After some time off for the holidays, Ely’s Nordic Wolves are moving into the heart of their season.
A night ski event Tuesday at Cloquet served as a tune-up for the state’s largest regular season event - set for this Saturday at Giants Ridge.
But the Mesabi East Invitational, which attracts nearly all of the state’s top teams, is just part of a busy stretch for the Wolves that - starting Saturday - includes five meets in 15 days.
Those events will prep the Wolves in varying formats and get both the varsity boys and girls teams ready for postseason action in early-February.
“It is really important,” Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein said of the stretch. “It’s the big meet area of our season and the biggest things is trying to keep everybody healthy and stay on our schedule in our different efforts as bests as we can. It really is compact and we’re hoping to get through this and be at our strongest at the end of the season.”
Nearly all of the state’s top skiing schools will participate this weekend at Giants Ridge, in an event that serves in part as a sneak preview of the state competition.
But the event is with limited entries, and skiers take part in just one race on the day instead of the usual two.
The Wolves will be limited to six entries in both the varsity boys and girls levels, along with a smaller than usual junior varsity contingent, Saturday’s race kicks off a flurry that includes two more events this week and two more the next, culminating in the Jan 24 Ely Invitational - the Wolves’ lone home event of the year.
Tuesday, four Ely boys skiers were in the top-10 and the Wolves were second as a team - behind only juggernaut Duluth East - in the team standings at Cloquet.
“I was happy with our varsity boys,” said Hohenstein. “Duluth East is just going to be a powerhouse of a team. Maybe if everything comes together for us we may be able to squeak a win out against them, and we always come in with that type of a mentality, but they are going to be a hard team to beat.”
Junior Aksel Skustad led the way for the boys, taking fourth overall in 13:03, with teammate Wyatt Devine in fifth by a split-second, Senior Otto Devine (13:25) and junior George Sponholz (13:36) both also made the top-10 in seventh and ninth, respectively.
Oliver Hohenstein was Ely’s nextbest skier in 13th, with Brooks Brenny (22nd), Blake Houde (28th) and Oren Solum (37th) following.
In varsity girls action, Molly Brophy (16th, 16:55) and Mattie Lindsay (17th, 16:56) were the Wolves’ top-two finishers on the day and the Ely team was second to Duluth East.
Aila Harding (18:10) placed 27th in the standings and teammate June Nelson finished 28th (18:18), while rounding out the varsity lineup were Izzy Macho (30th), Lucy Dunn (31st) and Alison Poppler (34th).
Many of Ely’s younger skiers had strong days, with freshman Emory Hohenstein taking third in the junior varsity boys race (14:47) and Grady Anderson (15:03) in fifth.
Among JV girls, the Wolves’ Addison Kannas was the runner-up in 16:38 while Ivy Ohlhauser was in fourth place (17:28).
In junior high competition, eighth-grader Beck Sponholz of Ely was the runner-up among the girls, finishing a two-kilometer race in 8:47 - just a second out of first.
