South senior pushes mark set by Colony skier

South Anchorage senior Scott Patterson is one race away from becoming the second skier to win three straight boys Skimeister awards at the Alaska State High School Nordic Ski Championships.

Patterson turned in a dominating performance in Thursday’s 7.5-kilometer interval start freestyle race on the opening day of the 2010 state championships on Thursday at Birch Hill Recreation Area.

“I was 45 or 50 seconds head on everyone I was getting splits off of, so I knew I was doing well,” Patterson said shortly after crossing the finish line with a time of 19 minutes, 55.6 seconds. “I felt like a skied a strong race.”

Indeed he did.

He finished more than a minute ahead of his nearest rival — Silas Talbot (21:00.1) of Service — on a day the turned colder and more blustery as the afternoon wore on.

“We’ve been skiing in 40-degree weather in Anchorage, so it definitely makes a difference,” he said. “I don’t mind the cold, it’s just something that you have to get adjusted to.”

If figure to get even colder today when the boys return to the trails for a 10-kilometer mass-start classic race that begins at 1 p.m. It will be followed by the girls 7.5K race.

Unless something very strange happens today, it would take an Olympic-style performance from someone to prevent Patterson from equaling Eric Strabel’s record of three straight Skimeister Awards from 1998-2000 as a member of the Colony High School ski team.

Talbot posted a time of 21:00.1, with South’s Forrest Mahlen (21:09.3) and Noah Hagen (21:18.9) taking third and fourth. Isaac Lammers of Chugiak rounded out the top five in 21:21.1.

A pair of Lathrop skiers, Patrick Nugent and Logan Hanneman, cracked the top 10 at eighth and ninth, respectively.

“It was great, I felt awesome out there,” said Nugent, who had one of his best race’s of the season, finishing in 21:35.4. “I was light on my skis was able to work my way up the hills with ease.

“On the tower direct (part of the trail) I felt something kick in, so I just went for it the rest of the way,” he added.

Hanneman finished in 21:39.9.

“I’ve been under the weather for the past few weeks so it hurt a lot,” Hanneman said. “I went as fast as I could go but I’m still not 100 percent.”

Other top 10 finishers were sixth-place Nick Treinen of West Anchorage in 21:30.0, seventh-place Travis Semmens of Kenai in 21:33.0 and 10th place Peter Mamrol of Service in 21:46.8.

West Valley’s top finisher was freshman Riley Troyer in 26th place in 23:05.8.

“It was a great race for me” Troyer said. “My skis were good and I was able to push it the whole race. I felt fast and had a lot of energy out there.”

Patterson’s performance enabled the South Anchorage boys take a commanding lead in the team standings, with a time of 1 hour, 24 minutes, 21.5 seconds. Service is second in 1:27:03.7 and Lathrop is third in 1:39:21.4.

West Valley holds down seventh place and North Pole is 21st.

Following Friday’s races, the state championships conclude on Saturday with the girls 4x3K relay at 11 a.m. and the boys 4x5K relay at 12:30 p.m.