West Valley, 30:54; 3. South, 31:54; 4. Service, 33:20; 5. Soldotna (Michael Davidson, Noble Cassidy, Parker Richards, Ollie Dahl), 34:19; 6. East, 34:22; 7. Homer (Jody Goodrich, Rockwell Bates, Leif Jaworski, Johannes Bynagle), 34:30; 8. West, 34:35; 9. Dimond, 34:44; 10. Palmer, 35:43; 11. Kenai (Chase Laker, Levi Strong, Silvan Kreig, Fletcher Darr), 35:47; 12. Chugiak, 36:57; 13. Lathrop, 37:02; 14. Grace, 37:05; 15. Juneau-Douglas, 38:19; 16. Glennallen, 40:02; 17. Eagle River, 40:25; 18. Valdez, 42:05; 19. North Pole, 46:31; 20. Bartlett, 50:03.