Northern Michigan Wildcats
Location: Marquette, Michigan
Head coach: Sten Fjeldheim (23nd season)
Assistant coach: Jenny Ryan
Top male returners: Erik Soderman, George Cartwright, Kevin Cutts
Top female returners: Ingrid Fjeldheim, Monica Markvardsen, Marie Helen Soderman
Website: webb.nmu.edu/SportsAthletics
2011 CCSA Championships: Men – 1st, Women – 1st
2011 NCAA Central Region: Men – 1st, Women – 2nd

One of the nation’s premier skiing programs, Northern Michigan can always be counted on to be among the top of the CCSA leaderboard come March. Despite losing the likes of All-American level competitors like Martin Banerud, Andy Liebner and Christina Turman, the Wildcats don’t seem to have missed a beat, as both their men’s and women’s rosters are still stocked with talent.

On the men’s side, the Wildcats return George Cartwright after a redshirt season a year ago. A sophomore, Cartwright qualified for the NCAA Championships in his 2010 freshman campaign. That season, the Lander, Wyoming native landed podium spots in both the NCAA regional classic race (third) and the CCSA Championship classic (second).

Fellow sophomore Erik Soderman also returns for the Wildcats after reaching the NCAA as the conference’s sixth-best skier a year ago. The Swede earned five podium spots last season, including a second-place finish in the classic event at the Houghton SuperTour stop.

Teammates Kevin Cutts and Chris Bowler are also capable of producing a top-five finish every time they step on the course, and both only missed out on qualifying for nationals last season due to the fact that NMU had already qualified a full squad. Combined with exciting newcomers Kjell-Christian Markset (a junior champion in Norway) and Kyle Bratrud, the Wildcats should again be a team to watch.

On the women’s side, the Wildcats return a pair of NCAA qualifiers from a year ago in Marie Helen Soderman and Monica Markvardsen.Soderman was the Wildcats top performer at nationals, landing a 13th-place finish in the 15K classic and 21st spot in the 5K skate. She also earned six top-ten finishes and two top-five finishes in CCSA competition a year ago.

Markvardsen, meanwhile, has qualified for the NCAA Championships in each of her two seasons with the Wildcats, and earned a podium spot with a third-place finish in the NCAA regional classic race.

Teammates Libby Ellis and Ingrid Fjeldheim should challenge for scoring spots for the Wildcats as well – both women finished in the conference’s top 12 skiers a year ago. Ellis took top ten spots in both the CCSA Championship skate race (eighth) and the regional classic event (ninth), while Fjeldheim turned in a seventh-place performace at the regional freestyle.