Hodag boarders wrapped up team, individual titles at Brule

The snowboard portion of the Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine ski team wrapped up a successful Northern Conference season Saturday at Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich.

The Hodag boys completed a clean sweep by winning Saturday’s event at Brule to wrap up the Northern Conference title over Ashwabay while Rhinelander sophomore Marshal Durkee led a Hodag 1-2-3 sweep of the final podium. Northland Pines’ Sydney Sarkauskas, the lone girls’ boarder on the squad, cruised to a victory and locked up her first Northern Conference title. 

Durkee had a clean sweep on Saturday helping him break a tie for first in the conference standings with junior teammate Soren Dumar, who finished second Saturday. Rhinelander had four boarders in the top five as Kamden Kostrova took fourth and Owen Sarkauskas was fifth.

“Snowboarders had a good day,” coach Rod Olson said. “Boardercross went well. I think the boys are racing well as far as the boys’ team snowboarder, and they’re finally able to have four. Owen was ineligible for grades, but I think they’re doing well.” 

Durkee dominated on Saturday. He opened by taking the boardercross (43.58 seconds) with a best run that was 0.91 seconds faster than Dumar. He then scored a nearly one-second win over Owen Sarkauskas in slalom and a 2 1/2-second win over Dumar in giant slalom. 

Dumar added a third-place run in slalom as he took second overall on the day. Kostrova finished fourth in all four events. 

“Soren’s got a lot of talent and he did well for he’s been hurt and out for the last two seasons, so this is really his first season. He had a good season,” Olson said. “Marshal’s still working that (long) board. (He’s go) a ton of speed, but getting a lot better at holding it together and getting some personality on there. Kamden’s solid.”

Sydney Sarkauskas, as she has all season, dominated the girls races. She won boardercross by more than 11 seconds on Saturday, was 11.3 seconds clear in the slalom and won by nearly 7 1/2 seconds in giant slalom. 

“Sydney’s outstanding,” Olson said. “She’s doing well. We expected state for her to be in the top 10 and everything as long as she finishes, so we’re looking good that way.”

In terms of all-conference awards, Sydney Sarkauskas won every run this season and took home top honors in the overall and all three individual disciplines — slalom, giant slalom and boardercross.

The Hodags went 1-2-3 overall on the boys’ side with Durkee, Dumar and Kostrova. Durkee and Dumar went 1-2 in both giant slalom and boardercross. Kostrova was the tops in slalom, ahead of Durkee and Dumar. 

The Hodags boarders wrap up their season Saturday with the WIARA State Championship in La Crosse. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].