Deedra Irwin of Michigan Tech and Kyle Bratrud of Northern Michigan University led the CCSA in Saturday’s interval start classic race in Telemark, Wisconsin. It was a competitive race: Michigan Tech, St. Scholastica, Northern Michigan, and Alaska Fairbanks each had at least two skiers in the top ten of both the men’s and women’s races. “The region is definitely getting stronger,” said NMU Head Coach Sten Fjeldheim.

Deedra Irwin won the women’s 5 kilometer race with a time of 18:41.7, an outstanding performance for the Michigan Tech senior. Taking second was Nicole Bathe of Alaska Fairbanks, finishing just under 15 seconds behind Irwin. Rounding out the top three was NMU’s Felicia Gesior.

Ulrika Axelsson of Michigan Tech finished just behind Gesior, missing the podium by only two and half seconds—an excellent finish for the sophomore skier from Sweden. Jordyn Ross, who had a substantial crash in the race, was the fifth CCSA woman, followed by Alaska Fairbanks skier Anne-Tine Markset, a sophomore from Norway. Alice Flanders of Michigan Tech was 7th, Anita Kirvesniemi of St Scholastica was 8th, Megan Edic of NMU 9th, and Sharmila Ahmed of CSS 10th.

The men’s 10 kilometer classic race was won by NMU’s Kyle Bratrud for his third consecutive victory in NCAA qualifiers this season. Bratrud won with a time of 30:15.6.

In second place was NMU teammate Adam Martin, just .6 seconds off the pace of Bratrud, a close race for the sophomore Wildcat. Taking third for a Northern Michigan podium sweep was Erik Soderman, who Fjeldheim says is “starting to make his comeback” from illness. NMU freshman Ian Torchia, a member of the 2015 USA World Junior Team, skied an excellent race to finish 4th. Fjeldheim praised his race saying, “Ian’s turning out to be a heck of a freshman.”

St. Scholastica’s Paul Schommer had a great race to finish in fifth place. His teammate Reitler Hodgert was sixth. “Reitler had the race of his season to date and Paul skied into the race really well, showing improving capacity to push hard,” said St. Scholastica Coach Chad Salmela.

Alaska Fairbanks duo Alexander Eckert and Jonas Loffler placed 7th and 8th, respectively. Haakon Hjelstuen of Michigan Tech was 9th, and teammate Kyle Hanson was 10th. Green Bay’s Kyle Marshall had a breakout performance, skiing to 11th.

Full results can be found at www.racetecresults.com

 

Kyle Bratrud of Northern Michigan University continued his excellent form on Thursday, taking third in the men’s 30 kilometer classic mass start race while St. Scholastica’s Anita Kirvesniemi took the top honors for the CCSA women by skiing to 17th overall in the 20 kilometer race.

In the men’s race, Bratrud led early on, with his teammates Fredrick Schwencke, Adam Martin, and Erik Soderman all skiing not far behind him in the lead pack. Northern Michigan Head Coach Sten Fjeldheim said the plan for Bratrud was for him to “go with the flow, and not lead to much.” Once in the race though, Bratrud found himself in a position to lead, and continued to through the first 20 kilometers, when NMU teammate Schwencke tried to break away from the pack with Kris Freeman in tow.

Freeman, a four time Olympian for the US, “really benefited from Freddy,” said Fjeldheim of Schwencke’s attack. “He’s an awesome classic skier.” Even if Schwencke’s bold move may have ultimately hurt his final placement, Fjeldheim said he likes to “see that attitude—to not be intimidated.”

The main pack soon caught up to Schwencke and Freeman, though Freeman would ultimately break away near the end of the race, leaving eight skiers including Bratrud to battle it out for the remaining podium places. In the end Bratrud had the strength to move into a good position as the race closed down. With a strong double pole finish to put him in third, Fjeldheim said, “Kyle’s upper body work this year really paid off.”

“Kyle had an incredible race,” said Fjeldheim. “He tends to be a decent classic skier, but today he was great.”

Schwencke, Martin, and Soderman placed 11th through 13th, respectively, for NMU followed by Michigan Tech’s Haakon Hjelstuen in 14th, and Logan Hanneman of Alaska Fairbanks in 18th. Paul Schommer of St. Scholastica was 31st and UAF’s Kenneth Brewer was 33rd along with teammate Jan Cech in 39th.

The junior men competed in a 10 kilometer race with NMU freshman Ian Torchia winning the race overall, with a time of 30:46.6, crushing the junior men’s field by over 28 seconds. “The kid’s got an engine,” said Fjeldheim of Torchia. Michigan Tech’s Tom Bye finished the day in 10th, another promising showing from the freshman.

The women’s 20 kilometer classic race was held under lightly snowing skies. Jordyn Ross of NMU was the leading CCSA woman at the halfway mark, in 22nd overall. Just behind her was Michigan Tech’s Ulrika Axelsson, St. Scholastica’s Anita Kirvesniemi, and Felicia Gresior of NMU. Chasing those women were Sophie Schimpl of NMU, Sharmila Ahmed of St. Scholastica, and Megan Edic of NMU.

Kirvesniemi, from Simpele, Finland, holds a FIS license as an international skier and not a USSA license. With few FIS races in the CCSA last season that she could use to gain a better ranking, she had to start the day with 65 women ahead of her. “She did a good job of weaving her way up,” said St. Scholastica Head Coach Chad Salmela. “After two kilometers she was in a good position. When I saw her she was already in 28th, and she ended up finishing in 17th.”

Salmela said that Kirvesniemi, who transferred from the University of New Mexico to St. Scholastica in 2013, has been “training, and racing, better than she has in years.”

“She’s a gifted classic skier,” said Salmela. “I guess she gets that from her parents.” Kirvesniemi comes from an illustrious ski family, her mother swept all the gold medals for Finland in the 1984 Olympics, and her father was a 1989 World Champion.

Kirvesniemi skied a solid second lap to move ahead of Axelsson and Ross to finish as the top CCSA woman in a time of 1:13:57.8. “To get a win in the CCSA for Anita [Kirvesniemi] is really great, and she skied so smart and determined,” said Salmela.

Following her a little over 25 seconds later Axelsson crossed the line for MTU, in 20th overall. Ross was 24th and Gresior was 25th for NMU, with Ahmed 26th for St. Scholastica. Ahmed, who finished 5th in the CCSA, started a little flat, said Salmela, but got steadily faster over the course of the race. “She was fighting the whole way; she skied the last four kilometers faster than Anita.”

NMU’s Schimpl finished 28th, and Edic 32nd, and Michigan Tech’s Deedra Irwin was 33rd, with teammate Alice Flanders 35th.

Leading the CCSA in the juniors 5 kilometer race was Vivian Hett for NMU in 6th, followed by her teammate Caroline Brisbois in 7th. Allison Ternes was 9th for St. Scholastica.

Overall it was great day for the Saints women, many of whom Salmela said had the best races of their season on Thursday. “The women shined,” he said. “It was a red letter day.”

Full results can be found at myresults.com

 

The second day of the US Cross Country Championships proved to be another good showing for CCSA skiers with Logan Hanneman of The University of Alaska Fairbanks winning the B Final, Michigan Tech’s Haakon Hjelstuen third overall, and teammate Deedra Irwin skiing to tenth for the women.

“It’s an exciting day for the program,” said Michigan Tech Head Coach Joe Haggenmiller. “We haven’t had anyone in the sprint finals for a few years, so to have some people make the finals is pretty exciting.”

An incredible 7 inches of snow reportedly fell over the morning of the race, making a trying sprint course all the more slow and difficult. First overall in qualifying was Michigan Tech student Haakon Hjelstuen, with a time of 4:23.2. Hjelstuen, on exchange  from NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, has been training with MTU’s team, but is currently ineligible to compete for the Huskies.

Haggenmiller says he hopes to resolve Hjelstuen’s status with the NCAA quickly. The Norwegian brings a wealth of experience to the Huskies, having notched multiple sub-90 point FIS races in his skiing career. Haggenmiller praised Hjelstuen saying, “Haakon’s really brought a great element to the team.” Hjelstuen not only posted the fastest qualifying time of the day overall, but he worked his way through the preliminary heats with relative ease, winning his semifinal and taking third overall in the final heat.

It was a good day for the CCSA men overall, with eight skiers through to the heats, not including Hjelstuen. Fredrik Schwencke of Northern Michigan University led the CCSA men in qualifying, posting the fifth fastest time. Schwencke missed out on a spot in the semifinal heats by just over two seconds to finish 13th overall.

Logan Hanneman of Alaska Fairbanks bested Hjelstuen in their quarterfinal heat and missed making the final heat by less than half a second. Unlucky to not have advanced despite taking third in his semifinal heat, Hanneman showed his sprinting prowess, and endurance, to win the B Final in an emphatic fashion, crossing the finish line with a four and a half second margin over his closest competitor.

The other top CCSA men on Tuesday were Isaac Lammers of Alaska Fairbanks in 21st, Joe Dubay of St. Scholastica in 22nd, and Reitler Hodgert of St. Scholastica was 24th, and Jonas Loeffler of Alaska Fairbanks in 25th. Rounding out the top thirty for Michigan Tech were Sam Holmes in 27th, and Tom Kendrick in 30th. “Sam really surprised me today,” Haggenmiller said of Holmes standout performance. “We should be moving up the College Cup rankings now.”

The CCSA women were led by Michigan Tech’s Deedra Irwin. 11th in qualifying, Irwin worked her way through her quarterfinal heat, and finished fourth in the B Final to take tenth overall.

“I expected her to be competitive,” said Haggenmiller of Irwin. “She was 9th last year at US Nationals in qualifying, but she took a pretty bad crash [last year] in the quarterfinals, and my thought was that if she could get through qualifying today and stay on her feet, she would do well.”

Anita Kirvesniemi of St. Scholastica proved that she is in form this season, skiing the fifth fastest qualifier of the day overall, and was the CCSA women’s top qualifier with a time of 5:23.1, just ahead of NMU’s Vivian Hett who qualified in sixth.

Only Irwin was able to navigate her way through the quarterfinals, with Hett finishing 13th overall, Kirvesniemi 16th, and Jordyn Ross of NMU in 28th.

Haggenmiller praised the work of those involved in making the races happen, saying, “the race crew has been doing an outstanding job.”

“Everyone’s getting to experience what we get to every winter,” said Haggenmiller. “I hope they’re having fun and enjoying it.”

Full results can be found at myresults.com

Northern Michigan University displayed a dominating performance on the opening day of US Nationals and NCAA qualifying in Houghton, Michigan. Cold and gusty winds made for difficult conditions but easy waxing in what would be an excellent showing for the CCSA.

Kyle Bratrud led the way, crushing the men’s 15 kilometer freestyle field with a time of 42:01.6, an incredible 50 seconds faster than second place Kris Freeman. The victory marks the first national title for the Minnesota native, and a key step toward securing a place on the U-23 National Team to compete at World Juniors in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

NMU coach Sten Fjeldheim didn’t expect Bratrud to win, but he said, “I knew it was a possibility, and not just him: we have Adam Martin, Fredrik Schwencke, and Erik Soderman. We have four guys that have all been pushing each other. I knew we had four guys in the corral who could be in the top ten if they had a good day. So it was just a pleasant surprise to have someone who won.”

“Kyle has definitely been one of our better skaters this year,” said Fjeldheim, “I guess it was a little bit of a surprise that he won by so much.”

While Bratrud led the Wildcats, his teammate Schwencke enjoyed a great day in Houghton, placing fifth overall. Rounding out third place in the CCSA was Logan Hanneman of Alaska Fairbanks who finished eleventh overall.

UAF assistant coach Christina Turman called Hanneman’s race “great and well-deserved. He went hard from the start and put in a gutsy performance in poor racing conditions.”

NMU’s Adam Martin skied to thirteenth overall, and his freshman teammate Ian Torchia placed sixteenth. St. Olaf’s Jake Brown was twentieth overall—the sixth CCSA man to place in the top twenty at US Nationals.

“I’ve got seven guys on the team and they all train together,” said Fjedheim. “There’s been a lot of good camaraderie on the team, and a really healthy atmosphere. On interval days the slowest guy and the fastest guy—they’re just trying to push each other. I think Kyle’s been fortunate this year: Adam’s been super fit and challenging him in the running workouts, and Fredrik and Erik have been challenging him in the rollerski workouts.”

“It’s all about having a group of athletes that are motivated and want to win. You put them all together and give them a little direction, and a lot of things are possible.”

The CCSA women also enjoyed a great opening day at US Nationals, with six women in the top thirty. Jordyn Ross of NMU was the top skier for the CCSA in the women’s 10 kilometer freestyle, finishing sixteenth overall with a time of 32:06.9.

She was followed closely by teammate Kristen Bourne, just 7.1 seconds off of Ross’s pace.

Taking third for CCSA was Alice Flanders of Michigan Tech, in 20th overall. “I’m pretty excited about the results today,” said Michigan Tech coach Joe Haggenmiller. “Alice [Flanders] had a super day, and Tom [Bye, 32nd] put himself in a legitimate contending spot for the World Junior Championship.”

Rounding out the top for the CCSA were three more skiers from NMU: freshmen Vivian Hett, 23rd overall, and Caroline Brisbois, 26th, and junior Felicia Gresior in 30th.

Fjeldheim credits the arrival of four new freshmen this fall to being instrumental in the success of his women’s team this season. “On the women’s side we had four new freshman women…they mixed in real well with the other group [of senior skiers] and ran a few cross country races. They are three of the four top cross country runners at NMU.”

The freshmen elevated the quality of the dryland workouts. Fjeldheim said, “Jordyn [Ross] had this group of girls pushing her and I think that was really healthy for her. They worked well together, they were really ambitious [in dryland].”

Said Fjeldheim of his women’s team, “I was really pleased with how they skied today. I think our young skiers have the potential to do what Kyle Bratrud did today. When he came in as a freshman he wasn’t one of our top guys, but he had some really good upperclassmen to push him and to learn from, and I think that creates a healthy program.”

Fjeldheim said the plan for the rest of the Championships was to “stay healthy and just prepare our skis for the next race and keep fighting.”

Full results can be found at www.myrace.com