Petoskey ski teams finally open season, Big North competition

BELLAIRE — Well, it’s about time.

Two weeks late and in the final full week of January, the Petoskey ski teams have a season.

Things got started for both Northmen teams on Monday with the first Big North Conference race of the season, when teams took to Schuss Mountain at Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire.

The day came with some strong individual performances for Petoskey, though the team wins went elsewhere.

“First race of the year,” Petoskey boys coach Ben Crockett said. “We made it happen and it was good conditions at Schuss. All the teams were in the same boat having had not to a ton of training and everyone came out skiing pretty well today.”

Traverse City West earned the narrow victory over TC Central on the girls side, while the Trojan boys did pull off the win over the Titans.

Petoskey was then third on the boys side, with the girls placing fourth.

The team scored came with Central earning first with 42 points, following by West’s 83 and Petoskey’s 85, while West’s girls edged Central in a 56-77 finished, then Cadillac was third with 90, following by Petoskey’s 107.

“I think the boys skied really strongly,” said Crockett. “We ended up in third place, but we were second in one of the events. I think we showed up and did really well. I think we showed up and showed that we can compete in the events coming.”

The least of all surprising came in the individual finishes, as Petoskey senior Marley Spence picked right back up where she left off a year ago.

The reigning Division 2 champion of both slalom and giant slalom, Spence swept both races at Schuss, earning first in three of her four runs down the hill.

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She opened with a first place time in the slalom in 1 minute, 9.71 seconds, then topped the giant slalom race with a time of 55.37 seconds.

Like Spence on the girls side, the BNC welcomes back one of the state’s best in West’s Caleb Lewandowski on the boys side, who took both events Monday.

He raced to a first place 1:04.06 in the slalom and 46.26 second first in the giant slalom.

Along with Spence for the Petoskey girls in the slalom race, Sydney Hoffman earned an 11th place finish in 1:18.40, Sara Hasse placed 19th (1:35.29); Addie Schultz, 20th (1:49.21); and Paige Hubbard, 23rd (1:53.06).

In giant slalom, Hoffman earned a 10th place finish in 1:01.09, Schultz placed 22nd (1:09.72); Hasse took 23rd (1:14.68); and Hubbard, 24th (1:14.88).

In both boys races, Petoskey was led by Gavin Galbraith with top 10 finishes. He placed fifth in the slalom in 1:08.01, then brought home a seventh place giant slalom finish in 49.54 seconds.

“He started out really well,” Crockett said on Galbraith. “He ended up with top 10 finishes and laid down some really good runs. I’d expect him to be one of our strong skiers this year and we had some other good performances as well. I think we’ve got a strong team.”

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Also within the giant slalom race for Petoskey, Taylor Keiswetter earned a top 10 finish in 50.25 seconds, Aidan Cleary was 16th (52.25); Henry Jankowski, 26th (55.34); Carter Cook, 27th (55.68); and Liam Cleary, 29th (56.59).

Galbraith was the lone top 10 finisher for the PHS boys in the slalom race, though Carter Walkerdine placed 14th (1:17.09); Aidan Cleary, 16th (1:17.94); Mick Galbraith, 17th (1:18.83); Liam Cleary, 19th (1:20.04); and Cook, 23rd (1:20.51).

Crunch time of the season comes right at the start for Petoskey’s teams now, as they’ll get right back to the hill at 10 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 25 for a BNC race at Boyne Mountain.

Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey ski programs get things underway on the hill, compete at Schutss