Midwest Collegiate Racing Recap

CCSA Racing Recap

Houghton, Michigan was a winter wonderland when teams arrived Saturday morning for the first race of the 2013-2014 CCSA season. The temperatures were rather cold both day with large gusts of wind and white out conditions at times on Saturday. This cold weather of course is all relative and nothing compared to the weather the Bozeman Supertour experienced. Saturday was the 10k skate race. With fresh snow and cold temps the conditions were very slow. Northern Michigan picked up right where they left off last year. The women went 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 9 with Rosie Frankowski taking the win followed by Jordyn Ross (redshirt), Mary Kate Cirelli, Hannah Boyer, Felicia Gesior, and Sophie Shimpl filling the other spots. Lynn Duijndam and Alice Flanders went 4 and 5 for Tech and Bree Mucha was Green Bay’s top finisher in 12th. George Cartwright led the Northern mens team in an even stronger performance. George took the 11 second victory over Kyle Bratrud who was directly followed by Erik Soderman (redshirt), Fredrik Schwencke, and Adam Martin in 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. Matt Wong led the Tech boys coming in over 1:37 behind Martin.

In Duluth, Paul Schommer took no prisoners absolutely crushing the field in a dual meet with St. Olaf. He won the race by over 1:33. Jake Brown took the top spot for Olaf in 4th. St. Olaf’s Paige Schember won for the girls over CSS’s Sarah Allen and Sharmila Ahmed.

Sunday featured a similar affair as Northern again crushed both races. On the girls side All-American Rosie Frankowski continued her dominance and the Northern girls absolutely destroyed the field going 1-6. Rosie led Felicia, Mary Kate, Jordyn, Hannah, and Sophie in the victory. Sarah Daniels led all Tech girls in 7th and Bree was again the top Green Bay girl in 14th. The guys side was much of the same with Northern going 1-6 as well. Freshman Fredrik Schwencke dominated, winning by 1:17, followed by Erik, Kyle, Adam, George, and Ben Hugus. Thomas Kendrick led Tech in 7th and Matt Nichols again led Green Bay in 15th.

CCSA teams will gear up next weekend for another round of races at the Tech Trails.

First Race Weekend

It feels awesome to have two races under my belt! Overall, I am very satisfied with how the weekend went. Starting with Saturday, I was very pleased with how I skated the race. I paced it very well and felt my technique held together rather nicely. As expected, I never really felt like I engaged my top gear, but that is perfectly fine as I hope to save that for Nationals and beyond. The classic race was a different story. Although at times I caught glimpses of my “racing self,” I felt that the majority of the race was one big struggle fest. That being said, I learned a lot. My technique is fine on gradual hills and flats, however, I felt I really lost momentum and time on the steep uphills as my striding needs some major work in order to get it more efficient. I am not worried as it was the first race and we have a long season in front of us, but I will come away from this race with a few crucial technical goals.

On another note I was very pumped to see how well Northern did as a team. There is a tradition of excellence here at Northern and I really feel each year I have competed here we have shown the CCSA what that tradition is all about. It was fun to see the long, hard hours start to pay off and hopefully, only better results will follow.

About the author... NCAA All American Kyle Bratrud is entering his third season as an NMU Wildcat under Sten Fjeldheim. Spurred on by his World Junior participation last season, he is pursuing his dreams of making it on to the US Ski Team with everything he’s got. As a college athlete, Kyle will be sharing his thoughts, training, and racing experiences as he travels and competes around the college circuit and hopefully beyond.