Middle Park’s Peyton Fosha charged to a second-place finish Saturday, leading a pack of Nordic skiers through the Steamboat Classic.

Fosha clocked a 19:05.2 in the women’s 4.5 km classic race. She finished less than two seconds behind the leader, Steamboat Springs’ Dixie Barnes, who won with a time of 19:03.5. The podium appearance keeps Fosha at the front of the Colorado High School Ski League pack as the postseason draws closer.

Despite the narrow individual gap, the Middle Park women’s team claimed the top spot on the leaderboard with 212 points, edging out Steamboat by just two points. The victory was a deep team effort; Corinne Schmanke (19:41.7) and Bree Byrnes (20:16.8) also cracked the top 10, finishing eighth and 10th, respectively. Other scorers for the Panthers included Quinn Miller in 12th, Xia Dennis in 13th, and Morgan Spiewak in 14th.

In the men’s division, Middle Park finished sixth overall with 172 points. Ben Kaune led the Panther boys with an eighth-place finish, crossing the line in 15:31.2. Chase Fosha followed in 17th (16:16.6), while Barrett Acker (27th), Leon Ramirez (31st), and Sean Sullivan (34th) rounded out the team’s top performers.

The middle school program, competing as East Grand, also saw success on the Steamboat tracks. The girls’ team took second place, trailing Summit by only one point. Kit Michalowski (3rd) and Parry Huber (4th) led the girls, while Brownlee Birch (5th) secured the top finish for the East Grand boys, who tied for third place overall.