High school skiing 2024-25: Meet the skiers and teams likely to get to the finish line first

Minnesota’s Nordic and Alpine skiers are gearing up for a winter season that will culminate in February’s state championships at Giants Ridge in Biwabik. But first: a look at what teams and skiers to keep an eye on as Minnesota’s fastest hit the trails and slopes.

Brainerd, Duluth East and Hopkins are the top three boys Nordic teams to watch, based on votes from the coaches’ association. Last year’s team champion, Wayzata, stood fourth and Ely fifth.

Logan Drevlow, Hopkins, sophomore

As a freshman, Drevlow won the individual Nordic state championship, overcoming two stress fractures and a broken wrist en route to All-Metro Skier of the Year honors. Just a month later, in March, he had three first-place finishes at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Cross Country Junior National Championships at Lake Placid, N.Y.

AJ Westanmo, Bloomington Jefferson/Kennedy, senior

Last year, Westanmo finished fourth at the state meet, behind Drevlow and two now-graduated seniors. Westanmo has also competed at the Junior National level and finished 11th in the 5k classic race.

Eddie Snider, Mounds Park Academy, senior

Snider placed fifth at February’s state championships after winning the Section 4 meet, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his brother, Henry, who won state in 2020. Like Henry, Snider will ski collegiately at Michigan Tech. He also won a Class 1A state cross-country title in 2023.

Jace Haerter, Edina, senior

Haerter was less than a second behind Snider at last year’s state championships, finishing sixth. He’s signed to run distance races for the Gophers, having placed third at the cross-country state meet this fall and leading the Hornets to a state title.

Josh Frett, Breck, senior

Frett, last year’s eighth-place finisher, improved on 25th- and 28th-place finishes the years prior. He has competed at Nordic Junior National meets as well.

Duluth East took first in the team competition at February’s state meet, but heading into the 2024-25 season, Minneapolis Washburn, St. Paul Highland Park and St. Paul Central are the favorites, the vote of the Nordic skiing coaches’ association indicates. Wayzata and Duluth East round out the top five.

Linnea Ousdigian, Mounds View, sophomore

A particularly strong freestyle racer, Ousdigian won state — and All-Metro Skier of the Year honors — as a freshman, having finished 32nd as an eighth-grader. She also won the under-16 mass start classic event at Junior Nationals in Lake Placid in March.

Hanna Koch, St. Paul Highland Park, senior

After winning a team state title with the Scots in 2022, Koch has two individual top-five state finishes under her belt, including second place last year. She led last year’s classic race at state and has earned the nickname “The Beast.”

Lila Golomb, Wayzata, junior

Golomb placed third at state last year after her team took the Section 6 title. Her fifth-place finish at November’s cross-country state meet helped Wayzata win a team title, minus the snow.

Elsa Lindfors, St. Paul Central, sophomore

Lindfors’ seventh-place performance at state was a photo finish, a tenth of a second off sixth. She’s competed for the Minutemen since seventh grade.

Chloe Angerman, Minneapolis Washburn, senior

Finishing ninth at state as a sophomore, then eighth as a junior, Angerman was the top individual pursuit finisher for a Millers team that placed second at state.

All three of the state championships’ top individual finishers graduated, leaving the podium wide open in boys Alpine. Minneapolis Washburn captured last year’s team state title, but runner-up Minnetonka and third-place Hill-Murray are aiming to take the team crown this year.

Tate Wilker, Eden Prairie, senior

Last year’s fourth-place finisher at state, Wilker is one of the top skiers for the local Team Gilboa and took second at the Section 6 race. He bounced back from a disqualification at 2023′s state championships, after finishing 22nd the year prior as a sophomore.

Toren Piltingsrud, St. Thomas Academy, sophomore

As a freshman, Piltingsrud placed fifth at state, a jump up from his sixth-place finish at sections. In addition to his skiing success, Piltingsrud has played defense for the Cadets soccer program and kicked for the football team.

Fletcher Stoen, Orono, sophomore

Stoen has represented Buck Hill’s ski team at races across the country and placed seventh for Orono at last year’s state meet.

Oscar Anderson, Minnetonka, junior

Anderson has placed eighth at state the past two seasons. He’s been a part of a Minnetonka team that’s won a state title or finished runner-up every season since his freshman year.

Bennett LeVander, Woodbury, senior

LeVander has improved each of the four years he has competed at state, from finishing 36th as an eighth-grader to 10th as a junior. His dad, Eric LeVander, won a state title in 1989.

It’s a different story in girls Alpine, where five of the top six finishers from last year’s state meet are back in action this winter. The team champion, Minnetonka, is a contender to repeat, along with Hill-Murray.

Vivien Pihlstrom, Blake, senior

With her state title in February, Pihlstrom became the younger half of the first pair of sisters to win state titles, after her sister, Ava, won in 2021. Pihlstrom finished almost a second ahead of the next finisher — a significant chunk of time in this event — to become Blake’s fourth girls Alpine skier to win a state title in the past nine years. She’s also a competitive figure skater and lacrosse player.

Courtney Bumpers, Eagan, senior

Bumpers finished second behind Pihlstrom last year, after finishing 12th at state the season before. Bumpers also plays soccer for Eagan.

Charlotte Kinzer, Minnetonka, freshman

Then just an eighth-grader, Kinzer’s third-place finish last February helped Minnetonka claim its second team state title in three years.

Ally Adair, Edina, senior

When she’s not playing in the soccer state championship or with Edina’s Ultimate Frisbee team, Adair is finishing fourth at the state Alpine meet for a team that, this winter, returns all but one of its state skiers from last season.

Stella Stinnett, Minnetonka, senior

Stinnett finished close behind teammate Kinzer, in sixth, after placing second at sections last season. She finished eighth at state the year prior and in 2022 scored for the team as a freshman as the Skippers won the team state title.

Taylor Voigt, Hill-Murray, junior

Voigt won a team and individual Alpine title as a freshman in 2023 but did not ski at state last year. She and her sophomore sister, Hailey, will be members of a strong Hill-Murray team.