Eagle County Nordic ski teams head to state championships in Steamboat Springs with high aspirations

The Colorado high school ski stakes and storylines peak this week at the CHSAA state Nordic ski championships in Steamboat Springs.

Teams will contest a 5-kilometer individual start classic on Thursday at the Steamboat Ski Touring Center and a 5-kilometer mass start skate Friday at Howelsen Hill. The mixed-discipline team sprint debuts following the skate race and the Colorado High School Ski League calendar wraps up with the skimeister state championships on March 4 at Ski Cooper.

Battle Mountain’s Ruthie and Eden DeMino — who went 1-2 in the slalom in leading the Huskies to a runner-up finish in the Alpine state championships in Aspen last week — are battling each other for top honors in the ultimate test of all-around ability. After finishing runner-up to her teammate, three-time winner Lindsey Whitton last year, Ruthie DeMino is in pole position, but she’s only 1.87 points in front of her younger sister.

 “It’s competitive,” Eden DeMino said regarding the skiing sister rivalry at the last regular season meet in Leadville two weeks ago.

“She always likes to say that she doesn’t want me to win it ever — she wants to beat me every time,” added Ruthie DeMino. “It really motivates to do better.”

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Battle Mountain also has the top boys skimeister in Kai Skellion, who leads Lake County’s Wilson Anderson by just over seven points. Skellion had a front row seat watching his teammate, Theo Krueger, win his second-straight title last winter.

“The skimeister legacy is really cool,” Skellion said. “Theo — I’m pretty close with him and he’s a cool guy — so it would really be awesome to try and get that title this year and kind of follow in his footsteps.”

Battle Mountain is the defending Nordic team champion. Bella Williams, the fifth-ranked skier in the Nordic points standings, is arguably the team’s strongest skate skier.

“She’s always got a great attitude,” coach Lisa Isom said of the senior. “She’s making sure everyone is having a good time and then it comes to race time and she gets this look on her face. She just digs so deep with so much grit and determination. It’s really impressive.”

Summit and Lake County pose the biggest threats to Battle Mountain’s state title hopes, Isom said.

“Our girls have been in the thick of it, in the top-3 all season long,” the coach continued. “If we can just go into state and be right at the top of our fitness, I think we’ve always got a good opportunity.”

Summit will be led by Ella Hagen, who won the skate race state title to become the second individual after Middle Park’s Samantha Berggren to win state titles in track, cross-country and Nordic skiing. This year, she’s won three races and placed second in two others. The future CU Buff runner said she thinks the Steamboat courses play to her strengths in some areas.

“(In) classic, I’m just going to try and keep the head down and push and see what I can do. Skate at Howelsen — I’m just going to climb as hard as I possibly can,” Hagen said. “There’s some awesome skiers out there. I’ll be chasing Isla (Elton) all the way.” 

Vail Mountain’s Isla Elton, who trades time with SSCV on the club circuit, won the Aspen, Eldora and Summit Invitationals this year.

“She’s been crushing it this year,” Vail Mountain coach Shawn Ellenbaum said. Ellenbaum has coached two other state champions in Cam Wolfe and Emma Blakeslee, both of whom also split between club and high school races.

“Part of it is seeing that you can have so much fun on this team and it’s not as serious as those (club) races,” Ellenbaum said of the dual approach. “It’s kind of a good balance for the kids.”

One athlete who could spoil the party for both athletes is Poudre’s Ellayna Potter, who heads to Steamboat Springs as the No. 2-ranked girl.

“We’re all really excited to do well this last year,” said Potter, a future triathlete at Colorado Mesa. Potter’s teammate, Alaina Smith, said the entire squad came into the year with high expectations.

“We’re coming off a really good season last year,” Smith stated. “I think everyone came in with the mindset of ‘oh we can do this.'”

Because of its location, Poudre spends many practices either rollerskiing or hill bounding. After races, they often stick around an extra day to train on snow.

“I think that’s what makes our team a little different,” said Amelia Milewski. “Everyone packs up after the race and goes home — we just get our skis back out and ski again.” 

On the boys side, Summit is favored to win both the team and individual titles behind the big four of James Sowers, Carter Niemkiewicz, John Ryan and Bryce Oppito.

“I think the team is looking super strong,” said Sowers, who hopes to ski collegiately at either Montana State University or perhaps in Alaska next year.

“I just love this sport. … I know I’m not the fastest, so I want their (college coaches’) guidance,” he said. I believe I can become a really good athlete. I can put in the work. That’s kind of my selling point: I will commit and do whatever you say to do.”

The only team to beat Summit at a meet this year is Eagle Valley, which enters the meet with the No. 2-ranked boy in Tyler Blair. The Devils will look to pack up behind Blair with Jonah Barber, Jackson Filmore, Chris Marsh and Jack Sargent.

“We’re going to just try and do as good as we can,” Filmore said of his team’s state goals. “Show them Eagle Valley.”