On a day when Eagles ruled the roost at Kincaid Park, no one soared quite like Jack Consenstein.
The West High skier delivered a scorching relay leg on the final day of competition at the state high school cross-country ski championships to carry the Eagles to victory – in the relay race and in the final team standings.
West swept the team championships. The boys claimed their first state title since 2006 and the girls won for the second year in a row.
The West girls entered Saturday's relay with the state championship all but sewn up.
They led runner-up Chugiak by more than four minutes, and about the only thing in question was whether Skimeister Magdalen York, who started the day at an orchestra competition at UAA, could make it to Kincaid in time for her anchor leg.
She did, and the Eagles cruised to the relay victory to extend their overall lead over Chugiak to more than five minutes.
The drama came in the boys race.
Trailing South in the team standings by 24.4 seconds entering the relay, West outskied the Wolverines by 39.3 seconds in the 4x5-kilometer mixed-technique relay. That allowed West to surge past South in the overall standings and claim the state championship with a 14.9-second margin over the Wolverines.
Fueling the Eagles was Consenstein. After placing 11th in Thursday's freestyle race and 15th in Friday's classic race, he skied to Saturday's most dominating relay leg.
Ryan Bickford skied the first leg for West in 9 minutes, 40.7 seconds -- two seconds faster than South scramble-leg skier Hamish Wolfe.
Then came Consenstein, who blazed through his 5-K classic-technique leg in 9:31.7. He was nearly 20 seconds faster than anyone else and, more significantly, 22.8 seconds faster than South's Andrew Hull.
By the time Consenstein was done, West wasn't just leading the relay. It had overtaken South in the overall standings by four-tenths of a second.
West's freestyle-leg skiers Sam York and Luke Jager took over from there.
York's 8:50.9 was 10.5 seconds faster than the time posted by South's Matthew Hoefler, and Jager's 8:48 was four seconds faster than the time registered by South's Will Balcao.
Bickford, Consenstein and York all had the fastest times of their respective legs. Jager had the second-fastest anchor leg, trailing Ti Donaldson of West Valley by 10.3 seconds.
In the girls 4x3-kilometer relay, West's Fiona Fick and Aubrey Leclair posted the fastest times in the second and third legs, respectively.
Scramble-leg skier Alejandra Legate put the Eagles in third place at the start of the race, but Fick vaulted them into first place and Leclair and Magdalen York kept them there.
York, the meet's Skimeister, had the second-fastest anchor leg among girls. The fastest came from Service's Emma Tarbath, who beat York's time by nearly 10 seconds.
ASAA/First National Bank
State cross-country ski championships
Girls
Final team scores
West 3:19:38.6; 2) Chugiak 3:24:55.8; 3) South 3:26:59.9; 4) Service 3:29:24.5; 5) West Valley 3:31:03.4; 6) Dimond 3:32:59.2; 7) Kenai 3:34:03.3; 8) Colony 3:41:57.4; 9) East 3:44:30.6; 10) Palmer 3:46:42.8; 11) Eagle River 3:51:23.1; 12) Lathrop 3:55:06.9; 13) Homer 3:55:42.7; 14) Soldotna 3:58:06.6; 15) Valdez 4:38:40.8.
4x3-kilometer relay (2 classic legs, 2 freestyle legs)
1) West 35:31.1 (Alejandra Legate, 09:34.8; Fiona Fick, 09:05.6; Aubrey LeClair, 08:32.8; Magdalen York, 08:17.9); 2) Chugiak 36:17.4 (Heidi Booher, 09:31.0; Hannah Booher, 09:38.3; Clare Cook, 08:41.5; Emma Nelson, 08:26.6); 3) Dimond 36:29.8 (Kinsey Denton, 09:42.5; Ruth Cvancara, 09:11.0; Liesel Von Imhof, 08:34.1; Ally Carney, 09:02.2); 4) West Valley 36:31.7 (Jenna Difolco, 09:32.6; Amber Hajdukovich, 09:31.3; Peyton Presler, 08:54.3; Emma Jerome, 08:33.5); 5) Kenai 36:52.5 (Riana Boonstra, 09:35.7; Katie Cooper, 09:50.6; Mikaela Salzetti, 09:00.8; Addison Gibson, 08:25.4); 6) Service 37:04.6 (Caitlin Gohr, 10:14.2; Ryan Terry, 09:29.0; Julia Ditto, 09:12.7; Emma Tarbath, 08:08.7); 7) South 37:10.5 (Maggie Meeds, 09:59.8; Kaylee Heck, 09:53.8; Jenni Grunblatt, 08:54.8; Naomi Kiekintveld, 08:22.1); 8) Palmer 39:03.0 (Rya Berrigan, 10:09.4; Eva Bingham, 10:27.0; Ana Taylor, 09:23.0; Ruby Woodings,
09:03.6); 9) East 39:33.0 (Sarah Freeman, 10:13.5; Rachael Schick, 10:42.2; Mary Robicheaux, 09:54.4; Annie Gonzales, 08:42.9); 10) Colony 39:38.7 (Lisbeth Olsen, 10:26.1; Cathelyne Powers, 10:53.0; Jordan Block, 08:39.6; Alyson Kopsack, 09:40.0); 11) Lathrop 40:30.6 (Tjarn Bross, 09:58.8; Lupua Oba, 10:52.4; Clare Hanneman, 10:09.2; Grace Burrell, 09:30.2); 12) Homer 41:08.7 (Katia Holmes, 11:13.4; Katie Davis, 11:19.4; Mariah Vantrease, 09:29.1; Rachel Ellert, 09:06.8); 13) Soldotna 41:22.8 (Hannah Pothast, 10:07.1; Kellie Arthur, 10:50.7; Mieka Chythlook, 10:09.3; Brianna Bennett, 10:15.7); 14) Eagle River 41:58.6 (Helen Wilson, 09:41.3; Summer Frazier, 10:11.3; Myah Smith, 10:30.1; Tamara Brabson, 11:35.9); 15) Valdez 48:34.8 (Rylee Norris, 11:07.8; Josie McNelly, 14:06.7; Taylor Huston, 11:07.3; Angela Alfaro, 12:13.0); 16) Bartlett 56:53.7 (Sarah Tucker, 13:00.9; Carolynn Pype, 15:55.3; Cheyenne Bolan, 15:39.2; Grace Lilly, 12:18.3).
Boys
Final team scores
1) West 3:53:09.0; 2) South 3:53:23.9; 3) West Valley 3:58:29.7; 4) Service 4:00:31.9; 5) Colony 4:07:38.4; 6) Dimond 4:07:42.9; 7) Soldotna 4:08:04.0; 8) Grace Christian 4:13:58.3; 9) Chugiak 4:16:26.8; 10) Kenai 4:26:08.4; 11) Eagle River 4:26:17.1; 12) Lathrop 4:34:20.7; 13) Homer 4:39:46.9; 14) Palmer 4:44:12.7; 15) Bartlett 5:36:06.0; 16) Valdez 1:53:32.1.
4x5-kilometer relay (2 classic legs, 2 freestyle legs)
1) West 36:51.3 (Ryan Bickford, 09:40.7; Jack Consenstein, 09:31.7; Sam York, 08:50.9; Luke Jager, 08:48.0); 2) South 37:30.6 (Hamish Wolfe, 09:42.7; Andrew Hull, 09:54.5; Matthew Hoefler, 09:01.4; Will Balcao, 08:52.0); 3) West Valley 37:40.5 (Sam Hiltenbrand, 10:09.4; Ben Koenig, 09:50.5; Colin Lease, 09:02.3; Ti Donaldson, 08:38.3); 4) Service 38:52.9 (Zach Bassett, 10:05.6; Ryan Brubaker, 10:36.6; Eli Hermenson, 09:21.4; Canyon Tobin, 08:49.3); 5) Colony 38:55.5 (Dawson Knopp, 09:41.4; Tracen Knopp, 09:52.0; Dakota Peterson-Thompson, 09:31.1; Tim Farring, 09:51.0); 6) Dimond 39:16.9 (Micah Barber, 10:49.4; Dax Cvancara, 09:59.8; Jack Wright, 09:10.3; George Cvancara, 09:17.4); 7) Chugiak 39:20.0 (Roan Hall, 09:42.4; Brian Wing, 10:05.2; Jack Ginter, 09:49.3; Quinton Perham, 09:43.1); 8) Soldotna 39:23.8 (Levi Michael, 10:05.9; Jeremy Kupferschmid, 10:46.2; Koby Vinson, 09:22.7; John-Mark Pothast, 09:09.0); 9) Grace 39:27.4 (Trent Fritzel, 09:49.6; Luke Fritzel, 10:14.3; Avi Johnson, 09:50.0; John Cosgrave, 09:33.5); 10) Kenai 40:58.1 (Karl Danielson, 09:45.9; Patrick Michels, 11:25.3; Liam Floyd, 09:57.6; James Butler, 09:49.3); 11) Eagle River 42:54.0 (Jacob Walsh, 11:16.9; Nick Carl, 11:37.3; Bradan Tobin, 10:29.8; Adam Blackley, 09:30.0); 12) Palmer 43:24.4 (Josiah Alverts, 10:13.3; Manveer Singh, 12:24.6; Jeremy Houston, 10:19.2; Ben Swalling, 10:27.3); 13) Lathrop 43:43.7 (Logan Mowry, 09:41.6; Andrew Hanneman, 11:50.1; Jonathan Burrell, 10:11.4; Nathan Sanches, 12:00.6); 14) Homer 44:13.0 (Hoxie Parks, 11:49.7; Caleb Rauch, 11:50.6; Tadhg Scholz, 10:16.7; Jacob Davis, 10:16.0); 15) Bartlett 57:47.3 (Jacob Obrigewitch, 13:59.6; Mua Vang, 18:45.8; David Magrath, 12:55.6; Robert Magrath, 12:06.3); 16) Valdez 59:39.3 (Colton Prevost, 16:34.5; Ben Swanson, 17:41.4; Isaiah Amberg, 12:34.0; Stuart Relay, 12:49.4).