Wayzata senior Lila Golomb won the individual pursuit title, and St. Paul Academy earned its first team title at the MSHSL girls Nordic skiing state tournament on Thursday, Feb. 12, at Giants Ridge in Biwabik.

Golomb, who was in third place after the freestyle portion of the event, had the best time in the classic portion to finish with a combined time of 31 minutes, 38.3 seconds.

“I‘ve wanted this for so many years and it kind of felt out of reach until recently, and I had really good section races and I was like ‘This is my last year to do it and I need to do it’,” she said.

Golomb, top-ranked in the coaches’ individual poll going into the meet, finished third at the last two state meets.

“I was skiing with the other girls until about like two [kilometers] and over the top of the hill I broke free and I decided I’m going to win this for myself and I’m going to be really disappointed if I don’t, so I kind of took it and I didn’t look back.”

Bloomington Jefferson/Kennedy senior Avery Rich finished second with a time of 31:43.6. St. Paul Academy junior Eleanor Mody was third with a 31:45.5, followed by Brainerd senior Annelise Baird (31:50.4) and Minnetonka junior Evie Malec (32:31.9).

Baird had the top time (15:24.2) in the freestyle portion, while Golomb led the classic portion with a time of 15:53.1.

The finish by Mody and Paloma Good, who was sixth in the pursuit, combined with Maren Overgaard and Alyda Overgaard’s first-place finish in the team sprint on Wednesday, gave St. Paul Academy a total of 374 points.

Minneapolis Southwest finished second in the team standings with 360 points, followed by Wazyata (355) and Duluth East (338). Duluth East, which won state titles in 2023 and 2024, was the top-ranked team in the coaches’ regular-season poll. Minneapolis Washburn won the state title last year.