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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Bianco claims individual gold

Patrick Slack
Posted 2/22/17

BIWABIK - It would have been a dream finish ... if she had dreamed it.

Her goal was simply to finish in the top 10.

But as the season progressed, it began to look like she could finish top …

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Bianco claims individual gold

Posted

BIWABIK - It would have been a dream finish ... if she had dreamed it.

Her goal was simply to finish in the top 10.

But as the season progressed, it began to look like she could finish top five.

By the end of sections?

A medal contender.

As she crossed the finish line at the state meet?

Champion.

Ely senior Erin Bianco capped a fairytale season with an individual state championship at Giants Ridge in Biwabik on Thursday, winning the pursuit race with a time of 32:20.0.

It was the sixth state appearance in Bianco’s career, starting with a 39th-place finish as a seventh-grader in 2012.

She placed 39th again as an eighth-grader, then moved up to 24th, 19th and 17th leading into her senior season.

Already a state standout entering this winter, Bianco’s skiing rose to another level.

A series of first-place finishes filled a dominant regular season, followed by Bianco capturing the Section 7 individual championship.

That finish would leave Bianco confident entering state, yet far from eyeing the top of the medal stand.

“Not really,” Bianco said. “My goal was actually top 10.”

That would change during Thursday morning’s freestyle competition.

Coming in with a time of 15:33, Bianco felt she had skated well.

She would soon find out she was in second place, just four seconds off the lead.

“I knew I felt good,” Bianco said. “But I never expected to be that high up.”

The leader she would need to catch was Anja Maijala of Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, who Bianco chased down from 11 seconds out in the Section 7 meet a week prior.

Still, Bianco did her best to not think too far ahead and the possible state championship that could be reached if she could put one final strong classic race together.

“I never wanted to think about that, because I didn’t want to get too hyped up,” Bianco said. “I knew everyone in the top fourth of the state is really fast. And classic especially is where everyone makes their move. I would have been happy with top five. So when I caught up to Anja, I just felt super good and wanted to keep that momentum going. And I knew our team was in good standing, so I wanted to pass as many people as possible.”

It wouldn’t take long for that to happen, as Bianco quickly drew even with Maijala during the opening stretch leaving the stadium.

The pair stuck together through the opening three kilometers of the 5K race, primarily uphill.

Then, when the downhill came, Bianco surged ahead.

“The whole last 2K is just downhill, so I didn’t want to look back and see where she was,” Bianco said. “So I had no clue where she was - I thought she was right behind me. So I was just going as hard as I could, because I thought at any point she could pass me. So I just kind of went hard until the end. So I didn’t really realize I had won until after.”

The meet was also held in unseasonably warm conditions, suiting Bianco’s style perfectly.

“I love the warm weather,” Bianco said. “The skate, the first race, it was just way faster when it’s warm. Compared to sections it was 30 degrees warmer and so we just flew around the course. And for the afternoon race it was even warmer.”

Immediately after crossing the finish line, the top three individual finishers were quickly led into the timing building for post-race interviews, leaving Bianco in the dark as to how the team had done.

When she emerged, she was told the team had won as well.

“That was amazing,” Bianco said. “That was the best thing that happened.”

Dream conditions, dream race. Dream finish.

Dream championships.