Wayzata Takes Home Ski Title

NSO NEWS RELEASE

Brainerd’s Lance Hastings and Taite Knapp didn’t want to spend another year looking up in the standings and pondering what could have been. This time, the Warriors’ duo, a fourth-place finisher a year ago in the Minnesota State High School League’s Boys Nordic Skiing Sprint Relay, seized the opportunity and didn’t let it go to waste.

Under a sun-filled sky with cooler temps, Hastings and Knapp ended their season in impressive fashion by winning the event on Thursday, Feb. 15 in a combined time of 11 minutes, 55.94 seconds. Their margin of victory was nearly nine seconds faster than Duluth East’s Mark Goettel and Ben Pilate. Walter Holmes and Johnny DiPrima, representing Orono/Delano, were third in 12:12.46.

In the Sprint Relay, each skier, in alternating fashion, travels a 1.2-kilometer loop.

“Lance came in with a really good lead after the first lap,” Knapp said. “He then extended it later. It was my job to maintain his hard work and effort.”

Both racers praised the course and the conditions.

“It was good snow and a really good course,” Hastings said. “It felt amazing. There were so many people cheering us on the course.”

Spurred by Daniel McCollor’s runner-up finish on Wednesday in the Pursuit races, Wayzata captured the team title with 368 points. Duluth East was runner-up with 362 and Hopkins followed with 344. Scoring for the victorious Trojans were Daniel Gladkov, Hudson McMillan and the Sprint Relay duo of Matthew Jenneke and Charlie Gundale.

It is Wayzata’s second Nordic Skiing State Championship and first since 2018.