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Nordic gets Huskies in the hunt for state title

Eagle Valley's Gino Giovagnoli, left, and Battle Mountain's Quintin Cook have a chat before Saturday's Nordic classic race in Steamboat Springs.
Special to the Daily |

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — If, and it’s an if that doesn’t exist. But if one smashed the numbers from last week’s high school alpine and Nordic races, then Battle Mountain boys skiing is in the hunt for its first state title since the great Lake County Recount of 2001.

It remains an if because alpine was racing at Beaver Creek on Friday, and the Huskies own that hill. State is at Eldora. Huskies Nordic did have its best outing of the season on Saturday at Steamboat Springs in classic, which, of course, is only half of the equation. If the Battle Mountain Nordic team can keep improving, closing the gap on Summit County … If Huskies alpine doesn’t have a disaster of some form in alpine, always possible at state … If CHSAA can count the points right at state — it didn’t in 2001, and gave the state trophy to Summit temporarily. If, if, if.

But, if you mashed the numbers from last weekend, the Huskies won the combined alpine and Nordic, 330-327, over the Tigers.



The Summit boys won the Nordic classic in Steamboat with 175 points, followed by Battle Mountain (153) and Eagle Valley (152).

The Huskies had Cameron Moore (sixth), Christian Wilson (10th) and Franklin Reilly (17th) in the scoring, while the Devils countered with Nathan Maddox (seventh), Michael Niemeyer (eighth) and Will Thrasher (19th). Both teams showed excellent depth as well. Battle Mountain’s Quintin Cook qualified in 25th in his quest for the Skimeister, as the state’s best all-around skier. (One needs a NASA super computer to figure out who wins Skimeister, but the kid is crushing alpine and moving up the results list in Nordic.) The Devils had Gino Giovagnoli in 21st, Isaac Yoder in 28th and Riley Meehan in a tie for 31st. The Vail Mountain School’s lone racer, Eric Zdechlik, put up a 22nd-place finish, also good for state.

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VMS girls second

Speaking of the Gore Rangers, the VMS ladies are starting to make some noise. Hannah Hardenbergh won on Saturday, leading VMS to a second-place finish, just one point behind Summit.

Annie Blakslee took fourth, followed by Maddie Donovan in 11th. Clare Baker (16th) and Lyle Shipp (18th) were also within the state cut for the Gore Rangers. Battle Mountain’s Val Constien (ninth) and Allie Sands (24th) are all set for Eldora, as are Eagle Valley’s Rose Sandell (23rd) and Nikki Cunning (25th).

All local Nordic skiers get to sleep in this week as Saturday’s race is at Maloit Park in Minturn.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 and cfreud@vaildaily.com.


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