By Cathy Putman
Special to The Press Times

IOLA – With COVID-19 swelling the ranks of junior Nordic programs across the state, almost 300 skiers, a 75-percent increase over 2020, came to the hilly trails at the Iola Winter Sports Center for a Jan. 9 skate race.

Sophomore Joseph Stumpf (Notre Dame Academy) led the Ashwaubenon Nordic Ski Team’s (ANST) varsity contingent with a ninth-place finish in a hotly contested boys’ 6-kilometer event.

Starting in the middle of the pack, Stumpf worked continuously through traffic down to the wire, improving his finish by 14 places over 2020.

Jon Hanson (Pulaski) and Noah Jahnke (West De Pere) finished 30th and 31st, respectively.

Greta Hansen (Green Bay Southwest), also challenged by start-line congestion, finished 17th in the girls’ race.

New skiers Connor Flood (West De Pere) and Viggo Sorbo (Ashwaubenon) skied to 17th- and 19th-place finishes, respectively, in the 4-kilometer junior varsity race.

The ANST fielded a girls’ middle school contingent, with first-year skiers Lauren Carlton (Parkview), Jillian Wentland (Pulaski), and Ella Swanson (Wrightstown) competing.

Parkview’s Ashtyn Anderson and Alex Bogenschutz returned and were joined by Ben Buchmann (Aldo Leopold) and Jake Schobe (Parkview) in the boys’ middle school race.

The Ashwaubenon Nordic Ski Team is a co-curricular activity of the district and open to any area middle or high school student.