The Bemidji High Nordic ski teams head to Giants Ridge today for two days of action at the state meet.
It begins today with the annual Coaches Relays with skiers who did not qualify for Friday's state meet, scoring four-man teams who ski 4 x 3 events, two skiing classical and two freestyle.
Tomorrow the boys team and Jill Smith and Maggie Manske individually will compete for state titles.
It is a repeat trip for the boys who qualified as a team for the first time in a decade last year and took sixth place.
With much the same group back on the course, they are shooting at a far higher finish this year.
ADVERTISEMENT
Waylon Manske, Matt Nistler, Derek Smith, Chris Gustafson, Zach Claussen, James Powell and Tommy Roetman finished in that order at the section meet to take the title again. All but Powell are seniors.
Grand Rapids won its seventh straight girls title over Bemidji but Smith and Manske qualified as individuals.
Manske, Nistler, Roetman, Smith and Powell were members of last year's unit with Claussen and Gustafson replacing Croix Fylpaa and Eric Bruns who graduated. Smith is back again in the girls individual race.
She finished 15 last year while the girls relay team of Brynna Nelson, Manske, Laura Wagner and Laura Rogers was sixth, Wagner and Rogers skiing classical and Nelson and Manske freestyle.
Manske led the boys team with a 36 place finish. Nistler was 41, Smith 59, Fylpaa 60, Bruns 66, Roetman 81 and Powell 84.
The relay team finished seventh with Leif Voltz and Gustafson skiing classical and Matt Fossen and Claussen freestyle.
The boys won six meets this winter and were in the top four of three others. Manske had two individual wins and Nistler one.
Jill Smith had a first, two seconds and a third during the winter coming on strong in the final weeks. Maggie Manske was a top ten finisher seven times.
ADVERTISEMENT
The relays were taken over by the State Ski Coaches Association in 1999 when the MSHSL abandoned the event when it changed to its present pursuit style of racing.
It formerly ran 3 x 3's from 1991-1994 and 4 x 3's from 1995-1998.
The Bemidji boys have one state relay title in their history. The girls had a state relay championship team earlier.
It is the third state trip for Waylon Manske and Derek Smith who qualified as individuals as sophomores in 2005.
