A moose delay and a friendly ski rivalry renewed at Lynx Loppet Invitational

The annual Lynx Loppet Invitational hosted by Dimond High wrapped up at Kincaid Park on Saturday afternoon with a pursuit race, and the top finishers in the boys and girls divisions produced first place marks on both days of the event.

With reigning freestyle and classic state champion Aaron Power not participating due to an illness, it was an opportunity for junior Skyler Amy to be the flagbearer for the dominant Service High team.

“Walking through school every day and seeing our trophy case and trying to add more and more feels really good,” he said.

After earning the right to be the first boys skier to fire off the start line with his first place finish Friday, the Cougar won the boys division freestyle race with a time of 44:34.0.

“Yesterday I had a good race, body felt pretty good, and that put me in a pretty good spot today where I didn’t have that much pressure,” Amy said. “I had a pretty comfortable lead starting and I just continued to feel good today.”

He would’ve been nearly a minute faster had he not been stopped midrace so that one of the race volunteers could attempt to coax a moose off the trail.

“I got a 45-second sitting break,” Amy said. “I was a little bit bummed by that because I was trying to get a fast time.”

Given the nature of this particular type of race, he knew that as long as he kept his lead, first place was as good as his.

“It’s a lot less to worry about and I can just focus on racing,” Amy said. “Its a lot simpler.”

In the girls race, Soldotna’s Ariana Cannava didn’t have nearly as big of a head start when she took off from the starting line, or as large of a lead when she came across the finish line.

“I actually didn’t know that I’d be able to finish first because I knew the girls behind me had a strong race ahead,” Cannava said. “It felt really good to have that lead and be able to keep it throughout the race.”

The 16-year-old sophomore came in first with a mark of 57:37.3, and not far behind was her rival Emily Moss of Kenai Central, who was hot on her trail for most of the race. Moss crossed the finish line less than 20 seconds after Cannava with a time of 57:54.4.

“I could definitely hear her throughout the race, especially at the beginning, I heard her behind me,” Cannava said. “I kind of peeked over my shoulder and saw her and sped up a little.”

The two are friendly rivals who have known and competed against each other since middle school.

At an event hosted and typically dominated by Anchorage teams, Cannava was glad to see that two skiers from Kenai Peninsula schools represented their respective programs and communities well.

“It’s great to see the Peninsula out here representing,” she said. “We usually don’t get many people in the top 10 at huge races like this, so it’s really great to see us up here at the top.”

This marked her first win in a notable race at the prep level, and she hopes to use it as confidence-boosting springboard to propel her to success in competitions within and outside the state.

“I’m going to Arctic Winter Games soon, and when I come back, I’ll have boroughs, regions and state,” Cannava said. “They’re all really big races, so it’s good to have confidence going into those.”

She will be competing in the Arctic Winter Games for the first time. The games will be held in Wood Buffalo, Northern Alberta in Canada from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 and feature youth skiers from around the globe.

Lynx Loppet Ski Race

Day 2

Freestyle Race, 8.2 K

Boys Pursuit

Team totals

1) Service 3:13:40.2; 2) Kenai 3:20:46.4; 3) Soldotna 3:23:35.5; 4) Eagle River 3:23:55.7; 5) West 3:26:00.0; 6) Dimond 3:27:37.7; 7) Chugiak 3:30:20.5; 8) East 3:32:17.0; 9) South 3:32:58.8; 10) Grace 3:46:29.4; 11) Valdez 4:18:43.0; 12) Bartlett 4:20:16.3; 13) Seward incomplete.

Individuals

1) Skyler Amy, Service, 44:34.0; 2) Jack Laker, Kenai, 46:53.7; 3) Walker Battreall, East, 47:23.0; 4) Rylan Allwright, Chugiak, 48:14.1; 5) Scott Johnson, South, 48:49.8; 6) Alexander Glover, Dimond, 48:50.1; 7) North Crawford, Service, 49:17.9; 8) Maxwell Richardson, Service, 49:30.8; 9) Andrew Cox, Soldotna, 50:01.0; 10) Chase Laker, Kenai, 50:05.7; 11) Eliot Garton-Barendregt, West, 50:12.9; 12) Thomas Erickson, Dimond, 50:17.2; 13) Grady Kuijper, Service, 50:17.5; 14) Jack Molloy, Eagle River, 50:20.8; 15) Henry Michener, Eagle River, 50:30.2

Girls Pursuit

Team totals

1) Service 4:15:38.8; 2) Dimond 4:17:02.0; 3) South 4:25:10.2; 4) West 4:27:55.6; 5) Soldotna 4:28:00.2; 6) Kenai 4:28:24.1; 7) Chugiak 4:43:57.6; 8) East 4:46:56.8; 9) Eagle River 4:49:02.3; 10) Bartlett 4:53:49.3; 11) Grace, Seward and Valdez incomplete;

Individuals

1) Ariana Cannava, Soldotna, 57:37.3; 2) Emily Moss, Kenai, 57:54.4; 3) Heidi Schumacher, Service, 59:59.4; 4) Lilian Coy, South, 1:00:53.8; 5) Gwendolyn MacLean, Dimond, 1:01:28.3; 6) Madelin Lowen, Dimond, 1:02:27.9; 7) Ruthie Richardson, Service, 1:02:39.8; 8) Gema McGrew, West, 1:03:00.1; 9) Maddie Sivils, East, 1:04:50.7; 10) Adele Matthews, South, 1:05:02.5; 11) Elise Matthews, South, 1:06:09.6; 12) Keiko Wilson, Service, 1:06:14.7; 13) Lauren Gaskill, Dimond, 1:06:18.6; 14) Charlotte Toole, Eagle River, 1:06:27.4; 15) Alana Lim, Service, 1:06:44.9