Sprint racing was added to the Nordic skiing lineup only in recent years, but the end of the 2025-26 season has become a sprint in different ways for the Ely Nordic Wolves.
Two regular season meets in four days this week, including the rescheduled Ely Invitational, serve as a warmup act to the fast-approaching Section 7 competition.
The postseason begins Wednesday at Giants Ridge as both the boys and girls ski teams look to advance, both as a team and as individuals, to the single-class state meet at the same venue the following week.
Extreme cold weather prompted the postponement of last weekend’s Ely Invitational, which was held instead on Friday after deadline.
That prompted another shuffle in the schedule as the Jan. 29 Duluth East Invitational was moved up a couple of days to Tuesday.
For the first time this season, teams competed under conditions that mimic the section meet, with multiple races in a single day.
As they have all year, the Ely boys held up quite well against the challenge of perennial powerhouse Duluth East, with junior Oliver Hohenstein taking the overall individual title, teammate and classmate Aksel Skustad in second, and with brothers Wyatt and Otto Devine in sixth and seventh place, respectively.
That lifted the Wolves to a narrow team win over the top-ranked Greyhounds and sets the stage for a monumental battle for section supremacy this week at Giants Ridge.
Hohenstein, who was second after Tuesday’s opening race, came back in the freestyle and surpassed Skustad and finished with a combined time of 26:25.9 Skustad was next at 26:31, with three Duluth East skiers in the next three spots while Wyatt Devine (27:47.3) took sixth and Otto was a spot and 15 seconds behind.
Ely’s Brooks Brenny took 18th overall, followed by teammates George Sponholz (21st), Grady Anderson (24th), Blake Houde (30th), Emory Hohenstein (33rd) and Oren Solum (39th). Duluth East dominated the varsity girls competition with three of the top-four finishers and six among the top-nine.
Sophomore Mattie Lindsay paced the Wolves with a 13th-place showing and teammates Beck Sponholz and Molly Brophy were 14th and 15th respectively while Addison Kannas took 17th.
Next were Ivy Ohlhauser (22nd), June Nelson (28th), Siiri Nelson (32nd), Elsa Ellerbroek (33rd), Cora Brekke (34th), Aila Harding (39th), Madeline Johnson (41st), Izzy Macho (42nd), Payson Kundinger (48th) and Alison Poppler (49th).
In the junior varsity boys race, Ely had two top-10 finishers as Toivo Forsman placed fourth and Avery Ellebroek was in seventh.
It was an Ely sweep of junior high competition, with Lucy Luthens taking the girls race in 13:55.5 and both Cossette Brekke (third) and Natalie Bermel (eighth) in the top-10.
Among junior high boys, Ely’s Caleb Ebert was first to cross the finish line in 12:18.1 and Boden Devine was eighth.
