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CALLAWAY — Eli Knapp skied to a second-place time of 26:22.8 to lead the Brainerd Warriors boys’ team to a first-place finish Thursday, Jan. 12, in the Detroit Lakes Invite at Maplelag Resort.
The Warrior girls’ team, led by Addie Ryan’s third-place time of 29:56.9, finished second behind Bemidji by four points. Brainerd was without top skier Annalise Baird.
In her stead, however, Ryan secured her third-place finish with Bridget Collins in seventh, Cally Robertson in eight, Isabelle Smith in ninth, Ellie Brown in 12th and Katelyn Kennedy in 14th as Brainerd secured six of the top 15 spots in the girls’ race.
“Addie had a great day,” Warriors co-head coach Mary Claire Ryan said. “She’s a great endurance athlete. She’s a mountain bike racer in the fall and filled a need for us last year by being in the sprint relay. With her background in biking, distance races are not a problem for her and she has a great competitive edge.
“Cally Robertson had a solid race and the girls are picking things up here.”
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The top four skiers of the continuous pursuit led to the team's score.
“A few little glitches here and there and one of our races fell and if you fall you lose too many seconds,” Ryan said. “I think we’re as good as Bemidji, but they won today. And on that course, Bemidji girls always have their best races.”
Knapp skied to a 26:22.8, which put him behind only Moorhead’s Zaine Bratten who won the individual race with a 25:44.9.
Brainerd won the team title by 22 points over second-place Bemidji thanks to Gabe Hallgren’s fourth-place time of 27:05.1. He was followed by Taite Knapp’s sixth-place finish. Lance Hastings placed eighth followed by Leif Hoffman in ninth and Owen Robertson in 10th. Elijah Hallgren was 11th and Joseph Neumann in 13th as the Brainerd boys locked down eight of the top 15 spots.
“The boys were great and Eli is just coming into his own and getting better and better,” Ryan said. “Taite Knapp had a race that I’ve been waiting to see from him and he put it together well and had a great effort and Gabe Hallgren as well.
“We had some great efforts by the kids because it’s now crunch time for us. We have some big races coming up and then it’s sections.”
