After producing a wet and wild finish to what may have been the most bizarre state cross-country ski championships in Alaska history, Hunter Wonders of South High and Gus Schumacher of Service High went their separate ways.
"I'm gonna need some different pants," Schumacher said. "They're really wet." And off he skied in search of dry clothes.
Wonders, meanwhile, rebuffed suggestions to do the same. Dry clothes wouldn't do much good, he said, given that he was soaked through to the skin.
"The hard thing about all the hugging is everyone's raincoats are so wet, it soaked (my race suit)," he said.
Wonders earned a lifetime's worth of hugs after eking out a victory for the Wolverines in the boys relay race in the final race of the three-day championships at soggy Kincaid Park.
The South boys won the relay when Wonders held off a fast-closing Schumacher in a sprint to the finish, winning by four-tenths of a second. Close behind, 2.3 seconds behind Wonders, was West Valley's Max Donaldson, who Friday captured the Skimeister title.
Schumacher and the Cougars claimed the overall team title, ending South's two-year reign as state champs.
The state title marked the 19th for Service coach Jan Buron, who in 18 seasons has led the Cougars to 11 girls titles and eight boys titles.
West's Anson Moxness has a long way to go to catch Buron, but Saturday marked a good -- and historic -- start for the third-year coach.
The West girls, led by Skimeister Lydia Blanchet, won the relay to cement their team championship -- their first since 1988.
"Seriously?" said Blanchet, who had no idea the Eagles had gone so long without a girls state title.
Fans of a certain age will remember that West's 1988 team featured a dream-team lineup that included four-time Olympian Nina Kemppel, U.S. Skiing Association nordic program director Joey Caterinichio and two-time Skimeister D'Anna Dorris, who was back at Kincaid this week to watch daughter Addison Gibson race for the Kenai Kardinals.
Longtime fans also might have had a bit of a flashback when Blanchet showed up wearing a 25-year-old West High race suit.
"It's a little saggy in the crotch but it's still functional," Blanchet said of the 1990 vintage uniform. "It's been passed down and passed down. I'm the fourth or fifth person to have it."
Blanchet said she got the white-and-orange suit from Celia Haering, who was a senior when Blanchet was a freshman. Now that Blanchet is a senior, which underclassman gets it next? "It's kind of a secret," she said.
Saturday's scene was straight out of Bizarro World. Water puddled everywhere as the rain poured down on some of the country's finest cross-country ski trails.
The entire relay course was set on man-made snow, and in places, the only snow in sight was a narrow ribbon of white amid a sea of brown. Umbrellas and rubber boots outnumbered parkas. All that was missing was Gene Kelly.
But skiin' in the rain wasn't so bad, racers said.
"So fun!" West freshman Zoe Hancock said. "You just fly down the hills."
"Actually, it was pretty good," East freshman Abby Amick said. "Yesterday it was kind of like sugar but today, even though it was raining, it packed it down. Yesterday a lot of people broke poles and fell. Even when it's raining like this, it's not as bad as when it's icy."
"It's not my favorite thing, but skiing was a lot faster today," Wonders said. "But weather-wise, I prefer yesterday."
"Very wet. I'm grateful we had snow at all," said Grace Christian's Trent Fritzel. "This whole winter has been weird."
Although groomers made the most of the limited snow at Kincaid, the race format had to be altered on two of the three days because of trail conditions. Friday's freestyle race had an interval start instead of the usual mass start, and Saturday's relay consisted of four freestyle legs instead of two freestyle legs and two classic legs. There just wasn't enough snow to accommodate two kinds of courses.
None of the workers at the race -- a group of volunteers called the Green Grunts, some of whom have been around for decades -- could remember a state championship with more challenging conditions.
"Not your typical Alaska February conditions," Blanchet said.
ASAA/First National Bank
State cross-country ski championships
Kincaid Park
Final results
Boys
Overall team standings
1) Service 3:50:37.6; 2) South 3:51:03.7; 3) West Valley 3:51:52.3; 4) West 3:54:30.3; 5) Dimond 4:04:09.1; 6) Kenai 4:05:03.3; 7) Colony 4:08:38.9; 8) Grace Christian 4:14:55.8; 9) Soldotna 4:16:16.3; 10) East 4:18:32.7; 11) Eagle River 4:26:29.8; 12) Chugiak 4:27:10.1; 13) Lathrop 4:37:26.3; 14) Palmer 4:39:16.8; 15) Homer 4:42:37.9; 16) Bartlett 5:09:37.9.
4x5-kilometer freestyle relay
1) South 44:47.4 (Hamish Wolfe, Matthew Hoefler, Will Balcao, Hunter Wonders); 2) Service 44:47.8 (Conner Truskowski, Matthew Muffoletto, Canyon Tobin, Gus Schumacher); 3) West Valley 44:49.7 (Benjamin Koenig, Jesse Mayo, Jonathan Koenig, Max Donaldson); 4) West 45:59.8 (Luke Jager, Will Mans, Tristan Weise, Jack Consenstein); 5) Dimond 47:34.7 (Kelson Denton, Luke Cvancara, Dax Cvancara, Micah Barber); 6) Kenai 47:58.6 (Karl Danielson, James Butler, Jordan Theisen, Travis Cooper); 7) Colony 48:21.9 (Dawson Knopp, Tracen Knopp, Dakota Peterson-Thompson, Nick Harrison); 8) Soldotna 49:37.2 (John Pothast, Daniel Schuler, Koby Vinson, Levi Michael); 9) Grace Christian (Trent Fritzel, John Cosgrave, Wyatt Brown, Josh Roach); 10) East 50:00.6 (Max Robicheaux, Paul Matyas, Conor Hickey, Riley Jones); 11) Eagle River 51:16.2 (Jacob Walsh, Bradan Tobin, Michael Altenburg, Adam Blackley); 12) Chugiak 51:32.9 (Brian Wing, Jack Ginter, Latimer Charlie, James Anderson); 13) Lathrop 52:00.4 (Logan Mowry, Kevin Brune, Andrew Hanneman, Chandler Wappet); 14) Homer 53:55.8 (Jacob Davis, Hoxie Parks, Tadhg Scholtz, Ghen Sasakura); 15) Palmer 54:03.7 (Colbe Hand, Ben Mordue-Swalling, Caden Hand, Josiah Alverts); 16) Bartlett 1:01:12.7 (Isaac Larson, Declan Reid, David Magrath, Ryan Reid).
Girls
Overall team standings
1) West 2:56:06.2; 2) South 3:01:11.4; 3) Service 3:02:05.2; 4) East 3:04:17.7; 5) Chugiak 3:06:24.0; 6) Kenai 3:10:17.1; 7) Dimond 3:14:54.0; 8) Soldotna 3:17:32.2; 9) West Valley 3:17:53.6; 10) Colony 3:22:20.7; 11) Homer 3:31:10.7; 12) Palmer 3:31:36.0; 13) Eagle River 3:40:20.5; 14) Valdez 3:54.00.2; 15) Grace Christian 3:54:09.3.
4x3.3-kilometer relay
1) West 34:37.2 (Molly Gellert, Magdalen York, Zoe Hancock, Lydia Blanchet); 2) South 35:19.1 (Jenni Grunblatt, Naomi Kiekintveld, Annika Flynn, Anna Darnell); 3) East 35:26.2 (Ana Jager, Megan Fink, Abby Amick, Morgan Flynn); 4) Chugiak 36:13.1 (Hannah Booher, Emma Nelson, Heidi Booher, Clare Cook); 5) Service 36:18.1 (Taryn Hunt-Smith, Ryan Terry, Sage Romey, Emma Tarbath); 6) Kenai 37:33.6 (Addison Gibson, Alexandria Bergholtz, Mikaela Salzetti, Riana Boonstra); 7) Dimond 38:04.0 (Ruth Cvancara, Kinsey Denton, Liesel Von Imhof, Ally Carney); 8) West Valley 38:11.1 (Zoe Ratzlaff, Peyton Presler, Jewel Hediger, Jenne Difolco); 9) Soldotna 38:20.9 (Sadie Fox, Olivia Hutchings, Hannah Pothast, Kellie Arthur); 10) Colony 39:44.3 (Greta Jenkins, Jordyn Block, Lis Olsen, Coleen Geraghty); 11) Palmer 40:14.1 (Rya Berrigan, Eva Bingham, Anahelene, Ruby Woodings); 12) Homer 41:09.2 (Aspen Daigle, Audrey Russell, Sara Wolf, Rachel Ellert); 13) Lathrop 42:07.7; (Mackenzie Parrott, Lapua Oba, Emma Shawcroft, Lydia Porter); 14) Eagle River 43:01.7 (Summer Frazier, Tori Parsons, Tessa Heagy, Anna Ripp); 15) Grace Christian 44:02.8 (Sarah Cosgrove, Valerie DeMarzo, Natalie Moore, Lauren Tsao-Wu); 16) Valdez 44:13.6 (Stephanie Allen, Rylee Norris, Taylor Huston, Kathryn Keeney).