Ski team closes out season seventh at state - John Dewall (Hastings Head Coach)

Joe Schirmer The Hastings Star-Gazette
Published Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Hastings High School boys Nordic ski team closed out the season with a seventh-place finish at the state tournament Friday at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.

The boys finished with 291 points. Hopkins won the meet with 383 points.

“I thought the guys skied really well (Friday),” Hastings head coach John DeWall said. “For them to finish as the seventh best team in the state is an awesome job by those kids.”

Hastings Gunner Dancer and the Raider boys Nordic ski team finished seventh overall at the state meet last Friday at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.
Senior Sam Behrends was the top finisher for Hastings, coming in 26th with a pursuit time of 32:29.0. Behrends, who qualified as an individual for the meet, also was selected to the All-State team.

“Sam had a remarkable showing,” DeWall said. “He picked up 17 spots in the (classical) race.”

Junior Gunner Dancer, who also qualified as an individual, finished 40th with a pursuit time of 33:01.0.

Other Hastings finishers were senior Jon Portinga (103rd overall, 36.26.0 pursuit time), freshman Wyatt Behrends (109th, 37.02.0), sophomore Dan Saunders (119th, 40:14.6) and senior Andrew Halvorson (120th, 40:58.7).

“This team really came together early fall,” DeWall said. “We talked to them and told them if they work hard and stick together, they had a chance of going to state.

“They went through all kinds of adversity. They drove to snow on the weekends and fought through the cold and all that dedication paid off.”

The Raiders also had three girls make the Academic All-State team in seniors Brooke Beskau, Brooke Koenig and Stacey Scheck.