Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

The Nordic ski team hosted the Forest Lake Invitational on Thursday, Dec. 7, at Trollhaugen, and both the girlsí and boysí squads defended their titles against White Bear Lake and Anoka.

For the second week in a row, junior Annie Dehmlow cruised to a first place finish, and this time she was followed by a pack of Rangers.

Elizabeth Peterson was next to cross the finish line; junior Katelyn Babbitt came in fourth and sophomore Megan Gooley grabbed fifth place.

ìAnnie skied a fine race,î head coach Deno Johnson said. ìThe real story this day was the great racing of Liz Peterson, Megan Gooley and Kate Babbitt. Thatís a solid top four.î

Preceding the girlsí race, the boys ended the evening with similar results as they took four of the top five spots.

Senior captain Leif Nordgren was awfully impressive as he set the pace early, never let up and raced to a commanding first place finish. Junior Ben Brodin and sophomore Ryan Wright battled back and forth throughout most of the competition, with Brodin coming in third overall and Wright claiming the fourth position.

ìThe emergence of Ben and Ryan is a great and needed development for the boys team. Am I surprised? Not at all ó they are both very talented athletes and they put in a lot of hours of training this summer,î Johnson said.

Behind those two was junior Shawn Wright (no relation) who looked strong in a fifth place showing.

ìShawn Wright was our race of the day,î Johnson said. ìHe is getting really fast.î

In the junior varsity races, Johnson was happy to see first-year skiers Mitch Woehlk and Sven Schauerhammer finish 1-2, and they ìwill add more firepower to the boys team.î

The Nordic skiers returned to Trollhaugen on Wednesday, Dec. 13 for the Dean Power Double Pursuit, and then compete again at Trollhaugen on Saturday for the Winter Solstice competition.

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