Colony skier wins Kenai race

Kenai Central’s Emily Moss and Colony’s Jayden Rice lead the Kenai Pursuit at Tsalteshi Trails after Friday’s first day of racing.

The two-day event concludes today with a skate race of about 6 kilometers at Tsalteshi. The event will be done in a pursuit format, meaning skiers go out according to the times they were behind the leader in Friday’s race. The boys race starts at 10:30 a.m., while the girls start at 11:15 a.m.

Moss finished the 7-kilometer classic race Friday in 25 minutes, 10 seconds, to earn the right to take off first from the line today. Soldotna’s Tania Boonstra finished second at 25:22, meaning she will take off 12 seconds behind Moss. Colony’s Kaija Backus finished at 26:05.

Also in the top 10 from the Kenai Peninsula were Soldotna’s Leanne Gordon in eighth at 27:52, Soldotna’s Avery Cuifo in ninth at 28:05 and Homer’s Eryn Field in 10th at 28:14.

The boys race will see a parade of Colony skiers start first. Colony’s Jayden Rice won Friday’s 7K classic in 21:34. Also for the Knights, Clayton Steer was second at 21:36, Weston Sensabaugh was third at 22:00 and Coby Marvin was fourth at 22:07.

From the peninsula, Soldotna’s Andrew Cox was fifth at 22:19, Kenai’s Jack Laker was sixth at 22:29, Homer’s Garrett Briscoe was seventh at 22:35, Soldotna’s Levi Mickelson was eighth at 22:52 and Soldotna’s Jonathan Gordon was 10th at 23:01.