[
Men's Individual Results] [
Women's Individual Results]
[
Men's Team Results] [
Women's Team Results]
HOUGHTON, Mich. - Alaska Nanooks junior
Tyler Kornfield earned his first individual conference championship title after racing his way to a first place finish in the men's 20-kilometer mass start classic race on Saturday afternoon at the Central Collegiate Ski Association Championships.
Kornfield completed the distance course in one hour, two minutes and 36 seconds, edging teammate and senior Erik Soederstroem by four seconds (1:02:40) for the race title. Northern Michigan's top three skiers finished 3-4-5 and rookie Jonas Loeffler rounded out the Nanooks top-three finishers and scoring skiers in 1:03:08, good for sixth.
Freshman
Ludwig Schott and junior
Ian Wilkinson also landed top-10 finishes in 7th (1:03:12) and 8th (1:03;37), respectively, while senior
Alex Morris was 18th (1:06:11).
With the top two finishers, the Nanooks edged the Northern Michigan Wildcats 84-81 in the team standings, while College of St. Scholastica, host Michigan Tech and Wisconsin-Green Bay completed the top five teams.
On the women's side, the Blue and Gold met with challenging race-time conditions and ultimately fell short of their best performance, taking third on the day to NMU (87) and MTU (75) with 70 points. Roughly two inches of fresh snow, which began to fall mid-way through the men's race, had accumulated on the course and without re-grooming made for an extremely tough race.
Sophomore
Raphaela Sieber was the top finisher for the Nanooks, taking fourth place behind a trio of Wildcats. Monica Markvardsen was the women's champion, tackling the 15-kilometer course in 58 minutes and 36 seconds. Sieber crossed 29 seconds later in 59 minutes and five seconds.
Alaska's sophomore
Heather Edic landed the only other top-10 finish, taking 9th (59:27), and junior
Crystal Pitney was third for the 'Nooks in 15th overall (59:51).
The Nanooks other racers included junior
Marit Rjabov (18th, 1:00:08), freshman
Alyson McPhetres (21st, 1:00:46) and sophomore Heidi Brook (24th, 1:01:41).
Both teams entered Saturday's race with an edge in the team standings (after last month's victories in the sprint races at the Hilltop Invite). With the two races combined, the men still lead the team standings in the race for the conference title, while the women are in second overall.
The Nanooks will look to capture the CCSA crown on Sunday morning, when they will compete in freestyle technique relay races (three 5-kilometer laps) to close out the conference season.
