News
ENLARGE
TRUCKEE, Calif. — After a long season of enduring tough workouts, stormy days and pushing through tired legs, the Incline High Nordic team — now no stranger to success — finally got its big reward last weekend, as its girls were crowned the open division state champions.
The young squad of four earned the open division title behind a 1-2 sweep turned in by sophomore Melanie Swick and freshman Maddy Kwasny, respectively, who finished ahead of a number of varsity skiers in the two-day competition.
The championship, held at Auburn Ski Club on Donner Summit, was run as a pursuit-style format. Racers took to the course on Friday for a 5-kilometer Classic race, which would determine their starting time and order for Saturday's 5-kilometer Freestyle race. Racers were started on Saturday based on their finish and time back from the leader in Friday's race. For example, if a racer placed third in Friday's race and finished 35 seconds behind the leader, they headed out on to the skate course 35 seconds after the leader was started, and in third place from the sound of the gun. This leads to an exciting, chase-style race, where the order in which skiers cross the line on Saturday is the final finish order, as the final times end up a culmination of both the Classic and Freestyle races.
Last weekend's events featured athletes from eight high schools throughout the Northern California and Nevada region, as well as a few additional independent athletes whose schools do not have official teams. In addition to Incline, schools in attendance included Colfax, Mammoth, Nevada Union, North Tahoe, Truckee, South Tahoe and the Sugar Bowl Academy.
Following Day 1 of competition, the 5-kilometer Classic, Swick had positioned herself in first place for the fourth week in a row, completing the course in 20:51.6 — also good for 13th place among varsity racers. Kwasny, meanwhile, showed that she was poised to give a peak performance at the season's biggest event, placing second behind Swick for a season-best result. Kwasny's time around the course was 22:03.8. Following Kwasny were sophomore Ashley Vomund in ninth (23:56.0) and sophomore Julie Falke in 25th (29:43.9).
While the lady Highlanders had set themselves up for a strong team finish on Saturday, the team's lone male on the weekend, Ryan Collin, turned in a strong race of his own. Collin finished the race in eighth place for the men's open division, completing the course in 19:08.4.
Day 2 of competition brought the 5-kilometer Freestyle race and the opportunity for those who were not happy with their performance in the Classic to move up on the results list — and that they did. Vomund turned in an impressive result that was much improved on her Classic, moving from ninth to sixth overall in the open category, and notching the third-fastest Freestyle time for the day (19:01.8), behind only teammates Kwasny and Swick. Vomund's total combined time for both days was 42:56.8. Falke also worked her way up the results list, to 23rd place in the girls' open race with a combined time of 54:58.0.
Meanwhile, Swick was able to maintain her lead from Friday to cross the line as the open girls' individual state champion. It was Kwasny, however, who turned in the fastest time of the day in the freestyle leg: 18:23.2 to Swick's 18:51.6. Despite a new all-time high performance, however, it was not enough to cut Swick's lead of more than one minute from the day before. The pair finished with cumulative times of 39:42.6 and 40:26.2, respectively — well over a minute in front of the next open girls' finisher.
Collin also pushed the pace on Saturday, turning in a fast Freestyle leg that bumped him up one spot on the open boys' results. Collin finished seventh with a combined time of 35:50.5.
At the end of the day, the girls found that they had raced well enough as a team to be crowned open division state champions, taking home the team title along with those of individual champion and runner-up. Collin and Vomund both earned individual medals for finishing in the top-15 in their respective divisions, adding to the team's hefty load of hardware for the day. The girls received yet another trophy for being the second-place team behind South Tahoe in the league standings entering state.
The team will be honored for their accomplishments at 6 p.m. tonight in the IHS gym at the school's annual winter sports banquet.
The young squad of four earned the open division title behind a 1-2 sweep turned in by sophomore Melanie Swick and freshman Maddy Kwasny, respectively, who finished ahead of a number of varsity skiers in the two-day competition.
The championship, held at Auburn Ski Club on Donner Summit, was run as a pursuit-style format. Racers took to the course on Friday for a 5-kilometer Classic race, which would determine their starting time and order for Saturday's 5-kilometer Freestyle race. Racers were started on Saturday based on their finish and time back from the leader in Friday's race. For example, if a racer placed third in Friday's race and finished 35 seconds behind the leader, they headed out on to the skate course 35 seconds after the leader was started, and in third place from the sound of the gun. This leads to an exciting, chase-style race, where the order in which skiers cross the line on Saturday is the final finish order, as the final times end up a culmination of both the Classic and Freestyle races.
Last weekend's events featured athletes from eight high schools throughout the Northern California and Nevada region, as well as a few additional independent athletes whose schools do not have official teams. In addition to Incline, schools in attendance included Colfax, Mammoth, Nevada Union, North Tahoe, Truckee, South Tahoe and the Sugar Bowl Academy.
Following Day 1 of competition, the 5-kilometer Classic, Swick had positioned herself in first place for the fourth week in a row, completing the course in 20:51.6 — also good for 13th place among varsity racers. Kwasny, meanwhile, showed that she was poised to give a peak performance at the season's biggest event, placing second behind Swick for a season-best result. Kwasny's time around the course was 22:03.8. Following Kwasny were sophomore Ashley Vomund in ninth (23:56.0) and sophomore Julie Falke in 25th (29:43.9).
While the lady Highlanders had set themselves up for a strong team finish on Saturday, the team's lone male on the weekend, Ryan Collin, turned in a strong race of his own. Collin finished the race in eighth place for the men's open division, completing the course in 19:08.4.
Day 2 of competition brought the 5-kilometer Freestyle race and the opportunity for those who were not happy with their performance in the Classic to move up on the results list — and that they did. Vomund turned in an impressive result that was much improved on her Classic, moving from ninth to sixth overall in the open category, and notching the third-fastest Freestyle time for the day (19:01.8), behind only teammates Kwasny and Swick. Vomund's total combined time for both days was 42:56.8. Falke also worked her way up the results list, to 23rd place in the girls' open race with a combined time of 54:58.0.
Meanwhile, Swick was able to maintain her lead from Friday to cross the line as the open girls' individual state champion. It was Kwasny, however, who turned in the fastest time of the day in the freestyle leg: 18:23.2 to Swick's 18:51.6. Despite a new all-time high performance, however, it was not enough to cut Swick's lead of more than one minute from the day before. The pair finished with cumulative times of 39:42.6 and 40:26.2, respectively — well over a minute in front of the next open girls' finisher.
Collin also pushed the pace on Saturday, turning in a fast Freestyle leg that bumped him up one spot on the open boys' results. Collin finished seventh with a combined time of 35:50.5.
At the end of the day, the girls found that they had raced well enough as a team to be crowned open division state champions, taking home the team title along with those of individual champion and runner-up. Collin and Vomund both earned individual medals for finishing in the top-15 in their respective divisions, adding to the team's hefty load of hardware for the day. The girls received yet another trophy for being the second-place team behind South Tahoe in the league standings entering state.
The team will be honored for their accomplishments at 6 p.m. tonight in the IHS gym at the school's annual winter sports banquet.
