CCSA Weekend Wrapup

by Corey Coogan
December 13, 2005

With the official start of the CCSA season just few weeks away, most of the collegiate teams have been getting their feet wet in some early-season competition. Such was the case this weekend. Trying to keep things low-key and close to home, CCSA coaches planned to be at four different events over the weekend, rather than making long drives to gather as one. University of Alaska-Fairbanks planned to travel down to Anchorage to take on instate rivals UAA, but their plans folded at the last minute due to rain and wind in Anchorage, and they raced at home instead. Having enjoyed last week's format with one day of racing in Marquette and another in Houghton, NMU and MTU elected to simply repeat the plan for a second week in a row. After making the long drive to the Eastern Upper Peninsula last weekend, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay opted for the closer Big Snow Country Pursuit in Ironwood, joining St. Cloud State University and most of the Gustavus squad. St. Olaf chose to make the short jaunt up interstate 35 to Hyland for Hoigaards/Breadsmith Relays, as did members of the Gustavus squad who had opted out of the Ironwood trip. All-in-all, this complex schedule made it impossible to assess how the teams stand against each other, but still gave the athletes valuable racing time as the start of the real racing season moved ever closer.

Down in the Twin Cities at Hyland, the CCSA women ruled the women's race taking first, second, and third. First went to the St. Olaf duo of Linn Dale and Audrey Weber, but Gustavus number one: the team of Laura Edlund and Chandra Daw finished only 25 seconds behind, as the times went 32:05, 32:30. The Gustavus team of Kathleen DeWahl and Sarah Willis came in third, 33:37. Given that the Oles were short one of their top competitors in Bria Schurke and Gustavus' Kelly Chaudoin was up in Ironwood, the results at Hyland show that the team battle between the Ole and Gustie women promises to be a close one this season.

The collegiate men were not able to be as dominant in the men's competition, although St. Olaf took second, seventh, and eighth overall. The top Olaf team was Jim Vailliencourt and Karl Nygren, who finished in 28:04, while the number two team of Nels Dyste and Matt Rowe finished in 30:00. Eric Olson and Jake Boyce were close behind in 30:18. The St. Olaf men avoided the challenge of Gustavus, as the bulk of the Gustavus men's team ventured north to Ironwood. One of Olaf's top men, Ollie Garrison paired up with freshman Stephanie Thompson to win the mixed class.

In Ironwood, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men made up the bulk of the first page of the results sheet. Redshirt athlete Tim Damrow posted the fastest collegiate time for the two-day pursuit, finishing in 1:09:14, despite taking a wrong turn in the skate race. Andy Cheesebro was the next UWGB man, fifth in 1:09:28. Erich Ziegler was the only Gustavus skier to break into the UWGB pack, finishing eighth in the pursuit, after skiing the fastest collegiate skating time of the day. Ben Dubay and Bryan Gastonguay posted 10^th and 11^th pursuit finishes for Green Bay. Andy Rishavy and Scott Kayser were 15^th and 19^th for Gustavus.

For the women, the race's biggest surprise was the results posted by St. Cloud State University's Julie Warnike. Warnike was the top collegiate finisher on day one's classic race and then held onto her position on Sunday to take the overall pursuit. She was followed by a trio UWGB skiers: Heidi Hittner, Christina Fisher, and Ashley Pletcher, respectively. Pletcher had the top collegiate skate time for Sunday, posting an 18:01, while teammate Christina Fisher skied an 18:02. Gustavus was led by the efforts of freshman Kelly Chaudon, who finished fifth among collegiate pursuiters, as well as third among collegians in the skate. Teammate Kathryn Ladig, also a freshman, was seventh in the pursuit. SCSU's Gwynne Burrows and Marie Jordan were 11^th and 14^th respectively. SCSU freshman Abby Carroll finished seventh in Saturday's classic before electing not to start on Sunday due to illness.

On Saturday, MTU and NMU gathered at Saux Head near Marquette to race 10 kilometers freestyle. NMU's Tami Kochen emerged the winner in the women's race 32:24 with MTU's Kristina Owen claiming second 32:45. NMU redshirt Morgan Smyth was third in 33:37, while NMU's Jenny Wygant became the team's second scorer by finishing fourth. Also scoring for MTU were Laura Kangas, seventh, and Andrea Metz, eighth. NMU took the team win: 13 to 8. NMU also proved victorious for the men: 15 to 6. Bryan Cook skied away from the collegiate field winning the race by nearly a two minute margin over the nearest collegiate competitor. NMU redshirt Bill Bowler took second for the collegians, but Phil Violett and Adriaan Ostrander scored for the team by finishing in third and fourth. MTU was led by Ben Beard, Adam Airoldi, and Aaron Ditty, who finished eighth through tenth, respectively.

Sunday's race was classic on the MTU trails and a few members of local collegiate team Finlandia University came over to get their season started. In the women's 5-kilometer, Smyth was the day's winner, but since she's redshirting, second place Owen was declared the collegiate winner. Kochen was third, followed by teammate Laura Dewitt. MTU freshman Liz Quinley finished fourth in the collegiate field, and was followed by teammate Andrea Metz, the fifth scored collegian. Heidi Butler was Finlandia's sole competitor, skiing to 11^th place. As the only team with three to score, MTU took the team win 20, followed by NMU 15, and Finlandia 4.

For the men, Cook was once again dominant, this time putting in nearly a one minute margin over ten kilometers of classic. Redshirt Bowler was again the second collegian, but the second scorer was MTU's Airoldi. Ostrander and Violett scored for NMU again, this time finishing third and fifth, respectively. Ditty took fourth for MTU, while teammate Kevin Heglund was sixth. Finlandia raced three men: Steve Wagner, Steve Basio, and Adam Huey, who finished 12^th through 14^th, respecitbely. The resulting points saw NMU take its second win in two days with a score of 21 over MTU 18 and Finlandia 6.

Instead of traveling to soggy Anchorage for the second annual Alaska Cup, UAF stayed in Fairbanks and raced in the second Town Race Series and a time trail. On Saturday, UAF skiers swept the top three spots in their respective divisions in the 975 meter classical sprint event at the Town Race Series. Running standout Pavla Havlova finished first, followed immediately by a duo of freshmen: Elisabeth Habermann and Julia Coulter. For men, it was Bart Dengel who won, followed by Marius Korthauer, Tyson Flaharty, and Jonas Tetlie. On Sunday, December 11, the team did an intra-squad, individual-start time trial for training. The team raced a longer classical event in preparation for US Nationals (The men raced 15 km, while the women raced 10 km.). With a temperature of 25 degrees F and freshly set tracks, the time trail was a perfect gauge of technique and fitness rather than wax. This time, Korthauer led the men in 46:14, followed by Flaharty 46:16, Dengel 47:21, and Erik Wickstrom 47:23. For women, NCAA All-American Johanna Turunen was the team's leader finishing in 35:57. Julia Coulter was second 36:54, followed by Havlova 37:15, and Habermann 38:20.

Next week's Houghton Christmas Classic races should be an opportunity for many of the regions collegiate athletes to meet (in one place!) and see where they stand.