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Lake Placid boys capture third straight nordic state title

From left, coach Bill Frazer, Henry McGrew, Kai Franz, Jesse Izzo, Scott Schulz and James Flanigan celebrate after being crowned the NYSPHSAA nordic champions. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

NORTH CREEK — The village of Lake Placid is a little heavier since the Blue Bombers nordic ski team brought home a bevy of medals and plaques after claiming four more state titles on Tuesday.

During the second day of the NYSPHSAA nordic ski championships at the Ski Bowl in North Creek, Lake Placid skiers earned both team and individual titles to add to the two championships they captured Monday.

The second day of racing entailed the 3×3 team relay, where teams of three skiers each took one lap on the 2.5-kilometer course then tagged a teammate. The combined time of the skiers was used to determine the winner, and each racer’s individual lap time was recorded to determine the individual combined champion over the course of two days.

The Lake Placid boys relay team of Scott Schulz, who had the fastest relay loop of the day at 5 minutes, 48 seconds, James Flanigan (6:48.7) and Henry McGrew (6:07.7) won the boys team relay title in the 7.5k race despite a botched tag off that cost them several seconds.

Saranac Lake’s squad of Ethan Wood (6:34.6), Witter Swanson (6:57.1) and Lauchlan Cheney-Seymour (6:34.8) took the third place spot in the field of 16 teams.

Lake Placid junior Scott Schulz, right, congratulates teammate Henry McGrew after they captured the team relay state championship along with freshman James Flanigan on Tuesday at the North Creek Ski Bowl. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

The third team made up of local skiers took the fourth slot in the race. Lake Placid’s Kai Franz (6:32.8) and Jesse Izzo (6:57.1) joined forces with Saranac Lake’s Jacob Alberga (6:56.8) to ensure that all the local boys made it into the top four. Queensbury took second place in the race.

“I was coming over the top (and) I didn’t really see anyone. I didn’t look back, because that’s never a good idea in a race,” Schulz said. “So I just tried to hammer and then whatever happened, happened.

“I knew that it was definitely going to be a close race, but I’m happy that throughout the season we all got faster and we all had a great time.”

Wood suffered a fall a little more than halfway through his lap, but got up and recovered quickly.

Earlier this season, Saranac Lake coach Keith Kogut accurately predicted the results of the state meet and Swanson echoed his pleasure with the podium finish.

Saranac Lake's Jacob Alberga, left, follows Witter Swanson up the longest hill of the 2.5-kilometer course Tuesday morning during the NYSPHSAA team relay at the North Creek Ski Bowl. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

“It feels great, it’s kind of what we were hoping for: to get on the podium this year,” Swanson said. “This is Ethan and I’s last state meet in high school, so it was great to finish on the podium.”

“We’ll always gladly take a podium finish in the team relay,” Kogut said. “I’m really proud of the kids. I think they skied to their full potential and really came through.”

Flanigan, a freshman, had a solid showing at the meet, placing sixth in Monday’s 9.9k nordic classic race and keeping the lead for his teammates during the second lap of the relay.

“Scott did great, he got us a pretty good lead,” Flanigan said. “But when it was time for him to tag off to me, I kind of went too far ahead and we were out of the tag zone and we had to turn around.

“I guess that kind of messed me up mentally, but I guess we did fine because we won.”

Lake Placid's Anya Morgan, left, gets tagged by Gabby Armstrong during Tuesday's team relay state championships at the North Creek Ski Bowl. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

In addition to the strong showing in the relay, Schulz also captured the combined boys title for the second year in a row, while senior Gabby Armstrong earned her second championship of the week with the girls combined title.

The Lake Placid boys won the team title for the third year in a row, outscoring rival Queensbury 90-78. Honeoye Falls-Lima was third in the team scoring with 58 points, followed by Whitesboro with 38 and Wallkill with 19.

Honeoye Falls-Lima, of Section V, captured the girls team state championship with 83 points, followed by Queensbury (72), Old Forge (51), Lake Placid (51) and New Paltz (22).

Armstrong (7:21.4), Marli Damp (8:03.3) and Anya Morgan (8:30.8) raced to a fifth-place finish in Tuesday’s team relay, while the Blue Bombers’ second team of Grace McGrew (8:52.3), Sarah Rose-McCandlish (9:06) and Bea Hollander (9:49.2) finished 13th.

“I’m pretty happy with it,” Armstrong said. “We have a pretty young team, with Marli in eighth grade and Anya in ninth, and I’m really excited about it. Top five at states, for the two girls being so young, they did amazing and I’m really proud of that.”

Damp was also pleased with the results and is looking forward to several more years of skiing for the Bombers.

“I did not expect to do as well as we did just seeing that there was really good competition here, but I’m really proud of us overall,” Damp said. “It’ll be great. Section VII looks great.”

The Section VII boys were the top section in the state with 467 points to outpoint runner-up Section II with 430. Section V won the girls meet with 459, followed by Section II with 390, Section III with 318 and Section VII at 260.

After his athletes won a combined six of eight state titles that were up for grabs, Lake Placid coach Bill Frazer was pretty happy with his kids. The Bombers missed out on just the girls relay and team titles.

“It’s awesome. Three years in a row, (and) hopefully we can keep it going,” Frazer said. “There were some really strong performances today. They were definitely skiing out front today.

“Scotty skied on fire today. His attack on that hill was incredible. I haven’t seen the splits (times), but James still skied awesome and Henry, it was hard to see how fast he was skiing because he was so far ahead. It was incredible.”

Wood and Armstrong each won the Section VII sportsmanship awards.

Many of the local skiers who competed at the state meet will ski in Cross-Country Junior National Championships next week at Mount Van Hoevenberg.

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