COLERAINE — Eli Knapp paved the way for a Brainerd Warriors domination in the Mt. Itasca Invite Thursday, Dec. 14.
Knapp won the 5-kilometer individual freestyle and the team of Alex Lelwica-Hayden Hagen won the team sprint relay to give Brainerd 317 team points, which was 33 points better than runner-up Little Falls.
“The boys went in pretty confident and the relay races kind of set the tone,” Warrior co-head coach Chris Hanson said. “They were really skiing strong and fast in that relay and then when it came to individual races it was interval starts. We knew we were skiing well, but it was difficult to tell because none of our boys were catching each other just because our top six skiers were so close together and skiing really well. I think the difference between the top five was less than 10 seconds. They never really saw each other and raced really strong.”
Knapp won in 16:30 and was followed by Owen Robertson in second, Lance Hastings in third, Gabe Hallgren in fourth, Taite Knapp in fifth, Joe Neumann in sixth and Wyatt Brown in 10th.
The Flyers finished second with Eddie Sobiech’s seventh-place finish leading the way. The Flyers relay was just one athlete in Parker Grant. His teammate became sick and didn’t race.
Annelise Baird won the girls’ 5K freestyle in 18:30 to help the Warrior girls to second behind St. Cloud Cathedral/Sartell. Caroline Holcomb-Smith finished seventh and Izzy Smith 10th.
Kelly Humphrey
“For being our first race on snow, all of our girls looked really proficient,” Hanson said. “Cathedral came out and showed that they’re pretty strong. We need to have all cylinders firing and we were short Bridget Collins today. We throw her back into the mix and things tighten up considerably.”
The sprint relay team of Sophia Lundy and Elizabeth Rademacher placed third.
Little Falls finished third. The relay team of Elyse Yorek and Emma Larson placed third. Ainsley Krisha was the top individual as she finished in the top 10.
“The snow conditions were fantastic and that’s not even speaking relatively,” Hanson said. “They were really, really good conditions. There was lots of snowmaking on a smaller loop. There were outstanding snow conditions. It was great work by the Mt. Itasca folks getting their course set up. They’re running events for biathlon and other events, too. It was well prepared for us when we got there.”