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.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MATTHEW PERRONE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is refusing to consider Moderna’s application for a new flu vaccine made with Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology, the company announced Tuesday.

Related Articles

Close Maduro ally pardoned by Biden once again a target of US criminal investigation

Privacy activists call on California to remove covert license plate readers

U.S. citizens and legal residents sue over aggressive immigration raid at Idaho horse racing track

Immigrant rights groups seek to dismiss a Republican lawsuit to exclude noncitizens from US census

Trump administration plans to hold back grant money for some Democratic-led states

The news is the latest sign of the FDA’s heightened scrutiny of vaccines under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., particularly those using mRNA technology, which he has criticized before and after becoming the nation’s top health official.

Moderna received what’s called a “refusal-to-file” letter from the FDA that objected to how it conducted a 40,000-person clinical trial comparing its new vaccine to one of the standard flu shots used today. That trial concluded the new vaccine was somewhat more effective in adults 50 and older than that standard shot.

The letter from FDA vaccine director Dr. Vinay Prasad said the agency doesn’t consider the application to contain an “adequate and well-controlled trial” because it didn’t compare the new shot to “the best-available standard of care in the United States at the time of the study.” Prasad’s letter pointed to some advice FDA officials gave Moderna in 2024, under the Biden administration, which Moderna didn’t follow.

According to Moderna, that feedback said it was acceptable to use the standard-dose flu shot the company had chosen — but that another brand specifically recommended for seniors would be preferred for anyone 65 and older in the study. Still, Moderna said, the FDA did agree to let the study proceed as originally planned.

The company said it also had shared with FDA additional data from a separate trial comparing the new vaccine against a licensed high-dose shot used for seniors.

The FDA “did not identify any safety or efficacy concerns with our product” and “does not further our shared goal of enhancing America’s leadership in developing innovative medicines,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.

It’s rare that FDA refuses to file an application, particularly for a new vaccine, which requires companies and FDA staff to engage in months or years of discussions.

Moderna has requested an urgent meeting with FDA, and noted that it has applied for the vaccine’s approval in Europe, Canada and Australia.

In the last year, FDA officials working under Kennedy have rolled back recommendations around COVID-19 shots, added extra warnings to the two leading COVID vaccines — which are made with mRNA technology — and removed critics of the administration’s approach from an FDA advisory panel.

Kennedy announced last year that his department would cancel more than $500 million in contracts and funding for the development of vaccines using mRNA.

FDA for decades has allowed vaccine makers to quickly update their annual flu shots to target the latest strains by showing that they trigger an immune response in patients. That’s a far more efficient approach than running long-term studies tracking whether patients get the flu and how they fare. In an internal memo last year, Prasad wrote that the streamlined method would no longer be permitted – leading more than a dozen former FDA commissioners to pen an editorial condemning the statements.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The mother of a U.S. Air Force airman shot and killed by a Florida sheriff’s deputy nearly two years ago says she doesn’t want people to forget about her son and is still seeking accountability so it doesn’t happen to someone else.

Related Articles

US’s largest public utility says it now doesn’t want to close two coal-fired plants

FBI search of Georgia offices tied to probe of possible 2020 election ‘defects,’ affidavit says

US-Canada bridge brouhaha deepens as White House says Trump could amend a permit for the project

US to expand passport revocations for parents who owe child support, AP sources say

Trump administration takes down a rainbow flag at the Stonewall National Monument

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was shot to death by a deputy responding to a disturbance call at Fortson’s apartment in Fort Walton Beach, where he lived while based at nearby Hurlburt Field. The May 2024 encounter was captured on body camera video.

At a Tuesday news conference in Florida, prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Fortson’s family in an ongoing federal lawsuit, said it was his mother’s decision to hold the media briefing.

“She is deeply hurt and concerned that time has allowed her son’s name and his life to fade from public consciousness,” Crump said.

“We are not here to litigate facts or comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” he added. “We are here because silence, delay and distance have a human cost for families who are left to grieve while waiting for answers.”

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Deputy Eddie Duran, 38, who fatally shot Fortson after being directed to Fortson’s apartment while responding to a domestic violence call. Duran was charged with manslaughter with a firearm, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. It’s a rarely seen criminal case filed against a Florida law officer.

FILE – Attorney Ben Crump, center left, speaks during a news conference with Chantemekki Fortson, mother of slain U.S. Air Force senior airman Roger Fortson, June 3, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Two Florida attorneys representing Duran did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Fortson’s mother, Chantimekki Fortson, said she still has many unanswered questions about the case.

“I need to know what happened to my baby,” she said.

“I have to try to learn how to live life without Roger,” she added. “I don’t think I’m going to ever learn that.”

Crump added that Fortson’s mother wants to know: “How could it have been prevented and how can we make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else’s family?” he said.

Fortson’s family is from Georgia. Hundreds of Air Force members in dress blues mourned Fortson at his funeral outside Atlanta.