GIANTS RIDGE — The Ely boys Nordic ski team had a message for all the doubters out there, and they delivered it with a flourish at last week’s state ski meet: We’re still a force to be reckoned with.
The Wolves got no love in the state coaches Top 10 poll at the start of the year and were left off the list until Jan. 31, when they were ranked seventh. But people were still underestimating Ely, as the Timberwolves grabbed third place at Giants Ridge, just one point out of second.
The Wolves’ run to the top began on Wednesday with the team sprint. George Sponholz and Otto Devine teamed up for the race, but their time of 13:26.31 failed to qualify for the final. But their 14th-place finish still earned 138 valuable points in the overall team scoring.
Thursday’s pursuit brought with it rapidly changing conditions, as the temperature at the start of the freestyle leg hovered around 12 degrees, then rose into the mid-thirties for the afternoon classic run.
Junior Aksel Skustad led the Wolves in the freestyle, placing tenth with a time of 14:11.5. Wyatt Devine was close behind in 19th with a time of 14:24.1. Oliver Hohenstein, who had been racing neck and neck with Skustad during the season, encountered some problems on his run and finished well down the leaderboard in 43rd position, clocking a time of 14:54.2.
Skustad skied the classic course in 14:34.6, with his combined time of 28:45.3 slotting in at 15th. Devine held on to 19th place with a time of 14:40.7 and a combined time of 29:04.5. Hohenstein made a huge leap in the standings, with his classic time of 14:33.6 and overall time of 29:27.3 vaulting him up into 27th place.
Ely’s combined score of 341 was 42 points behind state champion Stillwater, but only one behind runner-up Orono/Delano. The Wolves finished ahead of 13 other teams competing for the state title.

Girls
The Ely girls didn’t qualify as a team for the state meet, but the sprint team of Addison Kannas and Ivy Ohlhauser did, and while they didn’t make it to the finals, they took 11th among the 24 pairs competing with a time of 15:49.7.
Molly Brophy has been a mainstay for Ely at state cross-country running meets, and she got a taste of what the state Nordic ski meet is like by qualifying for the pursuit. As the last individual qualifier from Section 7, Brophy wasn’t expected to finish high on the leaderboard, but she acquitted herself well at the meet. She rounded the freestyle circuit in 17:56.8 and did the classic in 17:58.8 for a combined time of 35:54 and a 60th-place finish.

Left: Ely’s Wyatt Devine gets a fist bump from a fellow competitor at the end of Thursday’s freestyle race at Giant’s Ridge. photo by D. Colburn