DETROIT LAKES-Evan Storbakken's winning time of 13:25.1 paved the way for the Brainerd Warrior boys team to claim the Detroit Mountain Opener Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Storbakken stormed out quickly on the 4-kilometer freestyle track and then held off Bemidji's Zac Skoe for the individual win.
"Evan had a fun race today," Warriors co-head coach Chris Hanson said. "He took it out really hard at the start. The top Bemidji skier caught up to him late in the race and I would say he let it come down to the final 50 meters of the race and Evan put the hammer down. It was not a super close finish although they did come into the finish area together.
"Evan had a lot more left in the tank to outsprint the Bemidji challenger."
Ben Renner captured a sixth-place time of 14:39.5 followed by Nick Whiteman in eighth, Maxim Osborne in ninth and Nole Robertson in 10th
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"In this meet, with the north and western schools, the boys were really strong," Hanson said. "Our depth was an incredible strength. Our fifth and sixth skiers were scoring ahead of the other team's third and fourth skiers and that really helps your team score when that happens."
David Dewey was 12th, Mitchell Neumann 16th and Jacob Olson 17th for Brainerd's finishers in the top 20.
The Brainerd girls placed third behind Alexandria and Bemidji.
Grace Erholtz skied to a 17:10.4 that placed her fifth. Liliana Schaeffer was sixth in 17:13.8. Elle Juranek finished ninth and Gina Wasniewski was 10th to give Brainerd 374 points, just five points behind first-place Alexandria and three points behind second-place Bemidji.
"I would say impressively close to Alexandria, who beat us a little more handily at the last race," Hanson said. "We were even closer to Bemidji. We were very competitive with the Bemidji team.
"It will be fun at the next few races as we get going and the races get longer and hopefully find more snow. Looking ahead we haven't seen a whole lot. We have the whole classic discipline to work on yet. You can kind of get a little picture of the competitive teams this year."
Emma Storbakken finished 12th followed by Sarah Nesheim in 16th and Mari Devine in 18th place for Brainerd.
Boys results
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Team scores: 1-Brainerd 380, 2-Moorhead 365, 3-Bemidji 359, 4-Alexandria 314, 5-Fergus Falls 302, 6-Detroit Lakes 296, 7-Trek North 282
Individual winner: Evan Storbakken (Brd) 13:25
Brainerd results: 6-Ben Renner 14:39.5, 8-Nick Whiteman 14:52.5, 9-Maxim Osborne 15:01.3, 10-Noel Robertson 15:05.8, 12-David Dewey 15:11.1, 16-Mitchell Neumann 15:21.9, 17-Jacob Olson 15:23.2, 26-Bennet Capelle 16:44.5, 28-Atticus Osborne 17:03.1
Girls results
Team scores: 1-Alexandria 379, 2-Bemidji 377, 3-Brainerd 374, 4-Moorhead 335, 5-Fergus Falls 270, 6-Detroit Lakes 250
Individual winner: Kaisa Bosek (Alex) 15:58.1
Brainerd results: 5-Grace Erholtz 17:10.4, 6-Liliana Schaeffer 17:13.8, 9-Elle Juranek 18:10.7, 10-Gina Wasniewski 18:12.1, 12-Emma Storbakken 18:46.9, 16-Sarah Nesheim 19:00.0, 18-Mari Devine 19:35.7, 22-Callie Knapp 20:03.4, 28-Jenna Lee 21:01.9, 29-Abbygail Wohl-Kovatovich 21:05.3
Next: Brainerd in St. Cloud Invitational at Riverside 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13.
