![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/38730361_web1_Nordic-JUE-250226-1_4.jpeg\")
<\/a>The All-State Nordic Ski team, from left, Service’s Jack Leveque, Colony’s Coby Marvin, West Valley’s Kieran Kaufman, Colony’s Gabe Black, Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé’s Finn Lamb, West Valley’s Peter-John Bragonier, Lathrop’s Wells Wappett, West Valley’s Nathan Vandelugt, Colony’s Raven Spangler and South Anchorage’s Grayson Stanek-Alward at the 2025 ASAA Nordic Ski State Championships in Fairbanks. (Photo courtesy JDHS Nordic Ski)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Top boys finisher was Colony (Spangler, Black, Marvin, Weston Sensabaugh) in 30:54.5 and West Valley (Basile Plattet, Vandelugt, Bragonier, Kaufman) in 30:54.8.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“There were a lot of guys I had been skiing with this season in different disciplines and I just had a really good weekend,” Lamb said. “Like today in the sprint, I started and I kind of knew that the West Valley starter and the Lathrop starter I wanted to beat. It was really cool to finish ahead of them.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The JDHS girls relay of Eller, L. Mangaccat, Meyer and K. Mangaccat placed 10th in 44:53.6.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Top girls finisher was Service (Day, Smith, Faith Harlamert, Kam-Magruder) in 37:39.7 and WV (Lilli Bond, Ingrid Baurick, Adah Decker, Abrahamson) in 38:11.7.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Service won the overall girls team championship in 3:09:01.4 with West Valley the runner-up in 3:16:05.7, among 24 teams. JDHS placed 10th with a total of 3:47:36.2<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Colony won the boys team championship in 2:38:00.1 with West Valley runner-up in 2:38:48.0. JDHS placed 13th with 3:07:13.2 out of 24 teams.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“The cool thing about Nordic ski racing is there is science to it,” coach McAllister said. “What’s the wax today, what are the snow conditions, what are the temperatures, what are the texture of the snow crystals. It is like doing this little dance with Mother Nature every morning when you go out there and try to do these ski races. When you come to a big race like state, you are also dancing that dance with all the other coaches who are out there putting their heads together, too, testing their own technical knowledge against one another…As a coach, it is not just your athletes that are being tested out there, it is also your own knowledge of the course and the strategy and the waxes and all that. I think that adds an extra layer of complexity.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The JDHS team is not like the larger Anchorage schools that have a fleet of coaches. The Crimson Bears athletes will pop out on the course to test wax at times.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Ricky and I really dive into the technicality of the snow conditions and the temperatures and the humidity and what’s trending,” McAllister said of her assistant coach, Ricky Worl. “Is it getting warmer, colder, is it supposed to snow or get sunny? There is a lot going on so we do lean on the athletes for help.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Lamb said he has no secret fuel.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I just eat a lot,” he said. “I think I have gone through over a quart of ice cream a night while I’ve been here. I have a one pint I am eating on right now. Ice cream and Swedish Fish is all I’ve got to say. Throughout the season, wherever I am training, I just bring packs of Swedish Fish because it is straight sugar and a lot cheaper than gels…And a lot of sleep.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Farr is partial to Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice cream.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Or probably more Cherry Garcia,” she said. “It’s the best fuel because lots of calories and it’s filling. I like to eat it, I will eat it and it makes me recover better, so that’s always nice. And a little bit of protein in there, too.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
L. Mangaccat said,” I always have gummies or gummy clusters or something like that before races. They’re just really good.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The team is not all sugar though as Worl shopped and cooked for the 12 skiers and coaching staff.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We definitely eat things that are not straight sugar and ice cream,” McAllister said. “As coaches we prepare a balanced meal every day for these guys. A lot of these kids pre-race are looking at easily digestible oatmeal, bananas, apples and a lot of water and electrolytes. Not only is Nordic skiing an aerobic sport, but it is also a full-body sport..You are using your entire body. Arms, upper body, shoulders, core, legs and it is high endurance. So we fuel to feed that need.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“And then recovery we are looking at a lot of downtime, more hydration, some solid protein and complex carbohydrates. And we do not hold them back if they want more ice cream because fats, carbs and calories are really important…I would be remiss if I didn’t say that all of this could be done without my trusty sidekick Ricky Worl… He is a great complement to our coaching staff. Without Ricky’s cooking, I don’t know what we would do. He plans all our meals.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The JDHS athletes went back onto the course after awards.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“It was just great skis and it was so pretty,” Lamb said. “Abby had to pull me off the trails today. I was just skiing after races were done… I have to say that Abby and Ricky and our coaches blew it out of the water this weekend. Classic skiing wax is really important. The Thursday course for classic, it was a big factor and our coaches crushed it. And all the coaches back in Juneau, too, that helped wax before we left…Merry Ellefson, Wayne Carnes, Tristan (Knutson-Lombardo), Tim Blust, Anna Schumacher and Andrew Eller…It makes a big difference and it is hard to match these crazy Anchorage wax nerds but our coaches killed it this weekend.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Lamb said skiing means “having a goal to work towards and doing your best every day to move forward. Having ‘I want to do this’ in my mind and then every day you know what you are doing to get there. It feels like skiing is a platform and I enjoy being out there on the trails and stuff but I think what it means to me is it is an outlet, something that I can work towards, put one foot in front of the other. I can say I enjoy downhill skiing a little bit more, that type is so fun. Nordic skiing, I can go out on the trails for hours, I love being out there.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior is first Crimson Bear to place during Nordic tournament; JDHS girls win Academic Award. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":116297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[240,536],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-116296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-sports","tag-high-school-sports","tag-skiing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116296"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=116296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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