After a weekend off, the CCSA racing continued at Theodore Wirth Park with men’s 15k and women’s 10k classic mass starts. These races also kicked off the weekend of the CCSA conference Championships.

Both men’s and women’s fields were faced with very cold conditions, that caused the race start to be pushed back an hour in order to reach legal racing temperatures. The track at Wirth Park was hard and fast, creating exciting and fast paced racing all day.

With the men’s racing leading off on the 3.3k loop, there was a large group until the half way point when the lead pack was whittled down to only six racers. By the end of the race the college field had been spread out with two Northern Michigan skiers out front. Adam Martin took top honors with a time of 36:56.4. He was followed three seconds later by teammate Ian Torchia. With these two spots Northern Michigan sits in first place after day one with 85 points. Michael Fehrenbach of the University of Alaska Fairbanks took third only 18 seconds from the win. Fehrenbach’s efforts led his team to a second place finish on the day with 72 total points.

Of his teams efforts today, UAF Coach Nick Crawford said, “Michael again showed that he is one of the top classic skiers in the CCSA! He skied with the leaders most of the race and ended up as the third CCSA skier. Behind him we had Jan Cech and Nick Lovett who have not been in our top three most of the season but had great races today and finished in 11th and 13th and scored for the Nanooks.”

Michigan Tech’s Thomas Kendrick had a strong showing today placing forth and accrued some crucial points for his team as they trail the University of Alaska Fairbanks by only four points with a total of 68. Kendrick was followed by his teammates Kyle Hanson in 12th and Didrik Elset 15th.

“I thought all our guys skied really well today,” said MTU Coach Joe Haggenmiller. “We are really excited for Tom Kendrick, he’s a fifth year senior and had the best result of his collegiate career today, so we’re excited to see what he can do in his last three races on the CCSA calendar.”

On the women’s side, the racing was just as fast and exciting over the the laps that they completed. The race was taken out hard and led by three Northern Michigan University skiers, who would also end up taking the top three spots on the podium. The timers had to rely on the photo finish to declare a winner. Once the photo was reviewed it was Vivian Hett who came out on top with teammate Nicole Schneider taking second by less than 0.1 of a second. Twelve seconds later, Felicia Gesior rounded out the top three giving Northern Michigan the team lead with 87 points.

“I’m really happy to see our girls really pushing each other” said Northern Michigan Coach Sten Fjeldheim. “They’ve been working really hard all year and none of them wants to lose to the other.”
The women of the University of Alaska Fairbanks followed in the footsteps of their mens team and took second in the team scores with 78 points. Fairbanks was led by Nicole Bathe in forth. Anne-Tine Markset was close behind in fifth and Sarissa Lammers took seventh.

“We were really impressed with all of our women,” said Fairbanks Coach Nick Crawford. “Nichole Bathe did an especially good job moving up from her 22nd seed position in the mass start to finish sixth overall.”

The women of Saint Scholastica just beat out the women of Michigan Tech by one point for third in the team scores. The Saints were led by Kelsey Dickinson in 11th, Elizabeth Evans 14th and Allison Ternes 19th. The Saints ended the day with 62 points and will be looking to add to their lead on Michigan Tech.

Racing continues tomorrow with 5 and 10 kilometer individual start skate races. For a full list of results please visit Superiortiming.com