West Valley wins the title for most skiers with a squad of 80 or so under the direction of Greg Whisenhant, Lathrop has a new coach, Nick Crawford, and a bevy of returning talent, while North Pole continues to grow under coach Ginger Hamlin.
“I’ve been impressed with the level of high school skiing in Alaska,” said Crawford, who skied for Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. “It’s a step above other parts of the country, and you have a really strong ski community here.”
Temperature permitting, the first big race of the season for prep skiers is today at Birch Hill Recreation Area when the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks hosts the first race of the Flint Hills Town Race Series.
The Fairbanks Youth Sports Season Opener is slated to get under way at 11 a.m. today.
In addition to the three local teams, the event is expected to attract high school skiers from Colony, Palmer and possibly three or four other schools, according to Whisenhant, adding that about 70 West Valley skiers have registered for the event.
While North Pole doesn’t have the numbers that West Valley and Lathrop (50) have, the Patriots should be able to field full teams by December and many of them are ready to hit the trails at Birch Hill today.
“We’ll ski regardless of the temperature,” Hamlin said. “We practice in this kind of stuff, so we’re used to it. We’re no softies.”
Lathrop Malemutes
The Lathrop boys have a strong returning group of skiers led by Logan Hanneman, Pat Nugent and Stefan Hajdukovich.
The boys squad has set some lofty goals for this season.
“They have goals to win regional championship and maybe win state,” Crawford said. “I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but it could happen.”
Leading the way for the Lathrop girls are the likes of Megan Edic, Claire Ferree, Mikayla Hamlin.
“Things have been going good,” Crawford said. “We’re at the end of our third week of practice and the younger skiers have progressed a long ways already.”
Crawford said that some of the Malemutes top skiers won’t be in the lineup today because they are still recovering from recent illnesses.
North Pole Patriots
Matt Stoller heads up the boys team at North Pole while Christi Schmitz and her younger sister Kelly Schmitz lead the way for the girls squad.
“Our goal last year was to have complete teams at the regional and state meets and we accomplished that,” coach Hamlin said. “We were able to hold our own and some did pretty well. We want to repeat that again this year.”
Coach Hamlin is working with 13 skiers this year, many of whom are just getting into the sport.
“The first couple of races, we’ll have the newer kids going shorter distances, then we’ll bump them up to the high school distances,” she said. “We’ve opted to ease them into it.”
West Valley Wolfpack
Whisenhant said he has a lot of depth on both the boys and girls squads and that should help the Wolfpack make a strong showing this season.
“Just from the depth, I’m seeing more talent than I expected, especially on the guys side of things,” Whisenhant said. “We only lost one skier from our girls team, so we’ve got a lot of experience out there.”
James Leder and Vanya Rybkin are the only returning varsity boys, but Whisenhant is expecting big things from the likes of freshman Kuba Grzeda, Riley Troyer, Zach Keskinen and Brandon Kowalski.
Marisa Rorabaugh, the lone senior in the varsity lineup, leads the West Valley girls.
“Through her training this past year, she has shown a tremendous amount of improvement; her technique is smooth and fluid,” Whisenhant said. “She’s shown a lot of leadership as well.”
Hannah Boyer, Eliza Rorabaugh, Rachael Schmoker, Elizabeth Whisehhant and Emma Mayo should give West Valley a strong varsity lineup.
“They’re skiing close together and their technique is so smooth,” coach Whisenhant said. “I have a feeling they will do quite well at state.”
Coach Whisenhant and the Wolfpack will get the chance to see just where they stand among the best in Alaska at the Lynx Loppet in Anchorage early next month.
“We won’t know really where we stand until we make that trip,” he said. “I’m sure we have a lot of work ahead of us, but that race will give us an idea of what we’ve got to do.”
Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.
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