Hill-Murray’s Taylor Voigt, St. Paul Academy’s Caden Burns claim Alpine skiing individual state titles

Taylor Voigt held off Hill-Murray teammate Kate Reardon and defending champion Vivien Pihlstrom of Blake to win the girls Alpine Skiing individual state championship Tuesday at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.

Voigt finished with a combined time of 1 minute, 15.09 seconds to win her second state title. She won her first title in 2023 as a freshman. She fell in last year’s section tournament and did not advance to the state meet.

Voigt led after the first run with a time of 37.70 seconds on the Helsinki Course. Pihlstrom took the lead with a time of 37.56 seconds on her second run, and Reardon, who also fell in the section tournament last year, moved into second with a time of 37.96 seconds.

On her second run, Voigt finished with a time of 37.39 seconds.

“[Kate and I] both went through struggles last year [experiencing] the exact same thing,” Voigt said. “It made us very close. Our competition against each other is what drives us both to be fast. [Kate] was super fast this year and even Vivien Pihlstrom was super fast. I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task to win.”

Pihlstrom finished second with a combined time of 1:15.48, while Reardon took third with a time of 1:15.83.

“I didn’t know how [Kate and Vivien] ended up placing. My goal was just to do my best,” Voigt said. “I knew I had to lay it down in order to win and have a really clean run.”

Hill-Murray claimed the girls team title with 179 points. Minnetonka finished second with 150 points and Prior Lake/Farmington was third with 140.

“They had a goal at the beginning of the season to come back, make it through sections and finish the job up here at state,” Hill-Murray coach Mark Lindemer said.

Caden Burns of St. Paul Academy won the boys title after dominating the two runs. He finished with a combined time of 1:12.97, including 34.96 seconds on his first run on the Innsbruck Course.

“Caden is a really strong skier,” St. Paul Academy coach Nathan Goldman said. “He really studies the course and knows where his strengths are. He is really good at capitalizing on that and getting the fastest time he can out of both the conditions and the course.”

Eden Prairie’s Tate Wilker bested Minnetonka’s Oscar Anderson on their second runs to take second place with a combined time of 1:14.54. Anderson had a time of 1:14.88.

Minnetonka claimed the boys team title with 176 points, finishing 27 points ahead of Cook County. Hill-Murray was third with 134 points.

Nordic skiing starts Wednesday at Giants Ridge with team sprint relays, and the individual freestyle and pursuit races are scheduled for Thursday.