Junior Isla Elton from Vail Mountain School secured her second consecutive title in the girls cross country skate event at the CHSAA Nordic Skiing State Championships. The competition took place on Friday at Snow Mountain Range in Granby.
Elton completed the 5-kilometer course with a time of 17 minutes, 30.08 seconds, finishing over 25 seconds ahead of Kajsa Wik from Nederland, who placed second. Elton’s margin was more than a minute faster than all other competitors.
With this victory, Elton becomes the first athlete to win back-to-back state championships in the skate discipline since Elise Weiss of Aspen achieved the feat in 2020 and 2021. Elton also won last year’s classic race; this year’s classic championship is scheduled for Saturday.
Summit High School athletes Lucy Greenwood (third place, 18:30.56), Maeve Niemkiewicz (fourth, 18:32.20), and Marin Little (ninth, 20:02.12) contributed strong performances for their team. Lake County, which is the defending Nordic team champion, had Finnley Stanek finish fifth (19:06.36), Chloe King seventh (19:43.63), and Hattie Mallozzi eighth (19:52.25). Last season, King finished third and Stanek fourth in this event; King also placed fifth in 2024.
Other top-10 finishers included Evie Fisher from Steamboat Springs (sixth place, 19:03.36) and Bree Byrnes from Middle Park (tenth place, 20:18.46).
After Friday’s event—the first of two days—Lake County leads the team standings by one point over Summit with scores of 212 to 211 respectively. Middle Park holds third with 182 points, followed by Battle Mountain at 178 points and Steamboat Springs at 176 points. Vail Mountain is sixth with 147 points while Eagle Valley and Nederland are tied for seventh at 146 each; Poudre stands ninth with 138 points and Aspen rounds out the top ten with a score of 120.
Eden DeMino from Battle Mountain, who won Thursday’s Alpine slalom state championship, finished eleventh in Friday’s Nordic skate event with a time of 20:22.91. Her sister Ruthie DeMino—the reigning Alpine giant slalom champion—placed sixteenth at 20:51.65.
### Team standings after day one:
1st – Lake County – 212
2nd – Summit – 211
3rd – Middle Park – 182
4th – Battle Mountain – 178
5th – Steamboat Springs – 176
6th – Vail Mountain – 147
7th (tie) – Eagle Valley/Nederland – 146 each
9th – Poudre – 138
10th – Aspen – 120
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