Hodag Nordic finishes 12th overall in state

The Hodag Nordic Ski Team finished 12th overall in the Wisconsin Nordic Ski League following the WNSL’s state distance championships Feb. 7 and 8 in Cable.

The final rankings combined the boys’ and girls’ high school performances from both the WNSL distance championships, and the sprint championships the weekend before. The Hodag were 11th in the boys’ final standings and 13th in the girls’ final standings. 

As for this past weekend’s performances, the Hodag girls finished 12th on the weekend and the Hodag boys were 13th in the high school division. Both middle school teams finished eighth. 

The state distance weekend was comprised of a 6.2 kilometer (3.1k for middle schoolers) classic race on Saturday. Teams raced the same courses on Sunday in the skate technique, with times from Saturday’s race determining how far back racers started on Sunday. 

    Hodag Nordic’s Jonathan Calhoun competes in the freestyle race during the WNSL State Distance Championships in Cable Sunday, Feb. 8. Calhoun finished 55th overall, leading the Hodag boys. (Contributed photograph)
  

In the high school competition, brothers Jonathan and Aaron Calhoun finished 55th and 61st, respectively, overall. Jonathan Calhoun’s cumulative time over the two days was 40 minutes, 43.8 seconds while Aaron Calhoun finished in 41:48.6.

The high school girls were paced by senior Kayla Skubal in 44th (47:59.9) followed by freshman Noelle Mayo in 59th (51:37.5) and junior Mya Gillen in 75th (1:02:57.7). 

Pearl Calhoun led a quartet of middle school girls. She was 12th overall with a two-day time of 22:28.8. Evelyn MacFarland was 24th (25:25.0), Scarlet Hartmann was 25th (25:37.0) and Helen Beuning was 35th (27:28.9).

Jacob MacFarland was the top middle school boy in 17th (21:44.8), followed by Emmett Tuckey in 20th (21:53.3), Urban Beuning in 52nd (26:43.1), Alex Rusch in 54th (27:03.3), Sam Rusch in 68th (30:46.7) and Sam Beuning in 69th (31:16.8). 

“Our athletes did well. I think there was a lot of expectation and hope on their parts to do a little bit better overall, but, you know, they all raced hard and there’s some fierce competition here,” coach John Gillen said. “And a number of them aren’t quite top notch in terms of their health yet either. So that played a bit of a role.”

Jonathan Calhoun paced the Hodag boys in Saturday’s classic race (55th, 21:25.0) while Aaron Calhoun was fastest in skate (61st, 19:15.6). Skubal paced the Hodag girls in both races, finishing 40th in classic (25:21.8) and 49th in skate (22:38.9). 

Pearl Calhoun led the Hodag girls in both middle school races, finishing 14th in classic (12:11.5) and 12st in skate (10:17.8). Jacob MacFarland was the fastest Hodag boy in middle school classic (19th, 11:54.4) and Tuckey led the Hodags in the skate race (18th, 9:50.3). Overall, the Hodags had a solid performance in skate with 11 of the 15 skiers either improving or maintaining their overall position from Saturday’s classic race. 

High school skiers had overall rankings from the two state weekends, combining their qualifying times in skate and classic at the state sprints with their performances from the state distance weekend. 

Jonathan Calhoun was 53rd overall in the combined standings, followed by Aaron Calhoun in 55th and Sam Loomis, who missed the state distance races due to illness, in 85th. 

Skubal finished 32nd overall in the high school girls’ standings, Mayo was 46th, Mya Gillen finished 55th and Bekah Koch was 70th. 

Sunday’s race marked Skubal’s last for the Hodag Nordic team. She finished her career with three top-40 finishes overall in the state. She was 36th as a freshman and 35th last year. 

“She’s been really a key foundation, and she’s been a real mentor to all the athletes throughout the season,” coach Gillen said. “She put in a lot of summertime roller skiing and some camps and carried it right into the ski season again.”

Last weekend’s races wrapped up the competitive season for the Hodags, though a handful of skiers plan to compete in some postseason races later this month. After back-to-back seasons that lacked snow and were full of schedule changes, coach Gillen said he was thankful that this year marked a return to normalcy.

“Just nice to compete in all of the normal races on the normal weekends that we traditionally have,” he said. “This is our first trip to Cable this year and last year, I think it was our fifth by the time we got to the distance races. So there’s good and bad, but it is nice to hit all those other venues and to come here just for the distance weekend.”