HOUGHTON, Mich. – Michigan Tech athletic director Suzanne Sanregret announced that former Michigan Tech student-athlete Andrew Joda has been hired as the associate head coach Nordic skiing/assistant coach cross country and track and field.

“I am really excited to return to Michigan Tech,” said Joda. “Michigan Tech means a lot to me after being a student-athlete for the Huskies. I am looking forward to helping the student-athletes improve and excel.”

Joda has served as a volunteer coach with the Peak Nordic Ski Club for the past year, and served as a graduate assistant coach with the Huskies following his collegiate career. He was a member of both the cross country and Nordic ski teams at Tech earning All-American honors at the US Junior National Skiing Championships.

Head Coach Joe Haggenmiller commented: “I am excited to have Andrew join the coaching staff. I know he will bring energy and enthusiasm to the position. He will be a great resource for the programs. Andrew’s hard working attitude and knowledge of Michigan Tech will pay dividends for each program.”

Joda, who earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and materials sciences and a master’s degree in electrical engineering, spent the last year as an engineering associate with Union Pacific Railroad. He will begin his duties in early October.

Green and gold dominated the Central Region postseason awards, as Northern Michigan’s Erik Soderman landed the men’s Most Outstanding Athlete award, while teammate and sister Marie Helen Soderman earned the region’s Most Outstanding Athlete honor. Coach Sten Fjeldheim completed the sweep for the Wildcats, collecting both the men’s and women’s Coach of the Year honor.

“I’m just really, really proud to win these awards,” Northern Michigan head coach Sten Fjeldheim said. “It’s a great honor for all of us, and really just caps off a great season with a great group of kids.”

On the men’s side, Erik Soderman found his best form when it mattered most; his late season surge culminating in a national championship at the NCAA skate race. Appearing in his second consecutive NCAA Championships, the sophomore dominated the field during the interval start freestyle, claiming the top spot by over 25 seconds over his nearest competitor.

Soderman also captured both the freestyle and classic titles at regionals, taking the skate race by a comfortable 51-second margin, and outsprinting Alaska’s Jonas Loeffler to take the classic crown by less than a second.

“Erik is just one of the easiest athletes I’ve ever coached,” Fjeldheim said. “He listens and communicates really well. When he’s skiing, he doesn’t look like he’s going fast – he just looks smooth and glides really well.”

“He really lit it up in the skate race at regionals, and, though I didn’t say anything to anyone because I didn’t want to jinx it, I just had a feeling that if he had another race like that at nationals, he’d be tough to beat.”

On the women’s side, Marie Helen Soderman made the most of her senior season, capturing All-American honors in the skate race at the NCAA Championships, where she took tenth. The Sweden native was the CCSA’s top finisher in the classic race at nationals as well, finishing 13^th to just miss out on a second All-American spot.

“Marie is a senior, and she’s been really close to being an All-American before – it’s been one of her goals,” Fjeldheim said. “So it was really cool of her to finally get it in one of her last races. She just really turned it on in the last couple kilometers, and went from 16^th or so up to tenth.”

Soderman also claimed a Central Regional crown in the 5K skate race, and placed third in the regional classic event as well.

Now in his 23^rd season with Northern Michigan, Fjeldheim helped the Wildcats to a sweep of the men’s, women’s and overall team titles at the NCAA Central Region championships. He also led the team to the women’s and overall titles at the CCSA Championships as well, and finished the season with five of the top ten scoring skiers on the women’s side, and four of the top ten skiers on the men’s side.

“I’m honored that my peers have selected me for this honor,” Fjeldheim said. “It’s really a credit to the hard work of the athletes as well: they are the ones making me look good. My two student assistants, Ingrid [Fjeldheim] and Martin Banerud, have also been a huge, huge help – they’ve spent tons of time helping the athletes, and Jenny Ryan came down to help us at nationals as well. It’s been a great season, and this is a big honor.”

 

The 2012 NCAA Championships will be live streamed from the NCAA website.

Watch day one live here, and day two live here. For more information about the live webcasts visit http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule. For event times, refer to the event schedule listed at http://www.ncaa.com/info/skiing/d1/schedule.

For live and official results from each race day, visit http://barttiming.com/eisa/Results12/ncaa12.htm.

As the final week of the CCSA season kicks off, fifteen of the region’s top skiers prepare to go against the best the college world at the NCAA Championships in Bozeman, Mont.

The Nordic events, being staged at Bohart Ranch Cross Country Ski Center, start on Wednesday, March 7 at 9 a.m., with the freestyle events: a 5K for women and a 10K for men. After a day off, the skiers return for a mass start classic event (15K for women, and a 20K for men) on Friday, starting at 9 a.m.

Representing the CCSA on the women’s side this season will be Northern Michigan’s Monica Markvardsen, Marie Helen Soderman and Molly Burger; Alaska’s Raphaela Sieber, Marit Rjabov and Crystal Pitney and Michigan Tech’s Deedra Irwin.

On the men’s side, Northern Michigan’s Chris Bowler, Kjell-Christian Markset and Erik Soderman; Alaska’s Logan Hanneman and Tyler Kornfield; Michigan Tech’s Mikko Harju and Saint Scholastica’s Jeremy Hecker and Paul Schommer will all take the course from the Central Region.

“We are looking forward to the races and are excited to have a chance to see where we stack up,” Michigan Tech head coach and CCSA president Joe Haggenmiller said. “We’ve got some talented skiers, but you never know where you stand against other regions. We saw a little bit of the firepower they had at U.S. Nationals, but there’s a big difference between racing in January and racing in March.”

This year’s CCSA field sees a good mix of fresh faces and experienced racers: of the 15 student-athletes, seven have appeared in previous NCAA Championships. Markvardsen, Soderman Sieber, Soderman, Kornfield and Harju all competed in the 2011 NCAA event, while Bowler participated in nationals in 2010.

The other eight student-athletes will be taking college skiing’s biggest stage for the first time this season, but it’s not likely anyone will be taking them lightly.

“As I’ve told Jeremy and Paul, they should think of it as an opportunity,” Saint Scholastica head coach Chad Salmela said. “They may have flown under the radar a little bit to get here, but now that they are here, they’ve got a chance to show what they can do and really turn some heads.”

“There’s just no room for error at this level,” he added. “It’s a very high level of competition. If you miss just a little thing, you pay for it.”

Apart from the competition, perhaps the biggest challenge will be overcoming the thin air of Bohart Ranch – the trailhead sits 6,100 feet above sea level.

“There’s a little trepidation on our part because neither Deedra or Mikko have much experience racing at altitude,” Haggenmiller said. “You just can’t use the same tempo that you normally would in a race.”

“Adapting to the lower oxygen level is everything,” Salmela said. “You can train as hard as you want, but it’s all about how your body is able to adjust.”

This year’s NCAA Championships will be broadcast live from Bohart Ranch – to follow along with the action, go to www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/.

The CCSA officially announced its all-conference teams for the 2012 season on Thursday. Alaska saw the most skiers honored, with eight Nanooks earning All-CCSA places, and Northern Michigan landed the most first-team awards, with four.

In addition, Michigan Tech’s Joe Haggenmiller was named the CCSA Women’s Coach of the Year, while Alaska Scott Jerome scooped the conference’s Men’s Coach of the Year award.

On the men’s side, Northern Michigan’s Kjell-Christian Markset and Erik Soderman, Alaska’s Tyler Kornfield and Logan Hanneman, and Michigan Tech’s Mikko Harju made up the All-CCSA first team.

Two more Alaska men (Erik Soderstrom and Ludwig Schott) earned All-CCSA second team honors, as did Saint Scholastica Jeremy Hecker, Michigan Tech’s Jesse Smith and Northern Michigan’s Chris Bowler.

Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan each contributed a pair of skiers each to the women’s All-CCSA first team, with Deedra Irwin and Lynn Duijndam earning the honors for the Huskies and Monica Markvardsen and Rosie Frankowski landing spots for the Wildcats. Alaska’s Marit Rjabov represented the Nanooks on the first team as well.

Michigan Tech’s Malin Eriksson, Northern Michigan’s Molly Burger, and Alaska’s Crystal Pitney, Raphaela Sieber and Heather Edic rounded out the All-CCSA second team for the women.

Haggenmiller, meanwhile, earned Women’s Coach of the Year honors after guiding a young Michigan Tech to second place at the CCSA Championships. The Huskies seemed to gather momentum in a dynamic second half of the season, culminating in a dominating performance at the Green Acres SuperTour stop: not only did a Michigan Tech skier claim college wins both the women’s classic and freestyle events, they also swept the top five college spots in the latter.

“I think this Coach of the Year honor is a real testament to the women on our team,” Haggenmiller said.  “It reflects the job that they have been doing in training. These Coach of the Year awards are given to teams that are getting good athletes into their program and have them performing well, so I see it as an indicator that our program is going in the right direction.”

Jerome, who was honored with the Men’s Coach of the Year award, helped the Nanook men to the CCSA title, which they claimed by eight points over rivals Northern Michigan. The Alaska men, who also claimed the Hilltop Invitational team title, topped the CCSA podium five times this season, including an individual CCSA crown for Tyler Kornfield.

“I am humbled to be acknowledged by fellow coaches, and very proud, but it’s really a reflection of the hard work that the team did this year,” Jerome said. “We have a very unified and hardworking group. We travel farther and longer than any other team, and it can be very challenging, but we are all very supportive of one another.”

The All-CCSA teams are as follows:

Men’s:

First team:

Kjell-Christian Markset, NMU

Logan Hanneman, Alaska

Erik Soderman, NMU

Tyler Kornfield, Alaska

Mikko Harju, Michigan Tech

 

Second team:

Jeremy Hecker, Saint Scholastica

Chris Bowler, NMU

Jesse Smith, Michigan Tech

Erik Soderstrom, Alaska

Ludwig Schott, Alaska

 

Women’s:

First team:

Monica Markvardsen, NMU

Marit Rjabov, Alaska

Deedra Irwin, Michigan Tech

Lynn Duijndam, Michigan Tech

Rosie Frankowski, NMU

 

Second team:

Crystal Pitney, Alaska

Malin Eriksson, Michigan Tech

Molly Burger, Northern Michigan

Raphaela Sieber, Alaska

Heather Edic, Alaska

The NCAA officially announced the field for next month’s championships on Monday, with 15 CCSA skiers qualifying for nationals.

Northern Michigan led the way with six NCAA berths, qualifying a full allotment of three skiers each on both the men’s and women’s side. The Wildcats’ Chris Bowler, Kjell-Christian Markset and Erik Soderman will all suit up for the men’s events, while Molly Burger, Monica Markvardsen and Marie Helen Soderman will represent the women.

Alaska will also have five representatives at the NCAA’s, with Crystal Pitney, Marit Rjabov and Raphaela Sieber all qualifying for the women, and Logan Hanneman and Tyler Kornfield earning spots for the men.

Michigan Tech sends two qualifiers to the NCAA Championships for the second straight year. The Huskies’ Mikko Harju makes his second straight nationals appearance, while Deedra Irwin earns her first berth at NCAA’s on the women’s side.

Saint Scholastica also sends a pair to next month’s championships, marking the first season the Saints have ever earned two or more NCAA berths. Junior Jeremy Hecker and freshman Paul Schommer will both participate for the Saints.

This season’s NCAA Championships will be held March 7-10 at Bohart Ranch Cross Country Ski Center in Bozeman, Mont. The men’s 10K and women’s 5K freestyle races will be held on March 7, while the men’s 20K and women’s 15K classic events will be held on March 9.

To determine who will represent the Central Region, the CCSA scores student-athletes in each of the six NCAA qualifier races that he or she competes in over the season. The skier’s top two freestyle scores are then averaged together, as well as his or her top two classical scores. Those two numbers are then averaged together as well to create the skier’s overall score. Those athletes with the lowest overall score are then selected for the NCAA Championships, though each school is limited to a maximum of three athletes per gender.

This season, the CCSA was allotted eight men’s spots and seven women’s spots for the NCAA races. Those spots are determined by a region’s performance in previous NCAA appearances. The better a region’s athletes perform in a season, the more likely the region will be to earn more allotted spots in the following year.

Click here to view this season’s official points list.