Marquette Senior High School nordic skier Aleut Hatfield takes part in the boys’ five-kilometer freestyle race at the Mesabi East Invitational in Biwabic, Minnesota, on Saturday. He finished a Redmen-best 12th in the event, helping the MSHS boys come in fifth among 53 teams. (Photo courtesy Bill Stahl)

BIWABIC, Minnesota — Ericka Asmus and Aleut Hatfield had the top girls and boys finishes, respectively, by the Marquette Senior High School nordic ski teams at the Mesabi East Invitational held Saturday.

Touted as the largest high school nordic ski meet in the country, the event included 55 girls and 53 boys teams taking part in five-kilometer classic and freestyle events at Giants Ridge.

The Marquette team, sponsored by the Superiorland Ski Club, was fifth in the boys team standings and 26th for the girls.

Participants picked one race, either classic or freestyle, with team scores compiled from the top two skiers in each event. There were 139 skiers registered per event and a total of 556 for the day, according to information from the MSHS team.

Asmus was runner-up in the girls classic in 18 minutes, 23.1 seconds, exactly six seconds behind winner Celeste Alden of St. Paul, Minnesota, Highland Park High School. Highland Park won the girls’ team title by 12 points over Duluth, Minnesota, East.

Sammy Borzick was MSHS’ No. 2 finisher in the girls classic in 47th place in 21:41, while scoring for Marquette in the freestyle was Emma Stahl in 75th in 21:07 and Brooke Doughty in 116th in 23:52.

Other Marquette girls’ participants were Josie Danielkiewicz, Lucy Ampe and Delaney Sall in classic and Tauni Camili in freestyle.

Hatfield placed 12th in the boys freestyle in 15:26.9, while teammate Julien Malherbe was 29th in 16:14. In the boys classic, Mathurin Gagnon came in 16th in 16:28 and the Redmen’s Nathan Garwood 17th in 16:31.

Other MSHS boys competing were Matt Pillifant in freestyle and Rubin Hatfield, Matt Janowski, Evan Ampe and Chase Stahl in classic.

Next up for the Marquette teams will be the Junior National Qualifier in Cable, Wisconsin, on Jan. 19-20, while the MSHS team and Superiorland Ski Club will host the Michigan State Nordic Ski Championships on Feb. 15-16.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.