ELY— The Wolves ski teams finished high in the pack against a slew of much larger schools here on Tuesday, in a hastily-prepared Ely Invitational event that was pushed up two days to avoid extreme cold. The Ely girls finished a strong second among the ten schools that took part in the Ely event, held at Hidden Valley. The boys settled for third place after Proctor/Hermantown edged them by a point for second.
With temperatures in the 20s to start the race, the snow was considerably softer than last Friday’s competition in Duluth, which led to significantly slower times for most of the racers.
Senior Gabriel Pointer led all Ely skiers with a second-place overall finish in a field of 46 racers. He finished the classic race in 17:42 and the freestyle event in 15:05.6, for a combined time of 32:47.4. Fellow senior Jon Hakala finished in ninth with a combined time of 34:32.3, while senior Micah Larson finished in 11th place with a combined time of 35:05.6.
In the girls pursuit competition, junior Zoe Devine led the Ely girls with a fifth-place finish in a field of 54 racers. She combined a classic time of 19:22.0 and a freestyle time of 17:22.5 for a total time of 36:44.9. Fellow junior Phoebe Helms finished in 14th place, with a combined time of 39:27.6.
Tuesday’s strong performance came on the heels of last Friday’s Duluth East Invitational, where the Ely girls again finished second overall, while the boys took third in the ten-team field.
Ely junior Zoe Devine finished second in the pursuit competition in both the freestyle and classic races, both times right behind freshman phenom Della Bettendorf, of Proctor/Hermantown.
Devine skied the freestyle race in 14:09.5, less than five seconds out of first. She finished the classic course in 15:45.1, for a combined time of 29:54.1, good for second place overall.
Fellow Ely junior Phoebe Helms came in 12th in the freestyle event, with a time of 15:14.9 and finished tenth in the classic race, with a time of 17:33.2. She finished in 12th place overall, with a combined time of 32:47.2.
Ely senior Gabriel Pointer led the way for the boys, finishing fifth in both the freestyle and classic competitions, with times of 12:58.5 and 14.33.8 respectively, although he finished in sixth place overall with his combined time of 27:31.8. Fellow senior Micah Larson finished in eighth place in the classic race with a time of 14:56.0 and came in 12th in the freestyle event with a time of 13:22.3. His combined time of 28.18.0 was good for eighth place overall. Senior Jon Hakala finished in 11th place in the freestyle, with a time of 13:15.8 and in tenth place in the classic race, with a time of 15:13.8. His combined time of 28:28.5 left him just behind Larson in ninth place overall.
Ely skiers are set to compete in the Section 7 state-qualifying meet next Wednesday at Giants Ridge. The competition gets underway at 9:30 a.m. The state meet will be held Feb. 16-17, also at Giants Ridge.