George Sponholz and Otto Devine may have nightmares about the relay course at Giants Ridge.
For the second time in as many weeks, an untimely fall on the course cost the Ely duo dearly - and on Wednesday, it likely cost them a spot in the relay finals at the state high school Nordic skiing meet.
Sponholz and Devine were seventh in their heat and 14th overall and did not advance to the final round of the spring relays at state.
The same held true for the all-freshman girls relay combination of Addison Kannas and Ivy Ohlhauser, who ended up fifth in their heat and 10th overall.
Both relays had fields of 24 teams from schools across the state, with the relay competition taking up the opening day of the two-day state meet.
It was an unfortunate situation all around for Sponholz and Devine, who faced similar circumstances last week at the Section 7 competition.
“There was a pretty tight corner coming out of the stadium and what ended up happening is two guys went down from another team, right in front of George, and he got caught in that wash,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohnestein. “It was almost exactly the same situation of what we had in the finals at sections, where we got pushed back and they had to try and claw their way back into it. There was nothing he could have done, and it was just one of those racing situations, and unfortunately, we got bumped.”
Sponholz and Devine teamed up with a time of 13:26.31, and they had to make up too much ground to get into the top eight.
The Ely boys finished in second place last week at sections and qualified for state as a team, so the relay results factor into the team standings and the Wolves went into Thursday’s individual pursuit races in eighth place, among 16 teams.
“The boys did the best they could and gave everything they had,” said Hohenstein. “And right now we’re sitting in eighth place as a team, which is going to be a big effort to get into the top five from here, but you never know. On the way home, our guys were upbeat and it was like ‘we’ll come down here and ski our best and see where things fall out.’” In the girls relay, Kannas and Ohlhasuer made their state debut and wound up fifth in a very competitive heat, finishing in 15:49.77, about five seconds behind a relay from Stillwater.
“For the girls, with both of them being freshmen it was a great learning experience,” said Hohenstein. “It was a challenging field, very challenging with a fast field of skiers. We were in a heat that was one of the faster heats, and it worked well. As a team, I was proud of their efforts. It would have been nice to make it to the finals, but when you go from 24 down to eight, that’s quite a bit of trimming.”
The duo also had a highlight, trimming 30 seconds from their time at the section meet.
“They definitely were picking up their game and had their best relay yet,” said Hohenstein.
