After a two week break, the CCSA teams continued their official race season this past weekend at the Birkie Trailhead in Cable, WI, with the Gitchi Gami Games.

The women kicked off the race weekend with a five kilometer classic individual race. The collegiate field was led by Vivian Hett (3rd) from Northern Michigan, crossing the finish line at 15:04.9, followed by her teammates Kristen Bourne (4th), Anikken Alnaes (5th) and Sarah Bezdicek (6th). Another top ten finisher was Maria Hauer (7th) representing St. Cloud State University. The College of St. Scholastica was led by Kelsey Dickinson (12th), Michigan Tech by Sarah Goble (16th) and UWGB by Oda Bekkestad, coming in 43rd.

NMU’s Kjetil Banerud led the men’s field over a distance of 10 kilometers, clocking in at 27:27.2. Jacob Ajax (University of Wisconsin Green Bay) and Mathias Rolid (NMU) round out the podium. Michigan Tech’s Mitchell DeLong (5th) and Reid Goble (7th), as well as St. Scholastica’s Tamer Mische-Richter (6th) got a top ten finish. St. Olaf was led by Tyler Radke taking 36th place.

On Sunday, January 21, the women raced a 10 kilometer freestyle mass start race. NMU’s Vivian Hett striked again as the fastest collegiate skier, finishing with a time of 26:10.4. Hett’s teammates Anikken Alnaes, Julie Ensrud and MTU’s Sarah Goble also finished in the top 5. Kelsey Dickinson of Saint Scholastica (13th), Maria Hauer (25th) of St. Cloud, Stephanie Balas (39th) of St. Olaf and Oda Bekkestad (40th) of Green Bay took the top finishes for their teams.

In the men’s 15K, Tom Bye from Michigan Tech claimed victory with a time of 34:35.2. Kjetil Banerud and Gaspard Cuenot from Northern and Tech joined him on podium. The top finishers for each of the CCSA teams was Tamer Mische-Richter (6th) for St. Scholastica, Jacob Ajax (14th) for UWGB and Tyler Radke (30th) for St. Olaf.

Results can be found at: www.superiortiming.com