Palmer girls defend home course, make history

HATCHER PASS — The Palmer girls skiers did what had never been done before at the state cross-country ski meet, placing third in the team standings at the ASAA/First National Bank state ski meet at the Government Peak Recreation Area over the weekend.

According to Valley skiing historian Ed Strabel and Frontiersman archives, only a handful of Valley skiers have ever skied their way into the top 10, and no Valley team has cracked the top 10 in recent history. The Moose were led by juniors Katey Houser and Rosie Whittington-Evans, and senior Aila Berrigan in one of the best team performances in Valley skiing history. The girls overall title went to Meredith Schwartz of Service at 41:03. Houser finished third at 41:34 and Berrigan took fifth with a combined time of 42:02. Whittington-Evans finished 11th overall and Palmer took third in the Saturday relay races.

“None of those top girls were looking at us like we were coming for them at all and I think this year we just had to prove that we were contenders too and that we also were worthy of being in that top 10 and as a team too. We’re a good team and they should be a little worried,” said Berrigan. “It doesn’t feel real yet. This has been such a weird season that doesn’t feel like it’s my senior season. This was the most normal race all year it felt like because there were people cheering you on the whole way which was super great and at the beginning of this weekend coach said you know you have 16.5-k left of your high school career make something of it and that’s all I wanted to do and I’m really happy with how I did.”

In Thursday’s 5-kilometer classic race, Berrigan paced the Moose with a fourth-place finish, followed by Houser in eighth and Whittington-Evans in 10th. When Berrigan finished the 7.5-km skate race on Friday, her time of 24:31.5 was the top time of the day. Once all competitors had finished, Berrigan’s time was good enough for sixth place. Houser took the lead over her Palmer teammates on Friday with a second-place finish in 23:45 and Whittington-Evans narrowly missed out on the top 10, finishing 11th.

“I could not do anything without Rosie and Aila. We are such a unit at practice everyday you know I’ve known them since preschool,” said Houser. “We’re just like sisters. You know It’s great but there definitely is a rivalry, but it’s all out of love. It’s really special.”

Houser takes inspiration from Alaskan skiing legend and Olympic Gold Medalist winning Kikkan Randall. The Palmer girls wore pink headbands during races last weekend.

“She’s really fast,” said Moose teammate Tom Merritt of Houser.

Palmer head coach Mikey Evans applauded the work of junior nordic ski program leaders Mark Stigar and Dave Musgrave. Both Colony and Palmer skiers who were veterans of the local nordic ski programs enjoyed success on skis this weekend, and Evans noted the work ethic of Berrigan, Houser and Whittington-Evans, who trained together for much of the summer.

“All we can hope is that the message they have sent to their peers is that we should be a part of the conversation and the only way that you stay a part of the conversation is by doing the work. These races today weren’t won today, these races are won in July, August and September with the training that it takes to get there and there’s not a girl on this team today that is training less than 550 hours this year. So they wanted to send a message that these are their hills and they love skiing these courses,” said Evans. “We’re super excited to be a part of the conversation this year but we’re not satisfied with that. We’re going to go right back to work on the first Monday in May.”

West High School’s Quincy Donley took first with a time of 23:38.9, just seven seconds ahead of Service left GPRA on Saturday having wrapped up the team titles for both boys and girls. Chugiak’s Michael Earnhart won the boys overall title. According to Frontiersman archives and local skiing historian Ed Strabel, no Valley team has ever placed more than one female finisher in the top 10 ever, and no ski team has had similar success at the state meet since the Colony boys ran off a string of state titles in the late 1990’s. The skiers from Palmer and Colony were proud to be able to compete against the best skiers in the state on their home course at GPRA. Some Palmer skiers had “These are our hills” put on stickers which were placed on their skis for the state race.

“Having to go from the bottom of Eska all the way to the top of the bowl is not something that we do often and I think that hill is really like where your abilities show and if you’ve been training all year, that’s where the work gets put in is on that hill and yeah these hills are hard, they’re rough but if you put in the work you’ll get where you want to be,” said Whittington-Evans.

Ellie Henneman finished 35th for Palmer with a combined time of 48:12 and Brittyn Werner finished 43rd in 50:21.

“Aila Berrigan is technically a really gifted classical skier and she skied this weekend the way you expect a senior to ski. She stepped up and really gave that lead from the front senior vibe to everything the girls are doing so other people are going to talk about what a shock, what a surprise, yada yada. I’m not surprised at all because you can talk to each and every one of them and they said that’s what we want to do and you’re going to have to be good to beat them and the people that are in front of them right now are people that are some of not just the best skiers in Alaska but in the country.”

Palmer held a 41 second lead over West after Thursday but ended up in third place with a combined time of 3:48:42 over the three day championships.

“I’m just really proud,” said Houser. “We did so much work this summer and I think it would’ve been disappointing if we hadn’t done what we did today because everything you do during the summer, it’s money in the bank and this is when you cash in.”