CCSA Weekend Wrapup

by Corey Coogan
February 14, 2006

This weekend the Minnesota colleges met for the final regular season Central Collegiate Skiing Association qualifier prior to next weekend’s CCSA Regional Championships in Houghton.  The regular season event, originally scheduled for the Greystone Trails in St. Cloud, Minnesota, was instead moved to the much hillier and more technically challenging St. John’s University trails because of more favorable snow conditions.  The difficult course well served the needs of the CCSA and impressed the coaches. Co-race organizer Dave Johnson, Head Coach at St. John’s University and College of St. Benedict, explained:
"We had a great event.  This was not the first college race at the new 5.3K (Trinity Loop) race course at St. John's University, yet it was the first NCAA Qualifier using the course.  It should continue to be used as a college race site in the future. St. Olaf Coach Kevin Brochman told me that ‘there was enough elevation climb.’ No one said that the trail was too easy, too short, too narrow, or had too little snow."

Given the University of Alaska-Fairbanks exhausting travel schedule, the Nanooks have traditionally skipped this weekend’s event.  The loss of the UAF meant that the penalty used to determine NCAA Championships qualifying points would be significantly higher (worse).  With this in mind, and considering the distance from eastern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Division II University of Wisconsin-Green-Bay, Northern Michigan University, and Michigan Technological University all elected to forgo racing at St. John’s.  As such, the penalty was even higher than expected and some rising Division III stars missed the opportunity to test themselves against the top teams.  Nevertheless, most of the coaches were philosophical about the situation, and found the points better than they expected.  As Dave Johnson explains,
"While the CFIS race penalty was higher than previous races where all the colleges were in attendance, the total points for the race were valuable.  The winners only suffered the race penalty and most all other racers should be able to use the points from this weekend as one of their two best races.  It will set up some interesting battles for the NCAA qualifying spots."

Chandra Daw, an athlete who is coming on with big results later in the season, was most impacted by the absence of the Division II schools.  Gustavus’ Head Coach Jed Friedrich explained Daw’s situation.
"Going into the weekend, Chandra held the final qualifying spot for NCAA's.  Without the big name skiers there, we knew that all Chandra could do was go out and win both races.  She did exactly what she needed to do and it should pay off with a trip to NCAA's.  Chandra skied so strong that I wish the top skiers were there because she may have improved her points even more.  She is student teaching right now, so it will be really important that she remains organized because she is juggling a lot more than most college skiers."

In Saturday’s 5-kilometer individual start classical, Chandra Daw skied to a decisive win over St. Olaf’s Linn Dale, 17:17 to 17:42.  Gustavus’ Laura Edlund was third in 17:48.  Heidi Hittner, of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, who made her way down to the race with a couple of other Phoenix skiers, took fourth.  Freshman Audrey Weber of St. Olaf was fifth.  Gustavus’ Sarah Willis, also a freshman, finished seventh to become the school’s third and final scorer.  With three athletes in the top six, the Gusties became team champions on the day (65 points), followed by St. Olaf (60), UWGB  (55), College of St. Benedict (41), St. Cloud State University (34), and Finlandia (9).

Besides Dale and Weber, St. Olaf also counted on Bria Schurke (10th) to contribute to its team total.  Analyzing his team’s performance over the weekend, Kevin Brochman had this to say:
"Our women had a pretty good weekend with Linn Dale skiing well in classic and Bria Schurke skating well.  Audrey Weber had a good consistent weekend and is beginning to ski better in longer races.  While excellent at the sprints, she is gaining confidence and endurance in the longer races.

In the men’s 10-kilometer race, St. Olaf freshman Karl Nygren was by far the class of the field, winning the event by nearly two minutes in 29:47.  The battle for second was between Gustavus teammates Andy Rishavy and Erich Ziegler.  Rishavy came out on top, taking second in 31:46.  Ziegler followed, finishing third in 31:50.  St. Olaf senior Oliver Garrison was fourth in 32:13.  St. John’s University teammates Tom Dehler and Chad Gregg finished fifth (32:45) and sixth (33:12), respectively.  Nels Dyste took seventh (34:00) and in doing so became St. Olaf’s third and final scorer to capture the team win for the Oles.  St. Olaf’s winning total was 63 points, followed by Gustavus 62, St. John’s University 55, Finlandia 36, and Macalester 29.

On Sunday, both women and men competed in mass start skating races, the women skiing 12 kilometers and the men 17 kilometers.  

In the women’s race, Gustavus teammates Chandra Daw and Laura Edlund took an early lead, breaking from the pack prior to the one kilometer mark when the course left the stadium and headed up the race’s longest climb.  On the second lap, Daw used this hill to break away from Edlund.  Recalling the race, Gustavus Coach Friedrich remarked: “I have to give credit to Linn Dale because she was hurting at 6 km and was getting caught by Weber, DeWahl, and Schurke.  I was surprised to see Dale hold on to third and ski away from that chase group.  There was a great sprint to the finish between DeWahl and Weber with DeWahl coming out on top.”

Daw and Edlund took 1-2 in the event by a sizable margin, recording a 36:15 and 37:32, respectively.  Dale, third, finished in 38:07.  Gustavus’ DeWahl skied a 38:24 to Audrey Weber’s 38:26.  Olaf’s Schurke took sixth in 38:31.  For the second day in the row, the Gusties became team champions with 68 points.  St. Olaf was second again with 61 points.  UWGB 48 was third, followed by CSB 42, SCSU 36, MAC17, and FIN 7.

St. Cloud State University’s fifth place effort was led by senior Julie Warnike, who finished 15th.  Freshmen teammates Gwynn Barrows and Abby Carroll were the number two and three scorers for the Huskies, finishing 23rd and 24th respectively.  SCSU Head Coach Jeremy Frost gave details about his athletes’ races.  “Julie had a great start to the freestyle mass start and held with a solid group before her ski caught someone's pole around one of the corners and she lost some time on the pack. Abby and Gwynn ended up together in the freestyle race and battled against one another to the finish.”

After a surprising win at Telemark two weeks ago, Erich Ziegler entered the skate races as one of the favorites.  He did not disappoint.  Coach Friedrich recalled how the race played out:
"For the men's mass start.  Ziegler took the lead and pulled Nygren around for the first 6km or so and starting pulling away by a little bit.  Nygren kept the distance fairly close for the next 5km.  At about 13km, Ziegler had put about 25 seconds on him, but Nygren still was battling to catch up."

At the finish, Ziegler’s margin of victory was 14 seconds, 45:26 to Nygren’s 45:40.  Olaf’s Oliver Garrison was the third collegian in 46:59.  Gustavus’ Andy Rishavy was fourth in 47:57.  Fifth and sixth went to SJU’s Chad Gregg 48:48 and MAC’s Jakob Wartman 48:58.  Just as on day one, St. Olaf won a close battle for the team title, scoring 62 points to Gustavus’ 60.  SJU 54 took third, followed by MAC 46, and FIN 12.  

Next week marks the finale of the CCSA season with the Regional Championships hosted by Michigan Tech.  In snowy Houghton, conditions are sure to be superb and all the teams will be present.  With some talented athletes on the bubble for NCAA competition, the final two races should be exciting ones.