Rob Kerr / The BulletinSummit's Olivia Moehl competes in the Oxford Inns, Suits & Hotels Freestyle individual 3K event Saturday at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center. She finished second on the soft-condition course with a time of 12 minutes, 33 seconds.

MOUNT BACHELOR — When Eric Martin arrived at Mt. Bachelor ski area Saturday morning for the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association nordic race, a blue sky stretched above, allowing the sun to blanket the mountain.

The Mountain View coach entered the lodge for just a few minutes. And when he returned outside, Martin said, “It was dumping.” snow.

“It’s amazing how much the weather can change,” Martin said. “In Central Oregon, just wait and the weather can change. It was completely different.”

The OISRA race went on, and through sideways snowfall and wind gusts reaching an estimated 40 miles per hour, Martin’s Mountain View boys claimed the team victory with 17 points — besting second-place South Eugene by 23 points.

Sam King, last season’s OISRA state champion, took second overall to pace the Cougars, completing the 3,000-meter course in 11 minutes, 23 seconds. Mountain View’s Imran Wolfenden took third, finishing five seconds behind King.

“We just have a really strong boys team this year,” Martin said. “Sam’s a senior and Imran’s a senior.”

“They were on the cross-country team that took second at state (this past fall), and they’re really fast runners. That’s about where I expect them to be.”

Alex Martin, skiing independently for Summit, was the overall winner in 10:32.

The Cougars placed first in the skate relay, finishing in front of South Eugene by more than three minutes.

“It was the first race of the year,” Eric Martin said. “You get that first hard effort in and start figuring out the pace. We’ve got a lot of new skiers, but it was great.”

Summit, an Oregon High School Nordic (OHSNO) program competing in the OISRA event just for Saturday, was led by Grant Parton’s fifth-place finish. Abe Morgan finished seventh for the Storm, who did not qualify for a team score because they did not compete in the team relay.

Crook County, which also did not receive a team score, was paced by Dustin Seyl and Leonhard Pusl, who took 32nd and 33rd, respectively, in the 54-finisher boys field.

For the girls, Emma Su and Olivia Moehl went 1-2 to lead Summit to 18 points and the team victory over South Eugene, which finished with 31 points. Meri Smiley added a third top-10 placer for the Storm by taking 10th.

Tia Hatton was seventh to lead Mountain View, which was third as a team with 45 points, and the Cougars’ Sage Hassell placed ninth in the 65-finisher field.

Crook County, which did not receive a team score, was paced by Maggie Kasberger’s 63rd-place showing.

Despite the stormy weather, which led to the cancellation of the junior varsity races as well as a team sprint demonstration, Eric Martin could not say enough about the skiers who endured the high winds and fast-falling snow.

“There were great attitudes from the kids,” Martin said. “There was some complaining about cold hands and fingers and everything, but for the most part, they were just all smiles. Maybe they don’t know any better.”