The skiing legacy of Forest Lake lives on in 2016.
Both the boys and girls Nordic ski squads return to the big show at Giant’s Ridge this season, as well as a return to the state slopes in Biwabik for the Ranger Alpine ski boys. Even the Alpine girls are represented by repeat individual qualifier junior Elli Rodsjo.
Nordic
To call the Section 4 Nordic ski race a nail-biter is an understatement. In fact, after nearly two hours of skiing, the boys race came down to just four seconds between two powerhouse squads: Forest Lake and Stillwater.
It’s happened before. In 2003, the Rangers went head-to-head with a talented Pony lineup.
“It was the same situation,” Forest Lake head coach Deno Johnson said. “Stillwater had more skiers and more depth, but we wanted it, so it went to a tiebreaker. Then it went to a second tiebreaker, and Stillwater ended up winning by two points with the fifth-skier scores included.”
Thirteen years later, Johnson said “the ski boot is on the other foot.”
Last Thursday at Hyland Park in Bloomington, Forest Lake turned the tide with a tiebreaker win for the section title over Stillwater, who’d dominated the slopes this winter leading up to the Section 4 showdown with a No. 4 rank in state standings. The Rangers, now ranked sixth in the state, tied with the Ponies at 375 points before beating them by four seconds in a tiebreaker. Roseville earned third place with 348 points, while Mounds View placed fourth with 332 points.
Earlier this season, the odds weren’t in Forest Lake’s favor. Not only had the squad graduated its two top skiers, Leo Hipp and Quinn Duffy, it also suffered the loss of its No. 3 skier to personal reasons. To top things off, the Rangers returned just one senior to lead this season’s young crew: Davis Long, who stepped up last winter with a gutsy performance at Giant’s Ridge to solidify yet another Forest Lake team state title.
Of the top 20 skiers at the boys’ section race last Thursday, 14 are juniors or seniors. Of the six remaining underclassmen, three belong to the Forest Lake team, including one ninth-grader and two sophomores. The Rangers have no juniors, with the rest of the 12-man team containing two sophomores, three ninth-graders, three eighth-graders and three seventh-graders. Only Stillwater had one skier younger than ninth grade compete at Hyland Park last week. Forest Lake won the section championship with three.
“Our alternates for the state meet are in seventh grade,” Johnson laughed.
The head coach attributes the win to the kids’ desire to return to Biwabik.
“The kids just had a fire in their belly,” he said. “All the kids had pained looks on their faces by the home stretch, but the Forest Lake faces wanted it the most. You could tell when they skied by, they weren’t having a good time, but they wanted to get to that finish fighting for every second.”
Sophomore Ryan Mead led the Ranger charge with a third place finish overall with a combined time of 28:21, having recorded a time of 15:04 in the classic portion and 13:17 in skate. Mead is currently ranked No. 2 in Junior National rankings in the Midwest for skiers under age 16. Mounds View senior Jack Christianson claimed the section title in 28:11, followed by Stillwater senior Sam Hanson in 28:17.
Long placed sixth overall with a combined time of 28:53, followed by ninth-grader Andy Haines in ninth place with a mark of 29:36. Sophomore Spencer Kotys clocked in at 29:52 to place 11th of 74 skiers. Eighth-grader Ethan Erickson also placed in the top 30 with a 26th place finish in 32:19.
“Earlier this year, it was obvious that Stillwater was in better shape and were easily seven deep in their lineup,” Johnson said. “But we took every conference race as another workout and seriously got on the grind, and that worked for us.”
The same was true for the Forest Lake girls, who, like the boys, knew they had their work cut out for them in a new section this season where they’d compete among three other Nordic powerhouses: Stillwater, Roseville and Irondale.
The Rangers qualified as a team for state last season, and despite graduating its top skier from 2015, Rocci Wohlk, Forest Lake also returns to Biwabik by a narrow margin.
Stillwater claimed the Section 4 title with 376 points after sailing smooth on the Suburban East Conference terrain this season. With the top two teams qualifying for the state meet, it came down to a bloodbath between the Rangers and Raiders of Roseville.
Forest Lake edged out its conference opponent by just one point, tallying 363 points to Roseville’s 362 points.
“Section 4 is an absolute section of death,” Johnson said. “We had classic in the morning and did well, then some snow flurries made waxing more difficult and all the more important. Our waxing paid off and as it turns out, we needed every bit of cushion from that classic race as we could get.”
Ninth-grader Regan Duffy, who is ranked fourth in Junior Nationals for 16-and-under in the Midwest, earned crucial points for her squad by claiming second place overall in a field of 67 racers. The section runner-up totaled a time of 32:53, just nine seconds behind the section champion, senor Hanna Torvi, of Roseville. Duffy clocked in at 17:28 in the classic portion to lead the field after the morning race, then crossed the finish line in 15:25 in the skate race.
Sophomore Jenna Parent placed eighth overall with a time of 34:22 to bring in big points, followed by senior Kate Schaaf in 12th place with a time of 35:09. Junior Madi Anderson placed 19th in 35:56, while sophomore Chloe Foster earned 23rd in 36:35.
While all Ranger placements played an important role in the state qualifying performance, Johnson said it was huge that Schaaf squeaked by Roseville’s Naomi Boehm, as well as Anderson edging out Claire Dubois of Irondale and Carly Dahms of Roseville. Foster also beat a Raider by one place to keep the Rangers in the running.
“Regan and Jenna just took off, Madi and Chloe have gotten so much stronger, and Kate is always a good reference point for us, like the axis point of our team; she’s so consistent,” Johnson said. “We should also thank Claire Dubois of Irondale for beating out Carly Dahms, we should write her a big, ol’ thank you letter.”
The Nordic state meet kicks off with the girls 5K skate at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11 at Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik, with the boys following at 11:15 a.m. The classic portion begins with the girls race at 2 p.m. and boys at 3 p.m.
The Forest Lake boys won the state championship in both 2014 and 2015, while the girls placed fifth of 16 teams last winter.
Alpine
The Forest Lake Alpine program is no longer in the process of building a powerhouse program; it’s solidified the reputation after qualifying for the state meet for the third season in a row.
The Rangers competed at Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik Feb. 2 amid ideal weather and hill conditions, with the girls notching their top section finish in more than 10 years with a seventh-place finish with 359 points. The boys placed second with 412 points behind Hermantown with 440 points. The Rangers snuck past Stillwater by just three points to earn another trip to state.
Out of the 122 skiers, senior Marty Longsdorf led the Ranger boys with an eighth-place finish with a combined time of 1:13.46 in the dual-run meet. Ryan Nordin of Duluth East captured the individual section title with a total time of 1:11.45.
Senior Nate Patterson scored big points in 20th place with a mark of 1:18.06, followed by ninth-grader Mitchell Longsdorf in 24th at 1:18.58. Senior Joe Alberg clocked in at 1:19.95 to take 28th. Senior Max Stangler and junior Zach Ochsenbauer placed 47th and 57th, respectively, after Ochsenbauer missed a gate in his second run.
On the girls side, junior Elli Rodsjo qualified for the state meet again and led her squad with a 10th place finish out of 118 skiers. Rodsjo crossed the finish line with a combined time of 1:20.50. Hermantown’s McKenzie Bremel claimed the title in 1:15.38.
In team scores, Cook County/Silver Bay placed first with 421.5 points, followed by a runner-up placement and state berth by Stillwater with 392.5 points.
Morgan Tomas placed 26th for the Rangers, followed by junior Sydney Norcross in 36th place and senior Maggie Longsdorf in 45th. Ninth-grader Kelli Bush earned 57th on the day, while sophomore Avery Jorgenson came in 88th after a mishap with the gate in her second run.
None of the Forest Lake skiers on the boys and girls teams were disqualified or failed to finish their runs.
Ranger assistant coach Sarah Ellefson said she was proud of both squads, saying their best performances are yet to come.
“I am impressed and honored to be going back to the state meet to defend our title with our extremely talented young men,” Ellefson said. “They deserve it. The women worked hard all season and had an all-time best, seventh-place finish. Their entire season has drastically improved. I couldn’t be more proud of my team. Hold in there, ladies;your big year is yet to come.”
Two weeks ago, both Ranger squads earned second place overall in the Suburban East Conference standings following a second-place finish for the girls at their final SEC meet and third-place finish for the boys. The conference placement for the boys is their third runner-up finish in a row. Stillwater finished in first place for both squads.
The Forest Lake boys, and Rodsjo for the girls, were set to defend their state title at Giant’s Ridge on Wednesday, Feb. 10, in Biwabik (after press time).