Knights set for state ski meet

GENE JANSEN/For the Frontiersman

MAT-SU — The Colony Knights Region III skimeister, Joe Dougherty, and third-place finisher, Peter Doner, will be joining the state's most elite cross-country skiers at the Birch Hill ski area in Fairbanks for the Alaska State Nordic Ski Championships.

The tournament, which will be hosted by West Valley High, features three days of skiing from Thursday-Saturday, where high school teams from around the state will send their best six racers to compete for individual and team titles.

The Mat-Su has not had a state skimeister champion since 2000, when Colony's Eric Strabel won the last of his three consecutive individual titles. Although the Valley's current top boys' skier does not profess to be the state's fastest racer, Dougherty is taking steps to become among the best.

Last week, at the Region III championships at Su Valley High, he won the freestyle segment with a time of 23 minutes, 58.8 seconds. Dougherty also placed fourth in the classic portion with a time of 26:01.4 and finished as the overall winner. As the region's top skier, he wants to help his team retain the tradition of being one of Alaska's top ski schools and will be working to improve the caliber of his classic technique as the state championships approach.

"I think we may be able to do better this year than we did last year at state," Dougherty said Tuesday after practice. "I've set a goal of a top-10 finish in both races."

By mastering technique and balance first, Colony ski coach Ed Strabel said, the speed and strength will naturally follow. The Knights were taking advantage of recent snowfall to work on some of their techniques and racing strategies.

"Skiers by nature are a self-motivated group," Strabel said. "They do the development of the training schedule. The key is to keep it flexible, like the weather."

Skiers will line up, single file, for a freestyle race on Day 1, in which each ski team will have one lane from which all skiers will have a mass start.

Since each high school is allowed a maximum of six racers, team coaches will choose the lineup order.

Day 2 classic races are slated to be interval starts and Day 3 will feature relays. Strabel will strategize with his captains, Joe Dougherty and Chris Heiserman, who placed 12th overall at regions, about their race preparations. He said his senior skiers do most of the team's coaching.

"We have high hopes," Heiserman said. "We are a late-season team. That's what drives us the most."

Doner, who finished third overall at regions, expects to do well on the up-and-down-hill course at Birch Hill because it favors a team with power over speed.

"Overall, our team is more of an aerobic, horse-power team," he said.

Both Colony Knights teams expect to do well at every state ski meet, but there is tough competition.

Although the boys' team has won three state titles in the last eight years, it has not won a team title since 1999.

The girls' team has a more formidable tradition to overcome. Even if it performs faster than this year's Region III champion, Soldotna, and gets by the Palmer Moose, winners of the recent Mat-Su Borough-only meet, they still have to move past the powerful Service High Cougars, who have won nine consecutive state championships.

Colony girls' ski team coach, Sue Skvorc, said despite the level of competition out there, her team is confident and has enough depth to make a respectable finish.

This week the girls will be training hard on timing and balance, she said. Senior Claire Warren, who placed 37th overall among the girls, said the Knight girls' team will be aiming to beat the Moose.

"I'm confident we will be able to pull it out," Warren said. "We were taken a little off guard by the cold."