A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
The Lumberjacks were well represented among the top Nordic boys skiers in the Lake Superior Conference meet, with six of the top 10 hailing from the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton team and the other four coming from Marshall. Only the top four finishers for each team count in the scoring, and Marshall skiers took first, third, fourth and ninth place.
Cloquet senior Blaine Bong skis to eighth place in the Lake Superior Conference meet.
Cloquet sophomore Benjamin Bauer powers to a second place finish in the Lake Superior Conference meet in Duluth on Jan. 23.
The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys and girls Nordic ski teams competed in the Lake Superior Conference meet last week at Snowflake Ski Center in Duluth, and left with top-three finishes. The boys finished second, only three points behind Duluth Marshall - even without star skier Aidan Ripp - and the girls team finished tied for third with Duluth Denfeld but earned third through tie-breaker scoring.
The LSC meet was combined with the Duluth East Invitational, so times were included for results in both meets.
Duluth Marshall won top honors in both the boys and girls events while Proctor-Hermantown finished second in the girls meet in the Lake Superior Conference race.
In the conference meet, the Cloquet boys took second place as well as fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth place.
"It was a day with very slow ski conditions" CEC head coach Arne Maijala said. "Even with slow conditions, I thought the kids skied very well despite the snow."
The sophomores led the way for the Lumberjacks boys. Benjamin Bauer was the top finisher with an overall time of 28:33, leading to a second place conference finish. Bauer completed the freestyle portion of the event with a time of 14:02 and in the classic he ended with a time of 14:31.
AJ Maijala was next for the Lumberjacks with a combined time of 29:22, for fifth place in conference. Josh Sanders also finished with a time of 29:22 but Maijala edged him out by three tenths of a second so he took sixth place. Freshman Cale Prosen took seventh place in 30:43.4 and senior Blaine Bong placed eighth with a time of 30:50.1. Spencer Hoeffling came in tenth in conference with a time of 31:10.
"I thought our kids skied very well and was very pleased with how well they did," Maijala said. "The effort the kids put in was outstanding on the day and our boys team did extremely well."
The girls races saw CEC's Brita Mowers earning the top team spot on the day as she finished with times of 17:24 in the freestyle and 19:14 in the classic, good enough for 10th place in the conference meet.
Eighth grader Charlotte Ripp finished 30 seconds behind Mowers in 11th place for conference with the Lumberjacks second-best overall time of 37:08, while Elsa Mowers was third with a time of 37:32. Andrea Hille was next for the Lumberjacks with a time of 37:48, and Hannah Zuck had an overall combined time of 38:20.
In the Duluth East invite - a larger field of teams -Ely took home the top prize on the boys side with CEC finishing third behind Duluth Marshall, while on the girls side it was Duluth East taking the top spot with CEC finishing seventh.
The Lumberjack skiers will be back at it Saturday as they will travel to the Ely Invitational in milder temperatures. That meet was delayed from Thursday because of the severe cold weather.
It's crunch time for the Nordic team. The Section 7 section meet is scheduled for Thursday at Giants Ridge. The state meet is also being held at Giants Ridge, a week later, on Feb. 14.
