Aven Harris, racing for MBSEF-provisional, skis an uphill stretch to the finish line while racing the 5-kilometer classic on Saturday at Virginia Meissner Sno-Park. 

It is tradition within the Mountain View Nordic ski team that skiers who stick with the program for four years receive a commemorative coffee mug.

But what to do with Kinsey Olarrea, who is in her sixth and final year in the program?

Perhaps a bigger mug?

“We have known her for quite a while,” said Mountain View coach Eric Martin. “Her skiing has just improved during the years.”

At the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association Nordic (OISRAN) Southern League event Saturday afternoon at Meissner Sno-park, Olarrea, now a senior, won the individual 5-kilometer race in 23 minutes, 26 seconds. She also led Mountain View to victory in the 3x1K relay.

Olarrea had the fastest 1K split of 3:15 to help her relay team, including Olivia Tranby and Atlin Wognild, win. The Cougars also won the overall team event (5K plus relay), over Summit, La Pine, Caldera and Ashland with the lowest score of 12 points.

“I was pretty excited about the result,” Olarrea said. “It was a good race because we got to compete against some teams we don’t usually get to compete against. You don’t know how everyone else is doing, so I just wanted to finish the race completely on empty. ”

In high school nordic skiing, middle schoolers are able to join the team as provisional skiers. They can practice and compete with the team, but their points do not count toward the team score.

Olarrea grew up nordic skiing with her family, then followed in her older brother Quinn’s footsteps, joining the Mountain View ski team when she was a seventh-grader and Quinn was a senior.

“I didn’t get into the competition,” Olarrea said. “It was just something to do. But in eighth grade, I decided I was going to stick with this and pursue it in my high school career.”

At Meissner Sno-park on Saturday, Mountain View had by far the biggest team in the competition with more than 50 kids between both the boys and girls teams. Martin credits his two-year captain Olarrea to making that happen.

“She is recruiting kids. She is helping us set up recruiting meetings with the school,” Martin said. “Part of the reason we have such a big team.”

Olarrea is hoping to give her best effort in her final few races and to place in the top 10 at the OISRAN state championships, set for the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center Feb. 24-25.

After nearly six years in the nordic program, she said she can’t believe that there is only a month left of her high school skiing career.

“It is super weird to think about it,” Olarrea said. “I always thought, ‘I have five more, four more.’ It seemed never-ending until this season started.”

The Mountain View boys also won Saturday’s event, beating South Eugene 12-33. Rex Cordell led the charge for the Cougars, winning the 5K classic in 18:00 and leading the 3x1K relay team with a 1K split of 2:31.

“He is skiing great, Martin said. “He grew up skate skiing, and he has come a long way in classic. In the relay, he had the fastest split in the race.”

On Saturday the XC Oregon Invitational will be held at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center, where all the Central Oregon nordic ski teams — Summit, Bend, Mountain View, Caldera, Redmond/Ridgeview, La Pine, Sisters, and Redmond Proficiency Academy — will compete.

After high school nordic skiers raced Saturday at Meissner Sno-park, on Sunday the community all-comers Tour de Meissner classic ski race was staged at Meissner.

The event included races of 17 kilometers and 30 kilometers on the trail system at Meissner, located just southwest of Bend.

Bend’s Eric Martin, the Mountain View High School nordic team coach, won the 30K race in 1 hour, 41 minutes, 22 seconds in his first time racing the Tour de Meissner.

“It is a hard race, and I knew it was hard going in,” Martin said. “Made it to about 20K feeling good, then started unraveling. I got a gap, but as soon as I slowed down I thought they were going to catch me. The last 10K I was kind of suffering. I hung in there, and the wax held up pretty good.”

Mary Wellington, also of Bend, won the women’s 30K race in 2:09:22.

Bend’s Trevor Allison won the 17K race in 1:02:03, and Redmond’s Evonna West won the women’s 17K event in 1:14:50.

The Tour de Meissner is billed as one of the largest classic ski events in the western United States.

—Bulletin staff report