Valley skiers post solid finish at state meet

Feb. 25, 2007

By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman

ANCHORAGE - A pair of Mat-Su cross-country skiers wrapped up their high school seasons in style Saturday afternoon at the ASAA First National Bank State Nordic Skiing Championships in Anchorage.

Colony senior Ryan VanGorder placed eighth and Susitna Valley junior Galen Johnson finished 10th in the classical race at Kincaid Park, the final individual race of the season before the duo heads to the U.S. Junior National meet next week.

&#8220It was a really good race,” VanGorder said moments after finishing the 7.5-meter course.

Service High School's Patrick Johnson won the event to complete a sweep of the weekend's individual races. Johnson also won Friday's 10-kilometer freestyle race to earn the boys' skimeister title as the best all-around skier.

Overall, Van Gorder wound up eighth, while Johnson finished 14th in the two-day event.

&#8220It was a fun two days of racing and I stayed healthy, so I'm very happy,” Johnson said following the classical race.

Led by VanGorder, the Colony boys team had a strong weekend, placing fifth overall in the two-day combined event.

Five Knights finished in the top-50. Nick Whitmore was 29th overall, Mason Wick was 35th, Alex Munger finished 42nd and Jeff Ford was 47th.

&#8220It's been a good season and it's nice to wrap it up with some good races,” Colony head coach Mark Strabel said Friday.

The Palmer boys finished in 15th place in the team event, while Wasilla was 18th.

Top-100 Mat-Su finishers in the two-day event included Palmer's Brian Senta in 48th place overall, Colony's Evan Walker in 65th, Palmer's Ryan Cunningham in 84th, Palmer's Dunedin Strickland in 87th, Palmer's Dunlap Davis in 96th, Wasilla's Baruch Chamberlain in 98th, Wasilla's Todd Fife in 99th and Kevin Smith of Palmer in 100th.

Other Mat-Su boys finishers included Wylie Mangelsdorf of Palmer (101st); Wasilla's Logan Burley (107th), Tucker Minnick (113th) and Micheal Lewis (114th); and Su Valley's Tyler Figley (112th).

In the girls' overall standings, South's Caitlin Patterson also earned a sweep, winning both the freestyle and classical events to outpace West Valley's Becca Rorabaugh by more than half a minute to claim the skimeister crown.

Erin Skvorc of Colony was the top Mat-Su finisher, placing 40th overall. Skvorc's two-day total didn't reflect how well she skied Thursday, however, as she raced her way to 24th place in the girls' 7.5-kiometer freestyle race.

The Colony girls were also the top Mat-Su team, placing 12th, while Palmer and Wasilla wound up in the exact same spots as their boys teams, finishing 15th and 18th, respectively.

Palmer's Kimberly Del Frate was 57th overall, Colony's Emily Dougherty was 66th, Colony's Heidi Doner finished 68th, Rachel Wintz of Palmer placed 70th. Jae Lynch of Wasilla was the Warriors' top finisher in 71st place.

Palmer's Jessica Odegard placed 76th overall, three spots ahead of teammate Dottie Hoople in 79th. Amanda Del Frate placed 82nd for the Moose, while Lindsey Miller of Wasilla finished in 83rd position overall.

Other Mat-Su finishers included Colony's Heather Kelahan (86th) and Jaclyn Pace (90th); Wasilla's Stephanie Flores (92nd), Katherine Parker (103rd), Valerie Schleich (106th) and Amanda Beam (112th); and Palmer's Kiersten Dahms (97th).

The meet wrapped up Saturday with relay races. The Colony boys again took the top honors among Mat-Su teams, finishing the four person, 20-kilometer race relay in sixth place. Palmer placed 15th in the relay while Wasilla was 18th.

On the girls side, the Palmer girls raced their way to a 13th place finish, while Colony wound up in 16th and Wasilla finished 18th.

The weather over the weekend was nearly ideal for racing, with sunny skies and a cold, hard racetrack that had racers raving about the conditions.

&#8220It was really, really fast,” Galen Johnson said of the course.

The speedy conditions did lead to some pitfalls, however, including several spills that left racers scrambling to stay on their feet.

VanGorder was the victim of such a fall Thursday in the freestyle race. Skiing with the leaders, he wiped out near the end of the course, costing him some valuable time.

&#8220I had a tumble which set me back a little bit,” he said. &#8220I was in fifth, then fell and dropped to tenth, then caught back up to eighth by the end.”

Johnson didn't fall, but said in Friday's classical race he had to dodge a couple unlucky racers along the way.

&#8220There were some kinda sketch downhills and some intense curves. Kids were wiping out,” he said. &#8220I had a kid go down right in front of me and I had to sort of hockey stop around him.”

The chilly temperatures also made things a little difficult on the racers.

&#8220Those downhills were just so screaming fast, my face is really cold right now,” VanGorder said.

Both VanGorder and Johnson are members of Alaska's Junior National Ski team, which will travel to Soldier Hollow, Utah next week to compete for the Alaska Cup, the highest honor in U.S. junior racing.

When they're not racing each other, the two are good friends, and Johnson said it will be fun to travel to nationals with a fellow Valley competitor.

&#8220It's fun to have some Region III guys there,” he said.

While Johnson still has another season of high school racing left ahead of him, VanGorder said he's starting to look toward the collegiate ranks. Although he only started skiing competitively as a high school freshman, he said he thinks he's got a bright future in the sport.

&#8220I'm still in high school, so there's a lot more skiing to be done,” he said. &#8220I'd like to make this a lifelong sport for me.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com