Beneath the Minneapolis skyline at Theodore Wirth Park, Northern Michigan University men and women continued their winning ways in the CCSA, each taking home the CCSA Championship team title. Following Saturday’s 15 km classical races, the Wildcat men won the 10-kilometer freestyle race, led by top finisher Ian Torchia. Both for Sunday’s race and the overall, Michigan Tech took second followed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In the women’s 5 km freestyle, Northern Michigan outdueled UAF and race winner Anne-Tine Markset by a mere three points for the team victory on Sunday, enough to clinch the overall title. UAF finished as runner-up in the conference, while Michigan Tech earned the final spot on the team podium with a strong Sunday performance.
In the women’s 5km event, UAF’s Markset stole the show; Markset posted a time of 14:55.7, nearly five seconds in front of the second collegiate finisher, Northern Michigan’s Felicia Gesior. The win is Markset’s first of the season as well as the first Nanook individual win of 2016.
“We’re really pleased to have Anne-Tine Markset grab the win today!” said Nanook head coach Nick Crawford of Sunday’s race. “We’ve known all season that we have a couple of athletes on both the men’s and women’s side capable of winning CCSA races if everything lines up right for them and Anne-Tine put it all together today. Anne-Tine seems to be getting better every week so we’re excited to see what she can do at the Regional Championships and the NCAA Championships.”
Junior Nicole Bathe finished fourth, just eight seconds off the winning pace. Sarissa Lammers placed ninth, rounding out the scoring for the Nanook women.
Gesior again led the Northern Michigan women, as she has in each five-kilometer contest of 2016. The senior captain was followed by freshman teammate Sarah Bezdicek in third, who finished 7.5 seconds back of Markset. Fellow freshman Sophie McDonald was the third scorer for the Wildcats in fifth. Both Gesior and Bezdicek are part of a large Northern Michigan contingent heading to Romania this week to race in the World Junior and U23 Nordic Ski Championships later this month.
The Michigan Tech Huskies’ top finisher was Andrea Lee in sixth with a time of 15:15.3. Lee won the 10 km mass start at the Telemark Chase earlier this season and continues to post strong freestyle results. Lee’s teammates Lisa Koenig and Sonja Hedblom finished seventh and sixteenth, respectively.
MTU head coach Joe Haggenmiller said he was pleased with how his women’s squad bounced back from a rough day in the 10 km classic one day earlier. “Lisa Koenig had a top result today – that was great to see from her!” Haggenmiller was also impressed with Lee, who V2-skated the entirety of the course’s longest climb on the first lap. Said Haggenmiller of the tactic, “Most of the guys weren’t even doing that so I think it shows how strong she is.”
On the men’s side it was deja-vu all over again. In fact, the top three collegiate finishers and the margins between them were nearly identical to the last CCSA 10 km freestyle race, which took place in Houghton, MI. Northern’s Ian Torchia again “torched” the field, winning in a time of 20:11.8. Teammate Adam Martin was second, 28-seconds behind. Northern’s Jake Brown finished third, just 0.8 seconds after Martin. Talk about consistency: in Houghton Torchia finished exactly 28-seconds in front of Martin and Martin 0.7 ahead of Brown.
“I was pleased with our team this weekend- both men and women,” noted Northern Michigan head coach Sten Fjeldheim. “Even with the cold it was a good weekend. I was glad that we got up to race-legal temperatures and were able to put on a good race, and a fair race.”
The Michigan Tech men had arguably their best CCSA performance of the year to-date. Huskies Gaspard Cuenot, Didrik Fjeld Elset, and Kyle Hanson took fourth, fifth, and seventh, respectively. Not only did each performance set or match each skier’s CCSA season-best, but Sunday marked the first time this season that Michigan Tech has placed three in the top ten.
“I was pretty happy with how the guys performed; I thought we were pretty competitive with NMU,” said Haggenmiller, “but you have to give the NMU guys credit, they’ve been racing fast. So when we’re up there with NMU it’s a good day for us. Skate races seem to be good for us. I don’t know why, but they do!”
A mere 17 seconds separated the top three Alaska-Fairbanks skiers, who collectively finished third as a team on Sunday and in the overall championship race. Freshmen Seji Takagi and Max Donaldson led the Nanook men in 10th and 11th, while veteran teammate Alexander Eckert finished just behind in 12th.
The CCSA ski teams will begin postseason NCAA competition next weekend in Ishpeming, MI, at the NCAA Regional Championships. Women are scheduled to race 5 km freestyle interval start at 10 am on Saturday, February 20 and 15 km classical mass start at 12:30 pm on Sunday, February 21. Men will race 10 km freestyle at 12:30 pm on Saturday and 20 km classic at 10 am on Sunday.