Okemos took sixth place at the boys’ Division 1 state ski meet at Boyne Mountain February 25.
Marquette ended competition in the slalom and giant slalom with a combined score of 57 to finish ahead of defending champion Clarkston with 74.
Grand Blanc placed eighth.
“The Okemos team had an excellent year,” said coach Chad Buehler. “We were the regional champions in Region 3 and then moved on to the state tournament. Only nine teams make it to the state tournament. We were glad to be there.
“We performed to our potential in the giant slalom, with all of our racers having successful runs. We were fifth moving into the Slalom Event. The slalom was a challenging event for a lot of teams. We beat the teams we expected to beat and ended up where I expected we would be at the end of the day. Okemos had a successful year and we are proud of our performance.”
Carson Covell was 13th overall in the giant slalom to lead the Okemos attack.
“We worked together as a team, we trained to improve our skills, we had fun, and skied some good runs,” Buehler said.
State champ Marquette had a score of 34 in the slalom and 23 in the giant slalom.
Clarkston had a score of 34 in the slalom to match Marquette, but Marquette had a 23 in the giant slalom compared to 40 for Clarkston.
Traverse City Central was third at 95, Traverse City West fourth at 127, and Lake Orion fifth at 143. Okemos was sixth at 237 followed by South Lyon at 240, Grand Blanc at 271, and Brighton at 279.
It’s Marquette’s first boys’ state ski title since 2009 and its eighth since skiing became an MHSAA sport in 1975.
It was coach Marty Paulsen’s first state title as head coach.
“I was proud of the boys,” he said. “We scored well as a team. They all skied as a team, and all knew what had to be done.”
Luke Johnson, Nick Weber, and Matt Anderson paced the Marquette attack in the giant slalom by placing fourth, fifth, and sixth with combined times of 1:00.55, 1:00.60 and 1:00.61.
Taylor Janssen of Huron Valley Lakeland was the giant slalom individual champ with runs of 29.77 and 30.39 for a combined dual championship time of 1:00.16. Derek VanItallie of Clarkston was second at 1:00.49, and Loan Stetsko of Lakeland was third at 1:00.50.
Finishing after the Marquette trio were Seth Thompson of Fenton/Linden, who was seventh at 1:00.63, Robbie Cort of Brother Rice eighth at 1:00.71, Finley Clark of Traverse City West ninth at 1:00.80, and Ryan Callahan of Clarkston 10th at 1:00.88.
Finley Clark took first place in the slalom as a senior boys’ ski champion. He had runs of 31.44 and 32.85 for 1:04.29 total. John Merchant of Walled Lake Northern was second with 31.65 and 32.67 for 1:04.32, and Ryan Callahan of Clarkston was third with 32.28 and 32.96 for 1:05.34.
DIVISION 2
Petoskey boys were the Division 2 champs for the third straight season. Junior Gunner Lundteigen was a double winner, taking giant slalom in 59.76 seconds and slalom in 1:19.22.