Summit's Reed Wuepper won the boys combined individual state title at the nordic skiing state championships at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center Friday and Saturday.

Neve Gerard missed the combined nordic skiing state title last season by 1 second. So the Bend High junior was eager to return to the state championships this year for another shot.

Gerard won the girls combined title and helped lead the Lava Bear girls to the team championship Friday and Saturday at the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association nordic state championships at Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center.

The 5-kilometer skate ski race was staged on Friday, followed by the 5K classic ski race on Saturday.

“I was excited to come back,” Gerard said. “The skate race I just went out hard and just held a gap. The classic is my weaker technique, so I was just really focusing on my technique and stuff, and it worked out really well. I had a good classic race. It’s been a really good season.”

Gerard finished with an overall time of 29 minutes, 34 seconds in the skate and classic races. Bend’s Piper Widmer took second in 32:51, and Summit’s Claire McDonald finished third in 33:40.

Bend won the girls team title with 30 points, followed by second-place Summit (42) and third-place Corvallis (71). The Lava Bears also won the relay race in 7:20, followed by Summit (7:45) and Corvallis (8:10).

“It was gorgeous today,” Gerard said of Saturday’s conditions. “The kick was amazing. The snow was slow because it was so cold. Friday was much better than it was supposed to be.”

Summit sophomore Reed Wuepper won the boys overall state title in 27:44 and helped lead the Storm to the boys team state championship. Bend’s Will Mowry was second in 27:52 and Mountain View’s Zachary Shockey finished third in 28:21.

Summit won the boys team title with 27 points, followed by second-place Mountain View (60) and third-place Bend (77). Summit also won the relay race in 6:20, followed by Mountain View (6:29) and Bend (7:11).

In Friday’s skate race, Shockey crashed at the start, which changed the race dynamic, according to Wuepper.

“I was able to get the early lead and I was able to hold that lead,” Wuepper said. “Will Mowry caught up to me but I got him in the sprint.

“Today (Saturday’s classic race) went really well. I thought I skied technically really well. I was able to push pretty hard, so I was really stoked about that.”

This weekend marked Wuepper’s first time racing at the nordic state championships. Last season as a freshman he said he was sick for some of the regular season races and he did not qualify.

Summit also won the combined boys and girls team state title with 69 points. Bend finished second with 107 points and Mountain View was third with 179 points.