The first cross country ski races of the 2016 NCAA championships in Steamboat, Colorado kicked off today. The morning was led off with the women’s 5k individual start at 9am and followed by the men’s 10k individual start at 10:30. The weather for the women’s race was hard and fast, with the sun shining and temperatures right around 30 degrees.

Today’s CCSA women were led by UAF’s Anne-Tine Markset who placed 14th, 21 seconds off the pace. Markset led the UAF women to top the CCSA women’s teams today with a sixth place in the team scores. Markset was followed by her teammates Sarissa Lammers 18th and Nichole Bathe 23rd.

The women of NMU trailed by six points behind UAF to place seventh on the day in the team scores. NMU was led by Felicia Gesior in 16th 32.3 seconds off the pace. Gesior was followed by Vivian Hett 21st and Sophie Schimpl 24th.

Kelsey Dickinson of the College of Saint Scholastica placed 33rd today for the CCSA with Michigan Techs Andrea Lee placing 39th.

By the time the men were to start at 10:30, the weather had grown warmer with temperatures reaching into the mid 40’s. This made for some waxing changes for the teams to try and make the most out of the warming snow conditions.

The men of NMU not only led the CCSA field today but led the entire men’s field by taking the team lead with 90 points, 19 points over the next challenger, the University of Denver with 71 points. The Wildcats were led by Ian Torchia in second place, ten seconds from the win. Torchia was followed closely by his teammate Adam Martin 18 seconds later in fourth. Jake Brown placed ninth overall today solidifying NMU’s lead and giving each of the Wildcat racers All-American honors.

Michigan Tech was CCSA’s second team at the Championships in ninth overall. MTU was led by Gaspard Cuenot in 12th place. Cuenot was followed by Kyle Hanson who finished 31st after suffering a crash during his race costing him precious seconds in the overall. Didrik Elset placed third for MTU in 40th.

There were three CCSA men representing their schools with solo efforts today. Reitler Hodger of the College of Saint Scholastica finished 25th, Matthew Nichols of the University of Green Bay took 35th and Michael Fehrenbach of the University of Alaska Fairbanks finished in 37th.

The NCAA Nordic races continue Saturday with 15 and 20 kilometer classic mass starts. For full results and team scores please visit www.summittiming.com