The teams of the CCSA traveled to Jackson, NH last week to compete in the 2017 NCAA Championships hosted by the University of New Hampshire. On Thursday, March 9th the men competed in the 10K classic individual start race while the women raced a 5K in difficult, constantly changing snow conditions. Two days later, on March 11th, was the 20K mass start skate race for men and 15K for women.
Martin Bergstrom of the University of Utah won the men’s race while Fredrik Schwencke of the Northern Michigan University Wildcats led the CCSA with a 6th place finish. Schwenckes’s teammate, Adam Martin, finished just behind in 7th place to take the top American spot in the competition. Both earned All-American honors for their performances. On the women’s side, Vivian Hett earned All-American honors with a 6th place finish, finishing behind race winner Petra Hyncicova of the University of Colorado.
Joe Haggenmiller commented on his team performance: “The NCAAs were a mixed bag for the Huskies. Our men being in the top 10 of men’s Nordic is a good mark for the team to build on for the future. Tomi Mikkonen had a pretty good classic race for a lower ranked classic skier and Tom Bye skied strong to move up to 14th in the freestyle mass start after breaking 2 poles and being left at the back of the field in last place. We were close with Gaspard’s skate race as he was skiing fairly comfortably with the lead pack for a lap and a half until his back began to bother him and eventually had him unable to ski with full power falling back through the field. Our women battled, but struggled with the challenging conditions thrown at them. I feel for them to be ending their Husky careers with some sour results, but that is the way ski racing goes. We wish them well in the future.”
Both Bergstrom and Hyncicova repeated as champions in Saturday’s mass start races. Martin led the CCSA with a second All-American performance in 6th place while MTU’s Tom Bye crossed line as the 14th collegiate skier in the field. Reitler Hodgert from Saint Scholastica finished 24th. NMU’s Kristen Bourne skied to a 13th place finish to earn the top CCSA spot of the day. Vivian Hett and Nicole Schneider, both of NMU, and Kelsey Dickinson of CSS took 22nd, 23rd and 26th respectively.
“CSS has a great time at NCAA’s with mostly results to match. Our skiers were gutsy and executed race plans really well. We are super proud of this team and motivated to start training for next year.” said Maria Stuber, Saint Scholastica’s head coach.
For results click: http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results17/ncaa17.htm