DURANGO \u2014 Just embrace the chaos, people. Accept and move on.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the best way to deal with the state ski meet, which wrapped Day 1 on Thursday with Battle Mountain\u2019s girls\u00a0holding a 12-point edge over favored Aspen, while the Vail Mountain School crowned two individual champions, Shane Cole in giant slalom and Cameron Wolfe in Nordic\u00a0classic.<\/p>\n
With state in Durango for the first time, the Huskies and Gore Rangers and the rest of the field are not only dealing with a massive road trip but the weather as well. With the southwestern portion of the state expected to bear the brunt of this week\u2019s snowstorm, Thursday\u2019s GS was reduced to one run at Purgatory and today\u2019s slalom has already been moved from that slope to Chapman Hill in Durango.<\/p>\n
For a while, there was the possibility that CHSAA was doing to hold both GS and slalom \u2014 one run each \u2014 on Thursday with the weather forecast indicating more than 1 foot of snow on Friday in the Four Corners region.<\/p>\n
But this is the inherent chaos which comes in many forms \u2014 weather, missed gates or popping a ski \u2014 of any state meet, and the local squads seem to be handling it well.<\/p>\n
Battle Mountain girls\u2019 Alpine squeaked by Aspen, 171-170, during Thursday morning\u2019s giant slalom. The Huskies\u2019 Gretchen Pavelich finished second in a time of 39.78 seconds, followed by teammates Berit Frischholz (third, 40.07) and Kiana Brausch (seventh, 41.32).<\/p>\n
The traditional formula for any Battle Mountain ski team to win a state title is stomp the Alpine and hang on in Nordic. But this year may be different.<\/p>\n
The Huskies ladies put on quite the show in the classic, topping the Skiers, 169-158. If the following sounds like Battle Mountain cross-country or track, well, that\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n
Grace Johnson finished in second place with a time of 19 minutes, 27 seconds, followed by Lizzy Harding in third (19:49) and Naomi Harding in ninth (20:25).<\/p>\n
A lot can happen with another full day of racing \u2014 today is slalom and freestyle Nordic \u2014 but, so far, so good.<\/p>\n
Shane Cole is your 2019 GS champ, after laying down the only run faster than 40 seconds. Cole finished in 39.81 seconds. That bested Aspen\u2019s Trey Thorpe (40.34).<\/p>\n
In a supreme twist of irony, Battle Mountain and Vail Mountain went all the way to Purgatory to tie for the GS team win with 167 points, while Aspen ended up with 166. The Skiers maintain a healthy lead on the boys\u2019 side for the team title.<\/p>\n
Wolfe gave VMS its second individual title on Thursday, edging Aspen\u2019s Everett Olson by a few hundredths of a second.<\/p>\n