BIWABIK — A wave of rural Northern Minnesota skiers took home silver from the Minnesota State High School League Nordic Ski State Meet at Giant's Ridge in Biwabik on Feb. 12 and 13.
The Ely boys were the only team to place, taking second. The sprint duo of senior Eli Olson and sophomore Oliver Hohenstein scored nearly half the team’s points by taking silver in the team sprint out of a field of 24 teams. Also scoring were Dylan Durkin (eighth), Aksel Skustad (19th), Wyatt Devine (39th), Otto Devine (48th) and Milo McClellan (76th).
Also taking second on the girl’s side was Proctor/Hermantown’s sprint team of seniors Campbell Amundson and Nene Sclisizzo, an exchange student from Italy. Senior Della Bettendorf was the runner-up in the pursuit race out of 112 skiers. The team ultimately finished fifth in the meet.
Also medaling was Brainerd junior Annelise Baird, who placed seventh.
The top seven individual athletes medal at the state meet, as do the top three teams and sprint duos.
The Brainerd boys team of Gabe Hallgren (14th), Owen Robertson (31st), Wyatt Brown (43rd), Alex Lelwica (53rd), Taite Knapp and sprint duo Triston Kubista and Joseph Neumann (12th) finished fifth of the 16 teams.
The Proctor/Hermantown girls team of Bettendorf, Rachel Bettendorf (25th), Lizzy Harnell (82nd), Ferrah Lalone (89th), Paisley Kleiman (99th) and the Amundson/Slisizzo team also finished fifth.
Full results are available at mshsl.org.
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The Iron Range offers a window into communities reckoning with how their identities must change for the betterment of future generations as schools increasingly collaborate.This reporting is part of a collaboration with the Institute for Nonprofit News' Rural News Network and Big Local News at Stanford University, with data journalist Cherry Salazar’s analysis helping anchor the reporting. Six nonprofit newsrooms were involved: BenitoLink, KAXE, Mat-Su Sentinel, Mississippi Today, Oxford Free Press and The Texas Tribune. Support from the Walton Family Foundation made this project possible.
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