State Alpine Skiing: Hill-Murray sweeps boys, girls titles

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For the Hill-Murray girls, it’s starting to become a habit. For the Pioneers boys, it was new terrain.

Either way, it was a thrilling afternoon for all involved as Hill-Murray swept the team titles at the state Alpine ski meet Tuesday at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.

In the girls competition, the Pioneers finished with a team score of 173 — 36 points ahead of second-place Prior Lake. The Hill-Murray boys, meanwhile, finished with 169, outpacing second-place Minnetonka’s 158.

“A lot of hard work went into making this happen,” Pioneers boys and girls coach Mark Lindemer said. “Both teams worked at this all year and gelled as a group as we went along. It was really the sum of all parts that came together, and we ended up as champions.”

Senior Taylor Voigt — who entered the meet as the defending champion — finished second in the girls race with a combined time of 1:15.77 over two runs to lead the Hill-Murray girls, who also captured state titles in 2023 and 2024. Her sister Hailey, a junior, finished in sixth place with a time of 1:17.78. Sophomore Shea Reardon finished eighth in 1:18.00.

“That was my whole focus today, to lay it down for the team and do my part,” Taylor Voigt said. “I had a ton of fun, and we finished great as a group. You can’t ask for any more than that.”

The Provencher sisters from Visitation, sophomore Claire and eighth-grader Marlo, joined the Voigts to make the top six places a sister act. Claire won the girls race in a time of 1:15.01. Marlo finished fifth with a time of 1:17.76.

The Blazers finished third as a team with a score of 129, not bad for a group that graduates just one senior.

“This is really exciting because we have such a young team,” Visitation coach Ellie Frischmon said. “We’ll get almost everybody back next year. So, hopefully we can come back and do this again.”

They certainly will have a strong base to build on, including a state champion.

“This definitely was not the plan for today,” said Claire Provencher, who finished seventh a year ago. “I’ve had a lot of trial and error this season. It’s been kind of a roller coaster ride. But that’s made me a better skier overall.”

“It’s pretty awesome to know we both got this far and did this well,” added her sister Marlo. “It’s a really friendly competition we have with each other. Knowing she was just ahead of me today made me try even harder to finish right there with her.”

In the boys competition, sophomore Luke Mjanger finished second overall with a combined two-run time of 1:11.85 to lead Hill-Murray, which captured the program’s first state title after third-place finishes in each of the past two seasons. Mjanger finished just behind boys champion Oscar Anderson, a senior from Minnetonka who recorded a time of 1:11.22.

Junior Luke Lobanoff finished ninth overall in a time of 1:12.89 to bolster the Hill-Murray cause.

Sophomore Cole Peltz of Lakeville South also had a big day, finishing in third place in a time of 1:12.15. The third-place finish came on the same day that Paula Moltzan — who also attended Lakeville South — brought home a bronze medal in the women’s team combined (downhill and slalom) event at the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

The Cougars finished sixth as a team in the boys competition.

“I felt like I skied OK,” Peltz said. “I could have gone a little faster. But all in all, I did well enough to get on the podium, and that was pretty cool.”

Pretty cool also described the feeling for the Hill-Murray boys after winning their first state title.

“It’s nice to see them finally get over the finish line after finishing third the past two years,” Lindemer said.

That accomplishment just added to the smiles on the faces of everyone involved with the Pioneers program.

“Every year, we want to win,” Hailey Voigt said. “So there’s just as much pressure as there was the first time we did, and it feels just as satisfying. But to have both the boys and girls win made today extremely special.”

“The mood right now is brilliant,” Lindemer added. “The sun is out. Everyone is on cloud nine. Some of the kids thought this day might never happen, but all their hard work is finally paying off. It’s so great to see that happen.”

The Forest Lake girls finished fifth with a score of 114. St. Paul Academy and Summit School freshman Sophia Wenberg finished ninth individually with a time of 1:18.29.

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