With a delicate balance of alpine and Nordic, the Aspen High School girls ski team won the Colorado state ski championship Friday, the first for the Aspen girls since 2013.

The Skiers clinched the girls team title with a bevy of top finishes in the 5-kilometer skate race late Friday afternoon, a race that featured a mass start, a huge crowd along the course and a solo first-place finish by Maddie Donovan of Vail Mountain School.

Donovan won the individual state title in 15 minutes, 43.58 seconds (for the 3-plus mile course).

Ruthie Boyd of Summit High School, the winner of the classic 5K on Thursday, finished second in Friday’s skate race.

Third place went to Megan Rossman of Battle Mountain.

Annie Blakslee of Vail Mountain School finished in fourth place, followed by Natalie Bohlmann of Steamboat Springs.

Aspen freshman Chelsea Moore then led the Skiers, who crowded their way into the top 10.

Moore was sixth in her first state skating race.

Teammate Nina Beidleman finished ninth to boost the Skiers to the Nordic team points lead and eventually to the overall state championship.

Jozi Wille was 13th for Aspen and Logan McNamee finished 14th.

“Today I just had to give it may all,” Moore said. “All these seniors are leaving from our team, and it was great to be here with them.”

She said the mass start is fun as the skiers line up next to teammates, with the fastest skiers seeded at the front of the chevron-style start.

“It’s pretty cool to line up with your teammates at the start. It’s fun to be there with everyone,” Moore said, adding “I love this course.”

The Aspen girls won their seventh state skiing title on home snow this week.

Donovan, the winner from Vail Mountain School, overcame an appendectomy early in the season.

“It was really hot, it was really slushy, but it was really fun,” said Donovan, the daughter of Matt and Jane Donovan. “I’m very happy and it’s a beautiful day.”

Girls alpine

Mallorie Miller, after a close call in Thursday’s giant slalom, prevailed Friday to win the girls slalom race at the state high school skiing championships at Aspen Highlands.

Miller, from Evergreen High School, rallied with a fast second-run time to win the individual state title.

Two Summit High School skiers finished second and third, Giselle Thompson and Gabrielle Myers, respectively.

Haley Frischholz of Battle Mountain was fourth.

Summit High School won the girls slalom team title with Battle Mountain in second place.

Aspen was third in the girls slalom standings behind Pascale Augspurger, Dolores Sharaf, Elli Gorsuch and Linzhi Douglass.

Augspurger finished seventh in the slalom. Sharaf was ninth. Gorsuch finished 14th.

Douglass was 19th and teammate Nikki Cardamone was 20th.

Nikki Blizzard was 22nd for Aspen with McKenna Kiker 28th.

Lacey Newhard and Annabelle Ward also represented Aspen in the girls slalom finals.

Mackenzie Gasamann of Steamboat Springs, the winner of Thursday’s giant slalom, missed a gate in her first run Friday and did not figure into the scoring.

The Evergreen ski team is a composite of skiers from Jefferson County schools, including many Front Range high schools.

The combined alpine-Nordic totals showed the Aspen High School girls with a composite 618 points at the state championships.

The Battle Mountain girls finished second overall with 597 points.

Summit High was third with 591 points.

Vail Mountain School (554) was fourth with Evergreen fifth (553), Middle Park sixth (481.5), Eagle Valley seventh (456.5), Steamboat Springs eighth (400).

Lake County (391.5) and Nederland followed in order.

Boys alpine

Aspen High’s Graham Houtsma dealt with missing equipment, wrong equipment and just about everything else en route to a state Nordic title on Friday. Houtsma skated across the finish line just inches ahead of Cameron Wolfe of Vail Mountain School as the state’s 1-2 Nordic skaters collapsed in the finish corral.

Aspen teammates Jack Sweeney and Colt Whitley finished third and fourth for the Skiers, who picked up valuable points in the boys team standings at the Colorado High School Skiing Championships in Aspen.

They helped the Aspen boys finish a close second in team standings behind the state champion Battle Mountain boys.

Battle Mountain won 592.5 to 578.

Third place went to Steamboat Springs in the boys, scoring 563 points.

Summit was fourth with 558.

Middle Park (521), Vail Mountain (487), Nederland (468), Evergreen (448.5), Eagle Valley (426) and Colorado Rocky Mountain School (413) followed in order.

“I was coming down from the top of Zoom Flume, and I fell and broke a pole,” Houtsma said in the finish area after winning his state title. “I got up … and I got a pole from a teammate, but it was too long for me.”

Wolfe said he tried to take advantage when the Aspen skier fell in front of him.

“After I passed him, I kept looking back … and I could tell he was gaining on me,” Wolfe said. “He just got me at the end.”

The two offered congratulations to each other in the finish area Friday afternoon.

“This course is always a pain in the butt, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Houtsma, the son of Bobbie Ann and John Houtsma. “It’s got a good mixture of uphills and downhills.”

And it’s where Graham Houtsma won a state championship.