The 17 men and women that will represent the Central Region at the 2015 NCAA Skiing Championships have been officially announced by the National Collegiate Association’s skiing committee. The Championships will take place on March 11th and 13th in Lake Placid, New York.
Northern Michigan leads the CCSA representation at the NCAA Championships with a full allotment of six skiers. Michigan Tech will send four, Alaska Fairbanks and St. Scholastica each qualified three skiers, and St. Olaf will send one representative.
NMU’s Erik Soderman leads the CCSA men as the top scoring skier of the season. Soderman will be joined by his teammates Fredrik Schwencke, who reached the top of the podium three times this season, and Kyle Bratrud, who represented the United States at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Sweden in February and notched four victories in the CCSA earlier in January.
Alaska Fairbanks will send Logan Hanneman, a competitor for the United States at the U-23 World Championships to his fourth NCAA Championship appearance. Hanneman’s teammate Jonas Löffler, a senior from Saint Märgen, Germany, will make his second appearance at the Championships. Michigan Tech qualified Haakon Hjelstuen, an exchange student from Oslo, Norway, who notched two victories this season, as well as Tom Bye, a freshman from Eden Prairie, Minnesota who competed for the United States this winter at the World Junior Championships.
St. Scholastica’s Paul Schommer will travel to his third NCAA Championship, and Jake Brown will make his first appearance at the Championships, both representing St. Olaf.
On the women’s side, Northern Michigan’s Jordyn Ross was the highest scoring qualifier from the CCSA, and the senior from Lakeville, Minnesota will make her second NCAA Championships appearance alongside her teammates Felicia Gesior and Kristen Bourne.
Michigan Tech will send Alice Flanders with three victories this season to her second Championships, along with Deedra Irwin, a member of the US team at the U-23 World Championships who will be making her second appearance. St. Scholastica will send senior Sharmila Ahmed to her second Championships along with her teammate Anita Kirvesniemi, who will making her first appearance after notching two victories this season. Alaska Fairbanks will be represented by Anne-Tine Markset, a sophomore from Oslo, Norway. She is making her first appearance at the NCAA Championships.
The Nordic events will be held at Mt. Van Hoevenberg on Wednesday, March 11th with the women’s 5 kilometer and the men’s 10 kilometer freestyle race, and on Friday, March 13th with the women’s 15 kilometer, and the men’s 20 kilometer classic mass start race.
This year’s championships will be webcast live on NCAA.com. Visit http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule to watch all the action. Races will begin at 10:00 AM, EST
2015 Central Region qualifiers
Men
Erik Soderman, Northern Michigan
Kyle Bratrud, Northern Michigan
Fredrik Schwencke, Northern Michigan
Logan Hanneman, Alaska Fairbanks
Haakon Hjelstuen, Michigan Tech
Jake Brown, St. Olaf
Jonas Löffler, Alaska Fairbanks
Paul Schommer, St. Scholastica
Tom Bye, Michigan Tech
Women
Jordyn Ross, Northern Michigan
Felicia Gesior, Northern Michigan
Alice Flanders, Michigan Tech
Deedra Irwin, Michigan Tech
Anita Kirvesniemi, St. Scholastica
Sharmila Ahmed, St. Scholastica
Anne-Tine Markset, Alaska Fairbanks
Kristen Bourne, Northern Michigan