Girls Nordic Compete at State, Rose Horning State Champion!
The Lake County Girls Nordic Team competed in the Colorado High School Activities Association’s State Championship on Saturday at the Gold Run Nordic Center in Breckenridge. Five girls competed for Lake County: Rose Horning, Adele Horning, Elona Greene, Brynna Lenhard, and Violet Hill.
Racing started off with a five kilometer individual start classic race. Rose put together the race of her young career so far. She caught the skier who started fifteen seconds in front of her, Izzy Glackin of VMS, who was expected to contend for the win. Over the second part of the course, Rose pulled away and put more time on Izzy and the rest of the field. After all the other skiers had finished, the results showed that Rose had won by nearly 25 seconds. “I had perfect skis and felt great,” said Rose afterwards.
The rest of the Panthers had a stellar day in the classic race as well. Adele set a steady pace and placed 12th despite breaking a pole in the first kilometer. Elona was next across the line and placed 21st . Brynna recovered from an early fall and was 32nd. Violet pushed hard through long double pole sections that favored other girls to place 38th. In classic, the girls placed third as a team, only a point away from second place Summit County.
A few hours later, the team had to lace up the boots again and tackle a three kilometer skate course. Rose once again set the pace for the team and earned her second podium of the day with a second place finish. The only skier to best her was Elsie Weiss of Aspen, who also won the skate title last year. Adele had another stellar finish in 15th, and Elona was only a few seconds behind to place 23rd in a tightly bunched group. Brynna was hot on the heels of Elona and was 26th, and Violet placed 50th.
The girls placed third in the skate race as well, tying with Middle Park. They hand off a third place position to the Alpine part of the ski team for when the second half of the state championships takes place at Loveland Ski Area next Friday with Slalom and Giant Slalom races.
Coach Karl Remsen commented at the end of the day, “The success of the girls today is not due to me. They worked hard this summer and fall, putting in many hours training, and they deserve to be congratulated for all the times they pushed themselves when no one was watching. The success we have as a team is also due to the hard work of so many who coached my skiers before me, either this fall or earlier in their ski careers: Jeff Spencer, Christine Horning, Matt Main, Amy Peters, Pat Cade, Bruce Kelly, and so many more.”
