During a high school ski race held Saturday on a blanket of fresh snow at Kincaid Park, Anchorage's nordic ski community paid tribute to a woman who helped provide opportunities to a generation's worth of young skiers.
Skiers, coaches and race volunteers honored Ellen Toll, the former director of the city's popular Junior Nordic League who died Monday, by wearing their old Junior Nordic ski caps to the South Skiathlon. The stadium's giant scoreboard spelled out "Thank you Ellen!!!" and provided the backdrop for a post-race group photo of cap-wearing skiers.
"Ellen touched so many people through her stewardship of Junior Nordic, middle school races, as a volunteer, a skier, an amazing mom and in so many other ways," said Elizabeth Arnold, a Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage board member. Toll was a talented age-group skier with a graceful classic-technique style. Her daughter, West High senior Lydia Blanchet, is one of the Alaska's best high school skiers.
Saturday's event was a freestyle-technique race held on a 2.5-kilometer loop. Emma Tarbath of Service won the girls 7.5-kilometer race and Hunter Wonders of South won the boys 10-K race.
Tarbath finished in 21 minutes, 23 seconds to beat East's Morgan Flynn by 17 seconds. Wonders clocked 24:30.3 for a 38-second win over Service's Gus Schumacher.
Just one more high school race remains before the region championships -- a classic relay Feb. 7 at Russian Jack. The Cook Inlet Conference championships are Feb. 13-14 at Kincaid, with the state championships scheduled for Feb. 19-21 at Kincaid.
South Skiathlon
Girls 7.5-K freestyle
1) Tarbath, Emma (Service) 21:34.0; 2) Flynn, Morgan (East) 21:51.0; 3) Darnell, Anna (South) 21:57.0; 4) Gellert, Molly (West) 22:06.0; 5) York, Magdalen (West) 22:13.4; 6) Amick, Abby (East) 22:38.4; 7) Flynn, Annika (South) 22:49.7; 8) Nelson, Emma (Chugiak) 22:53.3; 9) Hancock, Zoe (West) 22:53.5; 10) Booher, Hannah (Chugiak) 23:08.3; 11) Terry, Ryan (Service) 23:11.9; 12) Booher, Heidi (Chugiak) 23:24.8; 13) Fick, Fiona (West) 23:27.8; 14) Legate, Alejandra (West) 23:47.0; 15) Denton, Kinsey (Dimond) 23:48.9; 16) Cook, Clare (Chugiak) 23:50.1; 17) Kiekintveld, Naomi (South) 23:56.1; 18) Grumman, Katarina (West) 24:09.0; 19) Meeds, Maggie (South) 24:31.1; 20) Grunblatt, Jenni (South) 24:43.8; 21) Wood, Jade (South) 24:47.1; 22) Fink, Megan (East) 25:03.7; 23) Heck, Kaylee (South) 25:05.1; 24) Arthen, Kate (Chugiak) 25:07.7; 25) Ditto, Julia (Service) 25:14.2; 26) Von Imhof, Liesel (Dimond) 25:37.0; 27) Frazier, Summer (Eagle River) 25:39.0; 28) Romey, Sage (Service) 25:42.4; 29) Aist, Alisa (Service) 26:10.0; 30) Cvancara, Ruth (Dimond) 26:19.7; 31) Freeman, Sarah (East) 26:55.1; 32) Okeson, Makenna (Service) 27:16.2; 33) Heagy, Tessa (Eagle River) 28:09.3; 34) Mcwhite, Katie (Dimond) 28:25.2; 35) Bee, Chloe (Dimond) 29:02.3; 36) Kruchoski, Brynn (Chugiak) 29:15.3; 37) Parsons, Tori (Eagle River) 29:37.2.
Boys 10-K freestyle
1) Wonders, Hunter (South) 24:30.3; 2) Schumacher, Gus (Service) 25:08.9; 3) Wolfe, Hamish (South) 25:38.0; 4) Denton, Keslon (Dimond) 25:39.0; 5) Consenstein, Jack (West) 25:42.5; 6) Balcao, Will (South) 25:46.6; 7) Jager, Luke (West) 25:53.5; 8) Mans, Will (West) 26:18.3; 9) Egeland, Brett (South) 26:23.7; 10) Hull, Andrew (South) 26:28.4; 11) Bickford, Riley (West) 26:29.3; 12) Kilby, Alex (South) 26:41.4; 13) Muffoletto, Matthew (Service) 27:14.9; 14) Butera, Paul (West) 27:15.8; 15) Carpenter, Justin (Service) 27:38.3; 16) Wiese, Tristan (West) 27:45.3; 17) Walsh, Jacob (Eagle River) 27:45.9; 18) Cvancara, Luke (Dimond) 27:49.6; 19) Bickford, Ryan (West) 28:06.5; 20) Wing, Brian (Chugiak) 28:21.7; 21) Cvancara, Dax (Dimond) 28:29.6; 22) Thompson, Hunter (Service) 28:31.7; 23) Matyas, Paul (East) 28:42.3; 24) Ginter, Jack (Chugiak) 28:58.8; 25) Wright, Jack (Dimond) 28:59.7; 26) Hickey, Conor (East) 29:19.5; 27) Hagen, Evan (South) 29:21.6; 28) Hartley, Morgan (Dimond) 29:23.1; 29) Denton, Kaden (Dimond) 29:33.3; 30) Robertson, Dasiell (Service) 29:44.3; 31) Robicheaux, Max (East) 30:01.4; 32) Jordan, Ty (Chugiak) 30:02.5; 33) Tobin, Bradan (Eagle River) 30:23.6; 34) Brubaker, Ryan (Service) 30:33.0; 35) Blackley, Adam (Eagle River) 30:36.2; 36) Jones, Riley (East) 30:37.6; 37) Keller, Nathan (Chugiak) 30:59.2; 38) Altenburg, Michael (Eagle River) 31:17.7; 39) Anderson, James (Chugiak) 31:32.6.