Ely’s Nordic Wolves more than just held up - they stood out on the state’s largest stage last weekend.
The varsity boys took second overall - among more than 40 teams and behind only perennial power Duluth East - at Saturday’s Mesabi East Invitational.
Oliver Hohenstein and Wyatt Devine both had top-10 finishes and Aksel Skustad wasn’t far behind as the Wolves made their mark during a snowy day at Giants Ridge.
The Ely girls placed 22nd in the varsity girls competition, and the strength even extended to the junior varsity levels, with the Ely JV boys taking third and the girls in fourth.
The success came on a day that brought teams from all over the state, with roughly 1,000 skiers competing.
“We always hope to go into Mesabi East Invitational with everyone healthy and ready to compete with some of the best skiers in the state,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein. “A couple of our skiers were less than 100 percent as they were recovering from illness and one did sit out, which allowed another skier to substitute in, so with all of that uncertainty, I was very impressed with our overall showing as a team.”
In the boys classic race, junior Oliver Hohenstein took fifth in a field of 121, completing the 16:56. Wyatt Devine wound up ninth in 17:12.6 while Otto Devine rounded out the Ely trifecta by taking 19th in 18:02.6.
Freestyle racing followed and Aksel Skustad was 13th in 17:20.6, in a race that had 131 skiers.
Junior George Sponholz placed 30th (18:03.4) and Brooks Brenny placed 51st (18:53.3).
Those high finishes allowed the Wolves to place in front of nearly all of the state’s best teams - and gave Ely the prestigious second place finish.
“I think the boys were very excited to be up on the podium as a group and receive their second place medals,” said Todd Hohenstein.
“They thrive on skiing well as a group. If one guy has a great performance to lead things off, they all have this sense of ‘now it’s my turn to do my part.’ Oliver was able to ski from a difficult spot, going out 4th overall, and set a very good time. The snow was coming down pretty heavily during the classic races and that makes things more challenging.
“Aksel had a similar performance in the afternoon skate race and with great efforts from Wyatt and Otto in the classic and George and Brooks in the skate, they ended up putting together a very good cumulative score. We have high caliber individual skiers that finish in the top 10 but it’s most satisfying when everyone steps up and competes at their own edge of personal potential.”
Among the varsity girls, Ely’s Mattie Lindsay was 38th in the classic race in 22:28.8, with Aila Harding in 71st (24:41.1) and June Nelson taking 77th (25:01.8).
The top freestyle skier was Mattie Lindsay (38th, 22:28.6), with Isabella Macho (78th, 24:53.5) and Alison Poppler (90th, 26:21.1).
In junior varsity action, both Ely teams put together big days.
The boys were fueled by Blake Houde’s third-place finish (19:00.4) in the classic race, with Grady Anderson taking 11th in 20:13.5. Emory Hohenstein (13th, 20:02.2) and Oren Solum (16th, 20:06.7) had strong showings in freestyle.
Ivy Ohlhausuer put together a solid day and was fourth (22:35.3) in the girls classic and Siiri Nelson was 19th (24:47.8) in the same race, while Addison Kannas (fifth, 21:35.9) and Cora Brecke (eighth, 22:25.6) were in the top-10 in the freestyle.
“The same experience unfolded for our JV boys, having the opportunity to take the podium,” said Todd Hohenstein. “Some of the larger teams use the JV race as additional spots to ski their upperclassmen that didn’t make the limited spots available for the varsity race. Our JV teams were made up of sophomores and mostly freshman skiers. To have the boys earn a third place and our JV girls just miss out on a third place finish by one point, was a great sign of things to come.”
The skiers were at the Duluth Marshall Sprints on Friday and a home meet in Ely, at Hidden Valley, is slated for Saturday, Jan. 24, as the regular season nears its home stretch.
“Overall, our plan is always to offer up our best effort but not to peak at this meet,” Todd Hohenstein said of the Mesabi East event. “I am excited to build off our team’s success and look forward to our section meet on the same course in early February.”
