Everything went according to form on day two of the Region VI Cross Country Ski Championships: the West Valley girls and Lathrop boys won their respective relays and retained their leads from day one to take the 2010 Region VI titles.

West Valley's girls didn't quite lead wire to wire, but did lead for the final three of four legs.  Ema Mayo of the WVHS "B" team "won" the opening leg over WVHS "A" team leadoff skier Eliza Rorabaugh by a scant 1.3 seconds.  However, before the second-leg skiers had even left the exchange Boyer had taken the lead, and the last two skiers on the team, Elizabeth Whisenhant and Marisa Rorabaugh, had no company at all.  West valley's victory margin was more than two minutes over the runner-up Lathrop "A" team of Mikayla Hamlin, Megan Edic, Claire Ferree and Kimberly Fitzgerald. 

The 2:00+ margin, added to the nearly seven minutes that the Wolfpack laid on the Malemutes, left West Valley with a final victory cushion of just less than nine minutes (8:59.7) over Lathrop, with North Pole in third.

Third place in the relay went to the West Valley "B" team of Ema Mayo, Rachael Schmoker, Helen Sudkamp-walker, and Sarah Jackson.

North Pole's girls came in fourth overall.  Kelly Schmitz had the fourth-fastest first leg and sister Christy Schmitz had the second-fastest fourth leg. Sarah O'Learly and Nicole Rood skied the second and third legs.

Lathrop's boys held a lead of 2:52.5 after Friday's individual event. Saturday's margin was much narrower, but their 28.9 second win over West Valley was enough to pad their lead by just a bit and earn the Regional title.

Both West Valley and Lathrop put their top finishers in Friday's race on their "B" teams today, so it was likely that the relay would be a bit closer than the team scores from Friday's race.  The skiers did not disappoint.

Once again on the first leg it was a Mayo on West Valley's "B" team who arrived first -- this time Wyatt, yesterday's runner-up, in 13:17.0, nearly 20 seconds ahead of Lathrop's "A" team leadoff skier Robert Hovda.  James Leder of West Valley's "A" squad was third, 28 seconds behind Hovda.

Riley Troyer turned that 28 second deficit into a nine-second lead for the Wolfpack at the halfway point as he caught, then overtook Lathrop's number two, Luke Castellini.  Mayo's teammate Zach Keskinen fell to third. 

Lathrop's third-leg skier, Stefan Hajdukovich had one assignment:  catch and pass West Valley's Kuba Grzeda.  This he did, in the final third of the course, reversing the nine second difference so that it was in Lathrop's favor after three legs.

On the final leg it was Pat Nugent (L) versus Vanya Rybkin (WV) for all the marbles.  For the first half of the course - the Tower Direct climb and descending to the Biathlon range -- the margin held steady in the 8-10 second range.  On the climb from the range back to the stadium the Nuge nudged the gap first to 15 seconds, then to 20, and finally to nearly 29 seconds at the finish. 

Friday's individual champ, Logan Hanneman, was skiing the anchor for Lathrop's "B" team.  He started 1:49 behind Hajdukovich, and there was some interest in whether he might be able to move up and challenge the first two teams.  However, it appeared to be that Hanneman was not putting the hammer down and was saving a little juice for the ASAA championships two weeks hence.  Maybe not a bad idea after his recent heavy racing and travel schedule.

In the overall, Lathrop's margin was 3:21 over West Valley, with North Pole finishing third in the boys rankings.

All the Region VI schools will be in action in two weeks at the ASAA State High School Championships here in Fairbanks on Thursday-Friday-Saturday, February 25-26-27, on the Jim Whisenhant Ski Trails at Birch Hill Recreation area.  Thursday's race will be an interval start free technique race, Friday will see a mass-start classic technique event, and the relays will be on Saturday.  Start times on Thursday and Friday will be 1:00PM for the first race.  On Saturday the first relay start is at 11:00AM.

Many volunteers will be needed for these races.  Watch for announcements on the NSCF listserv and on the NSCF website. 

Results below in text format

x