CCSA Weekend Wrap Up
By Corey Coogan
January 31, 2005
This weekend's Telemark Noram was the third CCSA event of
the season. At stake, besides the honor of winning, was the
opportunity for individuals to earn points towards qualification
for NCCA Championships. Saturday's individual start classic
races took place in overcast conditions and mild temperatures
in the twenties. Nearly an inch of snow fell slightly before
daybreak, filling the tracks. The two-lap ten-kilometer race
took place on a retuned version of the original "World
Cup Course," designed by Marty Hall. Sharp hills broken
up by flatter sections led athletes to joke the race was a
herringboning/doublepoling one. On Sunday, CCSA athletes joined
the Noram field in a mass-start race, fifteen kilometers for
men and ten kilometers for women. Because of requirements
for trail width in a mass start, the race utilized much of
the Korteloppet course, making for an easier than usual course
in terms of max and total climbs. For the second day, temperatures
were mild and course conditions a bit soft.
Saturday: Men's and Women's Ten-Kilometer Individual Start
Thomas Oyberg once again proved himself the best of the CCSA
by winning not only the collegiate race, but also the Noram,
his 31:50 time bettering number two Chad Giese by 23 seconds.
Oyberg's success was complemented by teammate Erik Wickstrom's
CCSA second place, 43 seconds off Oyberg. NMU's trio of Bryan
Cook, Bret Bedard, and Gus Kaeding occupied the next three
spots, finishing 3th, 4th, and 5th respectively. UAF's Jed
Kallen-Brown skied to sixth place, just three seconds off
Keading, securing the team win for the UAF, 75 points to NMU's
72.
In the battle for the best of the rest, UWGB proved strongest,
taking home the third place team result. Teammates Ben Mogren,
Dan Deroma, and Ben Dubay finished 10th, 11th , and 12th,
respectively, with a time spread of less than one minute between
the three.
Chris Miller led the MTU Huskies with his 14th place, making
the first page of the Noram results list. Teammates Chris
Harvey and Adam Airoldi finished less than 15 seconds back
from Miller, in 15th and 16th, respectively. The efforts of
the threesome earned Tech fourth in the team standings.
Smaller, NCAA Division III schools competed for fifth through
ninth place. Among them, St. John's University, led by the
17th and 18th place results of Donald Harris and Chad Gregg,
came out on top, taking 5th for the men's teams. St. Olaf
College placed 6th by the narrowest of margins, just one point,
over seventh place Gustavus. Oles Oliver Garrison and Jake
Boyce can each be credited with placing one spot ahead of
a Gustavus skier, and contributing to the advantage. Macalester
College increased their point score over last week and finished
eighth despite a broken pole by top veteran Ari Ofsevit.
Finlandia University, a school in Hancook Michigan, which
added a Nordic Ski Team just last season, has joined both
CCSA and NCAA this season. The team, which made their CCSA
debut in last weekend's competition, returned to Telemark
again this weekend, taking ninth in the team standings.
Tami Kochen, an NMU junior, who is a sophomore eligibility-wise
due to her redshirt year last year, had a breakthrough competition
at Telemark, winning not only the CCSA race, but also the
Noram. It was an exciting day for Kochen, as it marked both
her first CCSA and Noram win. Teammate Lindsay Williams took
second in the collegiate field, 28 seconds off Kochen. UAF's
Johanna Turunen interrupted NMU's chance of a sweep by securing
third place in CCSA, ahead of NMU's number three Morgan Smyth.
While NMU couldn't post a perfect score, their 77 was just
one point shy of as good as it gets.
It was a great day for the University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay women who took second place ahead of UAF, a position in
which the team has not found themselves in several years.
Johanna Winters led the Phoenix with her eighth place finish,
a result that increases her chances of qualification for NCAAs.
Teammate Tanya Cook was close behind, taking ninth. Sophomore
Rosy Walsh, a veteran of the 2004 NCAAs, finished 14th to
become UWGB's third scorer.
The UAF women managed third place in the team standings,
despite feeling a little under the weather. Sophomore Kasandra
Rice, who raced despite illness, took 13th. Heidi Rader finished
relatively close behind Rice, earning 16th place. Kristin
Halla, the Norwegian who, according to Head Coach Scott Jerome
looks to have the potential to finish in the UAF top-three,
is still battling illness, and was forced to drop out of the
race.
Gustavus Adolphus College, led by the one-two punch of Kelly
Damrow and Chandra Daw, who finished just two seconds apart
in 11th and 12th, respectively, took fourth in the team standings.
Their final scorer was freshman Kathleen Dewahl who skied
to 18th.
Michigan Technological University, led by standout Kristina
Owen's sixth place, finished fifth as a team. St. Olaf was
next in line, earning seventh. College of St. Benedict, St.
Cloud State, and Finlandia University were eighth, ninth,
and tenth, respectively.
Sunday: Men's 15-kilometer and Women's 10-Kilometer Freestyle
Mass Start
Thomas Oyberg did not win the Noram on day two, as Ivan
Babikov returned from a Noquemanon win to capture this one
as well, but Oyberg was once again the class of the college
field, as he took a three second CCSA win over UAF Teammate
Jed Kallen-Brown. The Nanooks had a dominating day over all,
taking the first four places in the collegiate race. The Nanooks
took the lead over the NMU men right from the start, and established
a gap that the Wildcats were never able to close. Erik Wickstrom
was the Nanooks' third and final scorer. Tyson Flaharty did
not score for the Nanooks, but his fourth place still bettered
NMU's Bryan Cook's, Bill Bowler's, and Justin Singleton's,
fifth, seventh, and eighth place results. With their perfect
one-two-three finish, the Nanooks earned a perfect score of
78 to the Wildcat's 69.
Ben Mogren of University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Oliver
Garrison of St. Olaf College took advantage of the mass start
format, hanging onto the back of the NMU squad to take 10th
and 11th. Mogren's result, Shane Hoelz's 14th, and Casey Krueger's
20th gave the Phoenix to third place in the team standings.
Competition proved fierce between Michigan Tech, Gustavus,
and St. Olaf, as the teams's final scores were separated by
just three points. Tech's performance was the strongest of
the three, as their 43 points gave the team fourth. Upon calculation
of the team score by adding the team's top three finishes,
Gustavus and St. Olaf ended up tied with 40 points each. The
tie-breaker, considering the finish of the fourth place skier,
put Gustavus on top, due to Gusties' number four Nate Porath's
26th place. Thus, Gustavus was fifth, and St. Olaf sixth in
the team competition. The teams of St. John's University (led
by Donald Harris's 17th place) and Macalester College took
seventh and eighth, respectively. Finlandia University did
not compete on day two.
Photo: Dave Tilman |
Sunday was Lindsey Weier's opportunity to shine, as she emerged
the winner in the four-person sprint to the line. Weier took
not only the CCSA win, but also the Noram victory, both firsts
for her. Teammates Tami Kochen, Morgan Smyth, and Lindsay
Williams followed Weier across the line in that order. Exactly
opposite of the men's race, four NMU women got across the
line before UAF's first skier Johanna Turenen, who was fifth.
Just like last Sunday, NMU took home the win with perfect
score of 78.
UWGB's Johanna Winters matched her Saturday result by grabbing
another eighth place. This, along with Tanya Cook's 10th place
and freshmen Ashley Pletcher's 15th, secured second place
for the Phoenix. Runner-up for the second day in a row, Winter's
says that the Phoenix women are "very happy" with
their performance on the weekend.
In a breakthrough performance, Gustavus's Rachel Daw hung
tight with NMU's Jennifer Wygant, bringing home 10th for the
Gusties. Senior Kelly Damrow finished close behind, claiming
13th. These results, and Nicole Olson's 17th, brought Gustavus
third-place, one of the team's strongest-ever results.
UAF struggled even more with illness on Sunday, as both Kasandra
Rice and Kristin Halla failed to finish. Despite Turunen's
fifth place and Heidi Rader's 14th, the Nanooks were forced
to settle with fourth place.
St. Olaf sophomore standout Linn Dale earned her second top-15
of the weekend finishing 13th. As a team, the Oles were fifth.
Kristina Owen's seventh place led Michigan Tech to sixth
place in the team standings.
College of St. Benedict took home eighth, followed by St.
Cloud State in ninth.
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