Feb. 28, 2009
Women's Results 
Women's Team Standings
Men's Results
Men's Team Standings
Houghton, MI – Theresia Schnurr and Oyvind Watterdal, as has been the entire season, paced the Alaska Nanooks ski team in the classic style technique on day one of the Central Collegiate Ski Association Regional Championships hosted on the Campus of the Michigan Tech University Huskies.
The Alaska men and the women are both in third place heading into tomorrows freestyle technique races. Both the Northern Michigan men and women are in first and both Michigan Tech men and women are in second.
Schnurr, a First Team All-CCSA selection, finished the 5K classic race in sixth place clocking in with a time of 18:26.6. The German native was the CCSA’s third ranked skier heading into the Regional Championships and is more than likely on her way to Maine in two weeks to compete in the NCAA National Championships.
Juila Pierson was the second Nanook skier to finish as she grabbed 12th place, just two-tenths of a second ahead of Northern Michigan’s Caitlin Cassidy with a time of 18:56.3.
Pierson’s twin sister, Anna Coulter, who is on the bubble of qualifying for NCAA’s, finished in 19th at 19:16.9.
For the men, Watterdal, the eighth ranked CCSA skier, finished the race in 10th place with a time of 31:45.5. He, along with Schnurr, seems a sure bet to represent the Nanooks in Maine.
But it was teammate Erik Soderstrom that made the biggest splash for the Nanooks.
Soderstrom made a strong push for qualifying for NCAA’s as he finished just one spot behind Watterdal in 11th place crossing the line with a time of 31:48.8. Coming into the weekend ranked 19th, Soderstrom had an outside chance of making it to the championships, but today was surly a step in the right direction.
Tomorrow’s 15K skate race for the women and 20K for the men concludes the fifth and final NCAA qualifier. When the races are finished, the top nine men and the top 11 women, according to the CCSA points list, will represent the conference at nationals.
