CCSA Weekend Wrapup

December 7, 2005

The northern CCSA schools of University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Michigan Technological University, and Northern Michigan University met for two, low-key early season races, which did not count towards NCAA qualification, but did give the teams a first glimpse at where they stand.  In order to the split the driving and lodging expenses between the two Upper Peninsula schools, NMU and MTU each took a turn at hosting the events, as the skate took place in Marquette on Saturday and the classic in Houghton on Sunday.  

As has been the case in so many seasons prior, NMU proved themselves the team to beat in both men’s and women’s competition, handedly defeating both the Tech Huskies and the Green Bay Phoenix.  The NMU men’s squad that qualified for 2005 NCAAs remains intact and showed its early strength. All-American Bryan Cook showed the form that earned him that status topping Saturday’s field by a decisive margin of nearly a minute.  Gus Kaeding competed on Sunday and recorded a second place finish.  Both Adriaan Ostrander and Phillip Violett also stepped in to score points for NMU over the course of the weekend.

The Phoenix men’s team deserves the most credit for providing NMU with competition as the team took second by only four points on Sunday, 21 to 17, and Andy Cheesebro took the individual win.  Cheesebro also had a strong day on Saturday, as did teammate Trevor Walz with whom he tied for third place.

The Michigan Tech men were led by the performances of Adam Airoldi who finished sixth on Saturday and eighth on Sunday.  Aaron Ditty was the team’s top finisher on Sunday, as he took sixth on his home course.  Also scoring for MTU over the course of the weekend were Chris Miller, Eric Olson, and Erik Mundahl.  

On the women’s side of things, Saturday’s race had the more competitive of the two fields.  Both Lindsay Williams and Lindsey Weier were present, although Williams is redshirting this year in hopes of making the 2006 games, and thus could not contribute to the point totals.  Tech’s Kristina Owen was also in the field.  While Williams won the race handedly in 15:55, NMU’s Tami Kochen 16:27 was declared the collegiate winner due to William’s redshirt status.  Teammate Weier was close on Kochen’s heels, finishing second among the collegians in 16:41.  Tech’s Owen skied to third place in 17:18.  The final scorer for winning team NMU was Jenny Wygant, sixth in 17:40.  UWGB’s top skier, Johanna Winters finished 7th.

On Sunday, the women’s race was a changed competition as Lindsey Weier, Lindsay Williams, and Tami Kochen, all recently returned from West Yellowstone elected to take the day off from racing.  Tech’s Owen, also just back from West Yellowstone and recovering from illness as well, elected to do the same.  This left the field wide open, and from this Johanna Winters emerged at the top to take the win for Green Bay. Her margin was just six seconds over Liz Quinley, MTU’s top freshman recruit from Anchorage, Alaska.  By finishing third overall, and first for NMU, Jenny Wygant established herself as the likely number three-skier for this year’s NMU squad.

Many CCSA athletes will likely meet again at the upcoming weekend’s pursuit races in Ironwood.