The first cross country ski races of the 2016 NCAA championships in Steamboat, Colorado kicked off today. The morning was led off with the women’s 5k individual start at 9am and followed by the men’s 10k individual start at 10:30. The weather for the women’s race was hard and fast, with the sun shining and temperatures right around 30 degrees.

Today’s CCSA women were led by UAF’s Anne-Tine Markset who placed 14th, 21 seconds off the pace. Markset led the UAF women to top the CCSA women’s teams today with a sixth place in the team scores. Markset was followed by her teammates Sarissa Lammers 18th and Nichole Bathe 23rd.

The women of NMU trailed by six points behind UAF to place seventh on the day in the team scores. NMU was led by Felicia Gesior in 16th 32.3 seconds off the pace. Gesior was followed by Vivian Hett 21st and Sophie Schimpl 24th.

Kelsey Dickinson of the College of Saint Scholastica placed 33rd today for the CCSA with Michigan Techs Andrea Lee placing 39th.

By the time the men were to start at 10:30, the weather had grown warmer with temperatures reaching into the mid 40’s. This made for some waxing changes for the teams to try and make the most out of the warming snow conditions.

The men of NMU not only led the CCSA field today but led the entire men’s field by taking the team lead with 90 points, 19 points over the next challenger, the University of Denver with 71 points. The Wildcats were led by Ian Torchia in second place, ten seconds from the win. Torchia was followed closely by his teammate Adam Martin 18 seconds later in fourth. Jake Brown placed ninth overall today solidifying NMU’s lead and giving each of the Wildcat racers All-American honors.

Michigan Tech was CCSA’s second team at the Championships in ninth overall. MTU was led by Gaspard Cuenot in 12th place. Cuenot was followed by Kyle Hanson who finished 31st after suffering a crash during his race costing him precious seconds in the overall. Didrik Elset placed third for MTU in 40th.

There were three CCSA men representing their schools with solo efforts today. Reitler Hodger of the College of Saint Scholastica finished 25th, Matthew Nichols of the University of Green Bay took 35th and Michael Fehrenbach of the University of Alaska Fairbanks finished in 37th.

The NCAA Nordic races continue Saturday with 15 and 20 kilometer classic mass starts. For full results and team scores please visit www.summittiming.com

Day two of the CCSA/NCAA Regionals was host to another day of hard fast racing. After the warm temperatures of Saturday, the weather took a turn and produced colder temperatures overnight. This caused the courses to freeze solid, making it difficult to set a solid track around the 5k course at Al Quaal Recreation Park in Ishpeming, MI. The grooming crew did a great job with what they were given and the races went off without a hitch.

The men and women of the University of Alaska Fairbanks were out to make a statement today, and did just that by winning the team events for the day. The men led it off with the 20k classic mass start. University of Alaska Fairbanks Michael Fehrenbach took the win after just over an hour of racing, by out sprinting Northern Michigan’s Jake Brown.

“It was great for Michael Fehrenbach grab his first win of the year in the last CCSA race” said UAF coach Nick Crawford. “We knew he could do it all year and I’m glad it finally came together today.”

Today’s racing was extremely close with the top six being separated by only 26 seconds. Michigan Tech’s Gaspard Cuenot crossed the finish line in third, less than four seconds behind Brown. From there, UAF and Northern Michigan traded blows as UAF took fourth with Jan Cech, Northern countered in fifth with Samuel Elfstrom. Reitler Hodgert snuck in to sixth, for Saint Scholastica’s solo men’s top ten. Applying the finishing blow to Northern Michigan’s run for today’s win was UAF’s Max Donaldson in seventh, beating out Northern’s Fredrik Schwenke by four seconds to register their third scorer and take the team win for the day with 63 points to Northerns 60. Michigan Tech’s Kyle Hanson and Didrik Elset finished ninth and tenth to give their team 53 points and third in the team scores.

On the women’s side, Northern Michigan and UAF continued to trade haymakers for the top spot in the days team scores. The day was ruled by Michigan Techs Andrea Lee as she attacked on the last lap of the three lap 15k race to win by over 15 seconds. Once Lee was across the line the battle ensued with UAF’s Nichole Bathe and Anne-Tine Markset delivering a one two punch, finishing second and third.

Northern Michigan responded with three big shots and put their three top girls in fourth, fifth and sixth with Caroline Brisbois, Sophie Schimpl and Lea Buenter. The assault of UAF proved to be too much today as their third scorer, Sarissa Lammers crossed in seventh, giving her team 63 points and the win over Northern by 3.

“Our women had an outstanding day with four in the top 10 and two on the podium!” said coach Crawford. “It was really fun for Nichole and Anne-Tine to go 2-3 today and we’re excited to see how they do at NCAA’s.”

Kelsey Dickinson of the College of Saint Scholastica led her team in eighth place. She was followed by another UAF skier, Ann-Cathrin Uhl in ninth and teammate Elizabeth Evans in tenth.

In the overall team scores the men of Northern Michigan were able to weather the storm today and kept their lead from day one to take the overall Regional Championship with a total of 122 points. University of Alaska Fairbanks was second with 112 points, just narrowly beating out Michigan Tech with 111 points.

Northern Michigan’s women were able to hang on after the onslaught from the women of UAF to finish first for the weekend and taking the Regional Championship with 122 points. UAF followed closely with 120 points. Michigan Tech took third with 100 points, just beating out Saint Scholastica for the last podium spot by one point.

With both men and women’s teams taking Regional Titles, Northern Michigan University was awarded the combined Regional Championship.

“I’m really proud of our team today” said Northern Michigan coach Sten Fjeldheim, “we saw some great racing out there this weekend and everyone dug really deep to get this win. We had some awesome results from some of our athletes like Sam Elfstrom who had two of the best results of his career this weekend, and our two freshman Lea Buenter and Sophie McDonald who also posted season best results.”

As these races mark the end of the CCSA regular season, some athletes will be looking to the NCAA Championships in Steamboat springs that start March 9th.

For a full list of results and team scores please visit Superiortiming.com.

The CCSA/NCAA regional championships kicked off today at Al Quaal recreation park in Ishpeming, MI. The 5 and 10 kilometer individual start skate races saw abnormally warm temperatures, causing the snow to soften and deteriorate as the day went on.

The day began at 10am with the women’s 5k skate race. As temperatures held steady well above freezing, Northern Michigan’s Sophie Schimpl stormed her way to first place and her first Regional title with a time of 13:50.7. Ten seconds back from Schimpl, was Saint Scholastica’s Kelsey Dickinson in second place. Dickinson’s second place finish is also the best placing by a Saints women at a Regional championship according to Saints coach Chad Salmela.

“This is the most memorable ski race I’ve ever had,” said Dickinson of her performance. “Including biathlon.” Dickinson raced two seasons internationally as a member of the junior and senior US Biathlon Teams before returning to St. Scholastica this year.

Coming in a strong third place, another ten seconds down to Dickinson was Michigans Tech’s Andrea Lee. Right behind Lee by less than a second was Northern Michigan freshman Sophie McDonald in fourth.

The women of the University of Alaska Fairbanks were operating like a well-oiled machine today placing fifth, sixth and seventh with Nichole Bathe, Anne-Tine Markset and Sarissa Lammers all coming in with less than five seconds separating all three racers. This performance was good enough to place UAF in second on the day with 57 points behind Northern Michigan University’s 62 points.

Northern Michigan’s third scorer, Caroline Brisbois, wasn’t far off the women of UAF in eighth. Saint Scholastica’s Elizabeth Evans followed in ninth and Northern Michigan’s Vera Gruber rounded out the top ten.

The team podium is still up for grabs as all of the team scores are very close heading into tomorrow’s 15k classic mass start. Northern Michigan leads with 62 points, they are followed by UAF, 57 points and Saint Scholastica in third with 52 points and they are followed very closely by the women of Michigan Tech with 51 points.

On the men’s side of things, the temperatures remained well above freezing causing the conditions to soften as more and more racers lapped the course for the 2 lap, 10k race.

Northern Michigan’s Jake Brown stomped his authority all over the men’s race to take his first ever regional title finishing with a time of 24:36.6, a full minute and four seconds ahead of Michigan Techs Kyle Hanson who took second on the day.

“I’m super happy for both Jake and Sophie today” said Northern Michigan Coach Sten Fjeldheim. “For both of them to take not only the individual regional title, but have it be their first time doing it is just amazing!”

The men of Northern Michigan followed in the footsteps of their women’s team by placing in the same exact places with fourth, Sam Elfstrom, and eighth, Krystof Kopal, to give them the team lead with 62 points after day one.

Michigan Tech solidified their second place team score of 58 points with strong performance behind Hanson with Gaspard Cuenot in sixth and Didrik Fjeld Elset in ninth.

The fight for third, fourth and fifth in the team scores is a close one at the moment with the University of Alaska Fairbanks leading the charge with 49 points by taking fifth, Max Donaldson, tenth, Alexander Eckert, and eleventh, Michael Fehrenbach. As we look to fourth and fifth we have a tie after day one between Saint Scholastica and the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. The Saints were led by Reitler Hodgert in third, missing out on second overall by 0.2 of a second, while Matt Nichols led Green Bay in seventh.

Each team will be looking for crucial points tomorrow as they try to better their position in the team scores with 15 and 20k mass start classic races.

For a full list of results and team scores please visit superiortiming.com.

Beneath the Minneapolis skyline at Theodore Wirth Park, Northern Michigan University men and women continued their winning ways in the CCSA, each taking home the CCSA Championship team title. Following Saturday’s 15 km classical races, the Wildcat men won the 10-kilometer freestyle race, led by top finisher Ian Torchia. Both for Sunday’s race and the overall, Michigan Tech took second followed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In the women’s 5 km freestyle, Northern Michigan outdueled UAF and race winner Anne-Tine Markset by a mere three points for the team victory on Sunday, enough to clinch the overall title. UAF finished as runner-up in the conference, while Michigan Tech earned the final spot on the team podium with a strong Sunday performance.

In the women’s 5km event, UAF’s Markset stole the show; Markset posted a time of 14:55.7, nearly five seconds in front of the second collegiate finisher, Northern Michigan’s Felicia Gesior. The win is Markset’s first of the season as well as the first Nanook individual win of 2016.

“We’re really pleased to have Anne-Tine Markset grab the win today!” said Nanook head coach Nick Crawford of Sunday’s race. “We’ve known all season that we have a couple of athletes on both the men’s and women’s side capable of winning CCSA races if everything lines up right for them and Anne-Tine put it all together today. Anne-Tine seems to be getting better every week so we’re excited to see what she can do at the Regional Championships and the NCAA Championships.”

Junior Nicole Bathe finished fourth, just eight seconds off the winning pace. Sarissa Lammers placed ninth, rounding out the scoring for the Nanook women.

Gesior again led the Northern Michigan women, as she has in each five-kilometer contest of 2016. The senior captain was followed by freshman teammate Sarah Bezdicek in third, who finished 7.5 seconds back of Markset. Fellow freshman Sophie McDonald was the third scorer for the Wildcats in fifth. Both Gesior and Bezdicek are part of a large Northern Michigan contingent heading to Romania this week to race in the World Junior and U23 Nordic Ski Championships later this month.

The Michigan Tech Huskies’ top finisher was Andrea Lee in sixth with a time of 15:15.3. Lee won the 10 km mass start at the Telemark Chase earlier this season and continues to post strong freestyle results. Lee’s teammates Lisa Koenig and Sonja Hedblom finished seventh and sixteenth, respectively.

MTU head coach Joe Haggenmiller said he was pleased with how his women’s squad bounced back from a rough day in the 10 km classic one day earlier. “Lisa Koenig had a top result today – that was great to see from her!” Haggenmiller was also impressed with Lee, who V2-skated the entirety of the course’s longest climb on the first lap. Said Haggenmiller of the tactic, “Most of the guys weren’t even doing that so I think it shows how strong she is.”

On the men’s side it was deja-vu all over again. In fact, the top three collegiate finishers and the margins between them were nearly identical to the last CCSA 10 km freestyle race, which took place in Houghton, MI. Northern’s Ian Torchia again “torched” the field, winning in a time of 20:11.8. Teammate Adam Martin was second, 28-seconds behind. Northern’s Jake Brown finished third, just 0.8 seconds after Martin. Talk about consistency: in Houghton Torchia finished exactly 28-seconds in front of Martin and Martin 0.7 ahead of Brown.

“I was pleased with our team this weekend- both men and women,” noted Northern Michigan head coach Sten Fjeldheim. “Even with the cold it was a good weekend. I was glad that we got up to race-legal temperatures and were able to put on a good race, and a fair race.”

The Michigan Tech men had arguably their best CCSA performance of the year to-date. Huskies Gaspard Cuenot, Didrik Fjeld Elset, and Kyle Hanson took fourth, fifth, and seventh, respectively. Not only did each performance set or match each skier’s CCSA season-best, but Sunday marked the first time this season that Michigan Tech has placed three in the top ten.

“I was pretty happy with how the guys performed; I thought we were pretty competitive with NMU,” said Haggenmiller, “but you have to give the NMU guys credit, they’ve been racing fast. So when we’re up there with NMU it’s a good day for us. Skate races seem to be good for us. I don’t know why, but they do!”

A mere 17 seconds separated the top three Alaska-Fairbanks skiers, who collectively finished third as a team on Sunday and in the overall championship race. Freshmen Seji Takagi and Max Donaldson led the Nanook men in 10th and 11th, while veteran teammate Alexander Eckert finished just behind in 12th.

The CCSA ski teams will begin postseason NCAA competition next weekend in Ishpeming, MI, at the NCAA Regional Championships. Women are scheduled to race 5 km freestyle interval start at 10 am on Saturday, February 20 and 15 km classical mass start at 12:30 pm on Sunday, February 21. Men will race 10 km freestyle at 12:30 pm on Saturday and 20 km classic at 10 am on Sunday.

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

The second day of racing at the Michigan Tech Invitational saw a lot of hard racing in both fields. Each team was faced by tricky conditions with temperatures hovering around 32 degrees. The morning started off with the women’s 15 kilometer classic mass start. With the warm conditions it seemed that each team had a different approach to making the skis kick, some using hardwax while others opted for klister or klister covered by hardwax.

Once the race was off the women of NMU asserted their dominance by getting to the front and controlling the pace. By doing so they were able to take the top three spots led by Vivian Hett with a time of 49:21.9. Hett skied to a commanding win after the second lap winning by almost 48 seconds over yesterday’s winter and teammate Felicia Gesior. Just under a minute back, there was a real battle for third going on between NMU’s Sophie Schimpl and Michigan Tech’s Andrea Lee. In the end Schimpl out sprinted Lee by 0.3 of a second. With the top three spots the ladies of NMU solidified their win on the weekend in the team scores.

Led by the strong forth place performance by Andrea Lee, the women of Michigan Tech were able to fend off and extend their lead on Saint Scholastica. Lee was followed by Sonja Hedblom in ninth and Carolyn Lucca in 12th to accrue 41 points in the team scores. With taking second on the weekend coach Haggenmiller was pleased with the solid effort his women put in.

“Yesterday I was happy with taking second place with both teams. I think that came down to the way our second and third place skiers were racing on both sides. They were skiing hard and battling it out. Today we saw more of the same for the women, I think we had an even better day today.”

Saint Scholasica’s women placed third on the day with 33 points. Kelsey Dickinson led the charge for the Saints in 11th place with teammates Elizabeth Evans in 13th and Chelsey Youngberg in 15th.

In the men’s 20 kilometer mass start classic race, the weather proved to be even trickier with the sun peeking out just before race time and changing the snow conditions. As each team was getting their racers skis ready they noticed this change and realized that most hard waxes were too slick while most klisters were still too sticky. With these conditions we saw many athletes choose their Zeros to try and get the best kick and glide combo possible.

At the start of the classic race, the NMU men followed the eample of their women earlier in the day and jumped out to an early lead. NMU ultimately took the top three positions while also placing the rest of their seven man squad in the top 10. NMU was led by a strong effort from Ian Torchia who finished with a time of 55:54.3. Torchia was followed by teammates Adam Martin in second and Fredrik Schwencke in third.

The men of Saint Scholastica snatched the second place team spot from Michigan Tech today with 42 points, giving them second on the day as well as the weekend. The Saints were led by Reitler Hodgert in sixth, with Joe Dubay close behind in eighth and Chris Parr rounding out the top 10.

Michigan Tech ended up third today on the men’s side with 30 points. Starting with a harsh crash early on in the race that saw one of their top skiers drop form the race, Tech was led by Kyle Hanson in 12th, followed by Tomas Kendrick in 13th and Seth Mares in 15th.

UW Green Bay was nipping at the heels of Michigan Tech today only 3 points back with a total of 27. Their men fought hard with an 11th from Matthew Nichols, 20th Kyle Marshal and 24th Jacob Ajax.

The CCSA racing continues in two weeks at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, MN. As the last few races approach, each athlete and team will be in the hunt for crucial NCAA qualifying points.

For a full list of the weekends results visit: superiortiming.com

The Michigan Tech Invitational was kicked off today under clear skies and above average temperatures. The day started off with the men’s individual start 10k skate. Temperatures were gradually rising above freezing just before the start, causing each team to look for the best wax and structure possible to fight off the increasing moisture in the snow.

Ian Torchia of NMU took top honors in the men’s race finishing in a time of 25:50. He was followed 28 seconds later by two of his teammates, Adam Martin and Jake Brown. With these three places NMU took an early lead in the team scores with 51 points.

Gaspard Cuenot led his Michigan Tech team to second place in the team scores with a fourth place finish. He was followed by teammates Kyle Hanson in ninth and Daniel Wood 16th to stay just ahead of Saint Scholastica with 37 points.

Saint Scholasticas men are nipping at the heels of MTU with 35 points. Led by a strong performance from Reitler Hodgert in ninth. Hodgert was followed closely by his teammates Ryan St. Clair in 11th and Chris Parr 13th. Of his men’s team effort, Saints head coach Chad Salmela was pleased with the progress from last week stating “We’re moving in the right direction in freestyle. We got pummeled in freestyle last weekend and we tightened up our team effort against Tech, but still came up a couple points shy. Regardless, it’s the right direction.”

For the women’s race the temperatures had climbed up into the low 40’s with the sun shining down causing the snow to become glazed with moisture.

The CCSA women’s field was dominated by the skiers of NMU, taking the top five positions. NMU was led by Felicia Gesior stamping her authority all of the 5k course, and winning by 17.5 seconds. Gesior was followed by her two teammates Vivian Hett and Sophie Schimpl in second and third. With these three spots the NMU women followed in the footsteps of their male counterparts and took the lead in the team scores with 51 points.

With both teams taking the lead after the first day, coach Fjeldheim was very pleased with how his athletes seemed to be pushing one another.

“Our team is in a really good place right now,” said Fjeldheim. “They are working off one another to get faster each week, and we are seeing better and better racing out of them as the season goes on.”

The Michigan Tech women held strong to finish second on the day being led by Andrea Lee in seventh. Her two teammates, Sonja Hedblom and Carolyn Lucca followed in 10th and 11th to give MTU 39 points.

The women of Saint Scholastica will be looking to reel in Michigan Tech tomorrow after falling by three points. The Saints were led by Kelsey Dickinson in sixth place. After an early crash, Elizabeth Evans battled back hard to a 13th place finish. She was followed just over 20 seconds later by teammate Allison Ternes to finish 15th, giving them 36 points and third on the day.

Of his women’s effort, coach Salmela said, “I was happy with what I saw in effort and race form today, it hurts to lose to rival Michigan Tech, but Ellie and Kelsey looked great and were skiing competitively and Allison looked the strongest in skating yet this year.”

Outside the top three teams Saint Cloud States Coach Jeremy Frost was pleased with the improvement he saw in his team compared to last weekend. “It was great to see our skiers get off the start line and through the flat first kilometer a little quicker this weekend” said Frost. “This should give us more confidence leading into the last couple race weekends of the season.”

The racing action continues tomorrow with the women’s 15k classic mass start and men’s 20k classic mass start.

For a full list of results and team scores please visit Superiortiming.com