BIWABIK-It might be more than a month too early, but the Brainerd Warriors built some confidence at the state meet venue Thursday, Jan. 3.
Led by Gavin Hoelzel's third-place finish on the boys' side and Erin Hoelzel's fifth-place finish on the girls' side the Warriors swept the Hibbing Invite at Giants Ridge.
Gavin Hoelzel skied to a 1:20:39 to lead the Warrior boys to a 31-point victory over second-place Hibbing.
Brandon Neifert placed sixth followed by Max Darkow in eighth and Cal Madison 11th.
"Both sides we had all four of our point scorers in the top 11 out of the field of 10 or 11 teams," Warriors head coach Jim Ruttger said. "It was an excellent result."
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Erin Hoelzel skied a 1:28.32. She was followed by Alli Krantz in sixth, Cassidy Chaney in eighth and Maddie Kalenberg in 11th.
"We were coming off a big win at our last meet at Wild Mountain and the teams had a ton of confidence today," Ruttger said. "We were on our state meet venue on our first run and we had all 10 of our girls ski clean on that venue which is really a good result for them.
"It's still early in our season so we're still trying to figure out where everyone is going to fit in on our run order. Every meet we go to we've had different people rising to the top. It was a good solid performance from everyone."
Boys team scores: 1-Brainerd 283.5, 2-Hibbing 252.5, 3-Washburn 234, 4-Duluth East 231, 5-Cook County/Silver Bay 205.5, 6-Hermantown 205, 7-Cloquet-Esko-Carlson 204, 8-Minneapolis Southwest 202.5, 9-Virginia 178, 10-Duluth Marshall 114
Individual winner: Thomas Heren (CEC) 1:12.99
Brainerd results: 3-Gavin Hoelzel 1:20.39, 6-Brandon Neifert 1:21.89, 8-Max Darkow 1:22.39, 11-Cal Madison 1:23.63,16- Anthony Elsenpeter 1:24.98, 19-Trevor Hutchison 1:27.59, 20-Cameron Lees 1:27.98, 36-Ethan Johnson 1:36.69, Sean Baumann DNF, Esten Hiebert DNF
Girls team scores: 1-Brainerd 290, 2-Minneapolis Southwest 276, 3-Washburn 263, 4-Hibbing 248, 5-Duluth East 238, 6-Cook County/Silver Bay 216, 7-Virginia 172, 8-Hermantown 161, 9-Cloquet0Esko Carlton 159, 10-Duluth Denfeld 141, 11-MAST inc., Duluth Marshall inc.
Individual winner: Ahnika Berg (Washburn) 1:23.99
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Brainerd results: 5-Erin Hoelzel 1:28.32, 6-Alli Krantz 1:28.74, 8-Cassidy Chaney 1:30.08, 11-Maddie Kalenberg 1:30.63, 23-Maddie Pederson 1:35.88, 25-Linsey Proctor 1:36.17, 28-Anna Krieger 1:38.17, 31-Whitney Fink 1:38.91, 63-Carsyn Krassas 2:24.78, Emma Hiebert DNF
Next: Brainerd at Detroit Lakes Invite, Detroit Mountain Recreational Area 5:30 p.m. Monday. Jan. 7.
