HARBOR SPRINGS — It couldn’t get much better for Marquette Senior High School’s Sam Dehlin at the MHSAA Division 1 Finals in downhill skiing at Nubs Nob in Harbor Springs on Monday.

The high school senior was celebrating his final time down the slopes representing his school, and not only did his Sentinels win a fairly close race for the state championship, but Dehlin himself swept to the slalom and giant slalom individual titles.

Without his efforts, there was no certainty that MSHS would’ve won the team title.

Marquette totaled 50.5 points as Traverse City West was second with 64 and TC Central third with 103. All three of those teams competed against each other at their D-1 regional meet held two weeks earlier at Schuss Mountain near Mancelona.

In the girls meet, freshman Stella Dehlin led Marquette to a close third-place finish with 97 points as TC West was runner-up with 93. TC Central ran away with that title, scoring just 60 points with a steady performance in slalom and GS.

Here are details from each meet:

Dehlin rules the slopes

In the giant slalom, Sam Dehlin won by two-thirds of a second — 0.67 of a second to be exact — in his two-run combined time, then dominated in slalom with a victory by nearly three seconds — again totaling two runs.

Dehlin’s closer GS victory was probably more a key for the Sentinels as they only finished third overall in that event, with only one other Marquette skier finishing in the top 15.

His runs in that event were 27.85 seconds and 25.03 seconds for a total of 52.88 seconds, easily ahead of runner-up Broden Janczarek of Lake Orion, whose runs of 27.82 and 25.73 totaled 53.55.

Dehlin had the second-fastest opening run, coming in just three-hundredths of a second behind Janczarek, then zipped down the course as the course got faster. His second run of barely more than 25 seconds was a full half-second ahead of the rest of the field.

The Sentinels’ second finisher in GS was Benjamin Kuhl, who placed in a tie for fifth in 54.77 seconds with runs of 28.65 and 25.62. Like Dehlin, he improved greatly in his second run, only putting down the 13th best opening run but tying for third in his second.

Lake Skytta was Marquette’s next GS finisher. He was 16th overall, though for team point-scoring purposes, he placed 13th as some skiers who competed without their schools didn’t figure in team scoring.

Skytta totaled 55.19 seconds with runs of 28.85 and 26.34. Again, like his teammates, he improved his showing from the first run to the second, placing 19th in the opener and 13th in the second.

The Sentinels’ fourth GS finisher was Brady Audette, 19th in 55.65 on runs of 29.19 and 26.46, while Conner Henry was 28th in 57.04 on runs of 28.54 and 28.50, followed closely by Connor Dunn in 29th with 57.06 after runs of 29.65 and 27.41.

Things really turned in Marquette’s favor in slalom, where again led by Dehlin, the Sentinels had four of the top six finishers to add just 13 points to their team total.

Dehlin’s dominating performance here included the only two runs under 36 seconds — 35.27 and 34.89 — for a 1:10.16 total. Henry was a distant runner-up, but most importantly was in second place, after the second-fastest time in each run of 36.97 and 36.02 seconds for 1:12.99 total.

After TC Central’s Jace Rowell was third in 1:14.27, Audette slotted into fourth in 1:15.63 on runs of 37.75 and 37.88.

Kuhl was the Sentinels’ fourth scorer in sixth in 1:16.52 on runs of 37.80 and 38.72.

Dunn provided MSHS with insurance by finishing 13th in 1:19.69 with runs of 39.27 and 40.42, while Skytta was only able to finish one run and didn’t post a score.

Freshman of the future

Stella Dehlin didn’t win a state title, but she provided leadership on the slopes with the Sentinels’ best finishes in both GS and slalom.

She was a close third in GS, putting down the fourth-fastest first run of 27.82 seconds and third-fastest second run of 26.65 to total 54.47 seconds, just 0.29 of a second behind winner Quinn Gerber of TC Central and just four-hundredths off the runner-up total posted by Summer Lewandowski of TC West.

Gerber had runs of 27.79 and the fastest second run of 26.39 for 54.18, while Lewandowski had the fastest first run of 27.35 to go with 27.08 for 54.43 total.

Marquette’s second finisher in GS was Madalyn Croney in 17th with 56.52 seconds on runs of 28.52 and 28.00, while next was Anna Bernard in 20th in 56.89 on runs of 28.76 and 28.13, with Lucy Stern right after that in 21st in 56.92 on runs of 28.77 and 28.15.

Marquette’s insurance fifth finisher was Ava Stern in 29th in 57.19 on runs of 29.40 and 27.79, while Lyla Isaacson was 39th in 59.30 on runs of 29.86 and 29.44.

In slalom, Stella Dehlin finished fifth in 1:14.76 after runs of 35.39 and 39.37. Even though her two runs were nearly four seconds apart, her first run was fourth fastest in the field and second run was fifth best.

Neave Rewa of Grand Haven, an unattached skier whose team didn’t qualify for the finals, won this event in 1:12.05 on runs of 34.94 and 37.11, the first run tied for the fastest and second run the fastest by more than a full second.

TC Central skiers Gerber and Avery Taggert finished 2-3 in 1:13.58 and 1:14.13, respectively.

Lucy Stern was close behind Dehlin in slalom, finishing seventh in 1:15.40 on runs of 34.84 and 39.56, while Ava Stern was the Sentinels’ third finisher in 17th in 1:17.55 on runs of 37.24 and 40.31.

Croney was Marquette’s fourth and final point scorer in 20th in 1:20.15 on runs of 38.39 and 41.76, while Bernard was immediately after her in 21st in 1:20.55 on runs of 37.91 and 42.64.

Isaacson finished in 33rd in 1:24.66 on runs of 40.57 and 44.09.