Skiers sent scrambling

ANCHORAGE — Officials may have cancelled the long-standing Lynx Loppet high school cross-country ski race hosted annually by Dimond High School because of a lack of snow, but that didn’t stop some teams from coming together for one hard effort.

Late Thursday night, trail groomers finally admitted defeat. The weather was too warm to make snow at Kincaid Park, as they had planned, and organizers notified coaches early Friday morning of the cancellation of one of the biggest races of the season.

However, since the Fairbanks, Valdez and Kenai Peninsula schools’ teams had already arrived in town, coaches and race officials were determined to put on a race, and at noon Saturday held a roughly 8-kilometer race on the Hillside-Service High School trails for junior varsity and varsity boys and girls.

“It was sort of all thrown together at the last second,” said Colony High School head coach Mark Strabel.

Strabel and his team of Knights were the only Valley skiers to attend the meet, though they held a dual time trial of about 3 kilometers with Wasilla High School skiers Friday afternoon.

Strabel said the scramble was a perfect example of how the Nordic skiing community works.

“All the ski coaches around town and close by pitch in and help (when they can),” he said.

There was another reason the group came together so quickly, a tragedy that shocked many in the Alaska skiing community. Former East High School coach and Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage president Lars Spurkland passed away of an aneurysm Friday morning at age 39.

“The whole ski community has been in turmoil,” Strabel said Friday evening.

The NSAA and Anchorage School District did the only thing they could do — dedicate a race to him, formally entitled “The Lars Spurkland Scramble.”

The Knights were ready to race.

“We just wanted an opportunity to go hard and see what the Anchorage skiers have and go from there,” Strabel said.

As far as results, Dawson Knopp was the first Colony finisher for the boys, coming in third at 18:36, and Greta Jenkins was first for the Colony girls, coming in 21st at 23:28.

As the scrambling settles down, Mat-Su Valley skiers are working to put their minds back on training.

Strabel said he doesn’t think attending the meet gave them any significant advantage over the Palmer and Wasilla teams, but it did give the skiers valuable time on snow as many of them look forward to the Besh Cup races.

Practicing over winter break shouldn’t be a problem.

“A lot of kids are pretty serious about it,” he said. “They’ve been asking us for practice (regimens).”

About 10 of his athletes have already signed up for all six Besh Cups with the intention to try and make it to the U.S. Ski Team’s Junior Nationals competition in March of 2015, Strabel said.

As for upcoming races around the Valley, the Mat-Su Ski Club’s Icicle Double is on track to run Dec. 27 and 28 with a classic race on Saturday and freestyle on Sunday at Government Peak Recreation Area. Distances range from 5 to 30 kilometers, though high school athletes are encouraged to compete in the shorter-distance races if they choose to participate.

“Hey, get out there and do those races (over break),” Strabel says to his skiers. “Go out and have fun.”

The next official high school race is slated for Jan. 9, 2015 in Valdez.

Complete results for the Spurkland Scramble can be found online at http://bit.ly/1IO1xj1.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.

Lars Spurkland Scramble

8-kilometer freestyle

Service High

Boys

Team scores

1) South 1:14:38.0, 2) Service 1:16:07.5, 3) West 1:17:02.5, 4) West Valley 1:19:22.4, 5) Colony 1:21:11.8, 6) Dimond 1:22:53.6, 7) Grace Christian 1:23:27.7, 8) Chugiak 1:27:16.2, 9) East 1:29:18.8.

Individual results

1) Wonders, Hunter (Sou) 18:11.9; 2) Koenig, Benjamin (WV) 18:31.4; 3) Knopp, Dawson (Col) 18:36.5; 4) Hoefler, Mathew (Sou) 18:37.4; 5) Schumacher, Gus (Ser) 18:37.8; 6) Balcao, Will (Sou) 18:38.5; 7) Jager, Luke (W) 18:40.1; 8) Tobin, Canyon (Ser) 18:49.7; 9) Truskowski, Conner (Ser) 18:59.0; 10) Fritzel, Trent (GC) 19:05.5; 11) Denton, Kelson (D) 19:06.6; 12) Wolfe, Hamish (Sou)19:10.2; 13) Consenstein, Jack (W) 19:12.9; 14) Bickford, Riley (W) 19:26.8; 15) Koenig, Jonathan (WV) 19:35.0; 16) Egeland, Brett (Sou) 19:38.8; 17) Hull, Andrew (Sou) 19:39.0 South; 18) Bassett, Zach (Ser) 19:41.0; 19) Mans, Will (W) 19:42.7; 20) Sayre, Tristan (WV) 19:44.0; 21) Kilby, Alex (Sou) 19:47.7; 22) Bickford, Ryan (W) 19:53.5; 23) York, Sam (W) 19:58.8; 24) Cvancara, Luke (D) 19:59.3; 25) Maytas, Paul (E) 19:59.5; 26) Peterson-Thompson, Dakota (Col) 20:13.4; 27) Cosgrave, John (GC) 20:19.0; 28) Wiese, Tristan (W) 20:25.2; 29) Wing, Brian (Chu) 20:33.8; 30) Thompson, Hunter (Ser) 20:41.7; 31) Harrison, Nick (Col) 21:09.5; 32) Birch, Garrett (Col) 21:12.4; 33) Darrow, Everett (WV) 21:32.0; 34) Hickey, Conner (E) 21:33.3; 35) Swingle, Finn (WV); 36) Denton, Kaden (D) 21:38.5; 37) Mumford, Ty (GC) 21:41.7; 38) Earnest, Aidan (WV) 21:44.0; 39) Brubaker, Ryan (Ser) 21:49.7; 40) Ginter, Jack (Chu) 21:52.7; 41) Latimer, Charlie (Chu) 21:58.7; 42) Cvancara, Dax (D) 22:09.2; 43) Barber, Micah 22:09.6; 44) Rueter, Gabe 22:13.2 ; 45) Farring, Tim (Col) 22:17.6; 46) Hartley, Morgan (D) 22:18.0; 47) Roach, Joshua (GC) 22:21.5; 48) Nitisaporn, Jonah (D) 22:28.4; 49) Parks, Hoxie (Homer) 22:34.4; 50) Davis, Jacob (Homer) 22:47.5; 51) Stoltz, Parker (WV) 22:49.8; 52) Anderson, James (Chu) 22:51.0; 53) Scholz, Tadhg (Homer) 23:02.1; 54) Wegner, Sergei (Valdez) 23:07.3; 55) Hinrichs, Ari (E) 23:18.3; 56) Haywood, Aden (E) 24:27.7; 57) Isaacson, Ethan (GC) 25:20.7; 58) Montoya, Zach (E) 28:34.6.

Girls

Team scores

1) West 1:26:08.7, 2) Service 1:28:41.5, 3) South 1:29:15.3, 4) East 1:30:38.6, 5) Chugiak 1:33:38.3, 6) Dimond 1:38:52.4, 7) Homer 1:40:54.5, 8) West Valley 1:42:21.7, 9) Colony 1:42:46.4.

Individual results

1) Blanchet, Lydia (W) 20:37.7; 2) Gellert, Molly (W) 20:46.4; 3) Tarbath, Emma (Ser) 21:08.4; 4) Hunt-Smith, Taryn (Ser) 21:36.4; 5) Flynn, Annika (Sou) 21:43.9; 6) Flynn, Morgan (E) 21:48.4; 7) Darnell, Anna (Sou) 21:58.1; 8) tie, York, Magdalen (W) and Amick, Abby (E) 22:06.8; 10) Jager, Ana (E) 22:08.5; 11) Terry, Ryan (Ser) 22:32.2; 12) Fick, Fiona (W) 22:37.8; 13) Bembenek, Irene (Sou) 22:46.6; 14) Grunblatt, Jenni (Sou) 22:46.7; 15) Denton, Kinsey (D) 22:50.1; 16) Booher, Hannah (Chu) 22:52.2; 17) Booher, Heidi (Chu) 22:55.2; 18) Kiekintveld, Naomi (Sou) 22:58.7; 19) Gellert, Carlie (W) 23:12.4; 20) Romey, Sage (Ser) 23:24.5; 21) Jenkins, Greta (Col) 23:28.1; 22) Nelson, Emma (Chu) 23:31.4; 23) Stevens, Kendall (W) 23:48.7; 24) Ditto, Julia 24:00.2; 25) Block, Jordyn (Col) 24:11.7; 26) Cook, Clare (Chu) 24:19.5; 27) Meeds, Maggie (Sou) 24:20.0; 28) Aist, Alisa (Ser) 24:33.6; 29) Ellert, Rachel (H) 24:34.1; 30) Fink, Megan (E) 24:34.9; 31) Wood, Jade (Sou) 24:35.9; 32) Von Imhof, Liesel (D) 24:40.9; 33) Hediger, Jewel (WV) 24:58.3; 34) Cvancara, Ruth (D) 25:01.5; 35) Presler, Peyton (WV) 25:01.8; 36) Daigle, Aspen (H) 25:15.7; 37) Ratzlaff, Zoe (WV) 25:25.3; 38) Wolf, Sara (H) 25:27.8; 39) Olsen, Lis (Col) 25:31.8; 40) Russell, Audrey (H) 25:36.9. 41) Allen, Stephany (Valdez) 25:46.6; 42) Devine, Lauren (Chu) 25:56.8; 43) Norris, Rylee (Valdez) 26:19.3; 44) Carney, Ally (D) 26:19.9; 45) Mueller, Olivia (Chu) 26:30.2; 46) Vantrease Mariah (H) 26:31.7; 47) Reitano, Kelin (WV) 26:56.3; 48) Langmann, Jasmine (D) 27:23.4; 49) Berbig, Cora (D) 27:38.7; 50) Robertson, Julya (Ser) 27:44.8; 51) Robicheaux, Mary (E) 28:01.7 52) Shick, Racheal (E) 28:02.0; 53) Freeman, Sarah (E) 28:23.2; 54) Willson, Roan (WV) 28:39.2; 55) Gottmeier, Brooke (WV) 28:55.4; 56) Meyerhofer, M.E. (Col) 29:34.8