Photos: KBJR-TV

By Kevin Moore of KBJR-TV - February 18, 2021

Thursday was a big day up at Giants Ridge, the state ski meet began with both downhill and cross country racing.

Starting with the girl’s alpine race, Duluth East’s Lauren Carlson was sitting in first place after her first run with a time of just over 40 seconds, so she just needed to keep it smooth in her second run, and that’s exactly what she did. Carlson edges out Minnetonka’s Grace Torgeson by just over three-tenths of a second, skiing her way to a state title.

“It feels really good, I mean ever since I started skiing high school I wanted to be a state champion and now I am,” said Carlson.

It feels amazing, I knew physically I could do it but mentally I didn’t know if I was strong enough to do it, but just being with the team last night and just realizing this is my last time to go all out and put everything into two runs and I did that today,” she added.

To the boy’s race, Edina’s Adam Berghult took the state title, around 4 seconds back was Duluth East’s Wyatt Shultz in 9th place.

 

In 19th place, the pride of cook county, Cy Oberholtzer, had a combined time of just over one minute, 28 seconds. Samuel Hendricks of Duluth East finished in 27th.

Over on the other side of Giants Ridge, the state boy’s classic 5-k.

In 12th place from Duluth East, Senior Ian Morse, who was pushing it out there today, came in with a time of 18 minutes, 18 seconds. Two spots behind him in 14th, the junior, Oliver Miatke, just over 4 seconds back of Ian’s pace, Paavo Rova, a sophomore from East finished in 26th with a time of 16 minutes, 2 seconds.

In the girl’s classic 5-k, the top of the leaderboard was crowded with Northland skiers.

Section champ and Proctor-Hermantown freshman Della Bettendorf came in 5th with a time of 17 minutes, 14 seconds, in 8th place, Ely’s Zoe Devine, 56 seconds back of the state championship pace, and in 10th was Duluth East senior Lily Brown, with a time of 17 minutes, 41 seconds. 

For the full results click here 2022 Alpine Ski State Tournament Schedule and Results | MSHSL.

To watch the video version of this report, follow this link to the KBJR-TV website. https://www.kbjr6.com/2022/02/17/lauren-carlson-shines-claim-state-ski-title/