The Soldotna girls and boys cross-country skiing teams swept the Kenai Peninsula Borough meet team titles Saturday at Tsalteshi Trails just outside of Soldotna.

There was competition going on Saturday, but with a fire crackling near the start line, the region meet already in the books as of last week and the season now being over for all skiers not going to state, there also was a sense of celebration of getting through a season with so little snow.

“It was just letting the kids pick what they wanted to do,” Kenai head coach Kristin Davis said. “If they wanted to race hard, they could race hard.

“Like the state kids, if they were wanting to hold back today and save it for next week, I gave them the choice to try it.”

Soldotna freshman Ollie Dahl didn’t do much holding back.

The freestyle format was the same for the girls and boys. Skiers started with a 1.5-kilometer sprint loop, and the top five were awarded for how they finished that.

The skiers kept going through that finish line and did another 2.5K, with the times for all skiers being taken at the end of that loop.

Dahl had tight competition for winning the sprint portion, with SoHi’s Michael Davidson second and Kenai’s Fletcher Darr third.

In the 4K race, Dahl won at 11:06, with Darr second at 11:18 and Homer’s Charlie Rustand moving up to take third at 11:26.

Despite the low snow cover on the course, Dahl said the team was out covering sparse spots with more snow this week, so he felt comfortable using his good skis.

He said making do with less was the theme of the season.

“I think it definitely could have been better, but my coaches are doing a great job,” Dahl said. “We’ve gone to The Fitness Place a couple times for some spin classes and mobility stuff.”

Dahl is looking forward to the state ski meet from Thursday to Saturday, Feb. 20 to 22, at Birch Hill in Fairbanks. The meet was moved there from Government Peak Recreation Area in the Matanuska-Susitna valleys due to low snow.

The top four for the Stars are Dahl, Davidson, Noble Cassidy and Parker Richards. Dahl said Richards was sick Saturday, but he’s hoping the four get to see how they stack up with the rest of the state.

Personally, Dahl just missed qualifying for Junior Nationals and he’d like to try and beat some of the skiers at state that kept him from a spot on Team Alaska.

In the girls race, SoHi’s top three — Ariana Cannava, Tania Boonstra and Kate Cox — basically skied the race together, finishing with arms locked and big smiles at 13:06.

“This is the last fun race before state,” Boonstra said. “State is the stress. So we just all wanted to have fun together.”

The three had a big Region III meet last week in Homer, with Boonstra, a junior, winning Skimeister for the third straight season.

Despite missing their fourth skier due to injury, SoHi just missed defending the region girls crown.

“We did a lot better than we were thinking,” Cox said.

That has the Stars girls looking forward to state, especially Saturday’s relay. Last year, the Stars turned heads by finishing third in that event.

Boonstra, Cannava and Cox all competed in the Besh Cup races that are used to select the Junior Nationals team.

Both Cannava and Boonstra made the team, but they said the season was even tougher for skiers that didn’t get to do those races.

“It’s been a challenging season, conditionwise,” Cannava said. “We got to do all six of the Besh Cup races, so we got plenty of race experience from this season.

“For the rest of the team, it’s really tough not to have that race experience.”

For high school, the team did three races at Tsalteshi, and three down in Homer.

“It’s been hard not traveling,” Boonstra said. “That’s the funnest part of the season is hanging out with everyone, traveling and going places.”

Davis said this has been an interesting season for her first year as a head coach, but said the ski community has helped immensely. The Kardinals’ home course at Kenai Golf Course hasn’t been usable since November, so if Kenai wanted to ski, the Kards had to ride to Tsalteshi.

“The groomers and just everybody doing as much as they can to get the kids on snow despite the miserable conditions we’ve had this year,” she said.

The Kardinals won the award for the top girls and boys Division II teams at state last season, but the Homer girls and boys defeated Kenai at regions last week to serve notice they want to change the state order.

“That’s the hope,” Homer head coach Jessie Goodrich said. “The kids have to work together, act like a team and support each other, and they have been.”

The Mariners had two boys and no girls in the varsity races Saturday. Goodrich said a lot of the skiers were sick, and some needed to catch up on homework.

Many times, it’s Homer that struggles with snow in Southcentral, but this year the tables have been turned and the Mariners are hoping to take advantage at state.

“We did have a period in December where we had to go back to dry land,” Goodrich said. “But starting in January, we’ve been skiing.”

The shortest end of the snow stick belonged to head coach J. Leslie and the Seward ski team.

Leslie said 13 kids stuck it out through the season. Indigo Leslie, Katie Van Buskirk and Oliver Trobaugh will represent the team at state.

“The take home of the year was that their attitude was phenomenal, because our season was horrible,” Leslie said. “Going into regions, there were some of our kids — we counted it up — had only been on skis six times, and were getting on their classic skis for the first time.”

The coach said the ski season was so bad in town that the team was actually able to run the Tonsina trail without worrying about ice.

Two weeks ago, a loop at the Devil’s Creek trailhead was groomed for the first time this season and the team drove there several times to practice.

Considering all the hardship, Leslie was happy the groomers at Tsalteshi were able to find a way to give the Seahawks this meet together.

“As of last weekend, we did not know if today was going to happen,” he said. “I’m really psyched that it did.

“For us, anytime we can get on snow is OK.”

Kenai Peninsula Borough ski meet

Saturday at Tsalteshi Trails

BOYS

Team champion — Soldotna.

Top 5 1.5K freestyle sprinters — 1. Ollie Dahl, Sol; 2. Michael Davidson, Sol; 3. Fletcher Darr, Ken; 4. Noble Cassidy, Sol; 5. Charlie Rustand, Hom.

4K freestyle results — 1. Ollie Dahl, Sol, 11 minutes, 6 seconds; 2. Fletcher Darr, Ken, 11:18; 3. Charlie Rustand, Hom, 11:26; 4. Michael Davidson, Sol, 11:27; 5. Noble Cassidy, Sol, 11:49; 6. Daniel Christ, Hom, 12:01; 7. Levi Strong, Ken, 12:24; 8 (tie). Elijah Pancoast, Ken, Tracker Keller, Sol, 12:40; 10. Silvan Kreig, Ken, 12:47; 11. Jameson Hall, Sol, 12:53; 12. Lukas Renner, Hom, 13:05; 13. Chase Laker, Ken, 13:10; 14. Elliot Hanson, Ken, 13:16; 15. Oliver Boersma, Ken, 13:18; 16. Jacob Ries, Sol, 13:26; 17. Marty Fink, Sew, 14:06; 18. Oliver Trobaugh, Sew, 15:44; 19. Micah Brueckner, Sew, 15:44.

GIRLS

Team champion — Soldotna.

Top 5 1.5K freestyle sprinters — 1. Ariana Cannava, Sol; 2. Kate Cox, Sol; 3. Tania Boonstra, Sol; 4. Isla Crouse, Ken; 5. Inga Smith, Sol.

4K freestyle results — 1 (tie). Tania Boonstra, Sol, Ariana Cannava, Sol, Kate Cox, Sol, 12:42; 4. Isla Crouse, Ken, 13:06; 5. Ruby Davis, Ken, 13:27; 6. Inga Smith, Sol, 13:33; 7. Indigo Leslie, Sew, 13:35; 8. Teresa Fallon, Ken, 13:43; 9. Leanne Gordon, Sol, 14:03; 10. Katie Van Buskirk, Sew, 14:03; 11. Emily Taylor, Ken, 15:34; 12. Shayla Smith, Sol, 16:01; 13. Abigail Bishop, Ken, 16:10; 14. Gracie Russell, Sew, 16:25; 15. Olivia Tews, Ken, 16:25; 16. Selah Brueckner, Sew, 17:31.