CABLE, Wis–Michigan Tech’s Henna Riikonen-Purts grabbed her first individual victory of the year, while Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Santiago Ocariz continued his stellar year with another trip to the top of the podium. The 10/15k freestyle event was held as a part of the Central SuperTour in Cable, Wisconsin. Brian Gregg and Rebecca Dussault were the overall winners at Telemark Ski Resort, but a strong field of CCSA skiers was there as a part of the conference’s third NCAA qualifying weekend.
Riikonen-Purts collected the victory by a margin of 12 seconds on the 10-kilometer course, finishing in a time of 30:52. She led the Michigan Tech women to a 2nd-place finish, as she had done in Saturday’s classic race as well. Jenna Klein (32:34) and Elizabeth Quinley (32:57) finished in 10th and 12th, respectively, to round out the scoring for MTU. It was the Northern Michigan women, then, who took top team honors for the second day in a row. Laura DeWitt (31:04) and Monica Markvardsen (31:27) went 2-3 for an NMU team that placed 5 skiers in the top 9. Marie Helen Soderman (32:14) was the third scorer in 6th place, and Ingrid Fjeldheim (32:26) and Christina Gillis (32:31) finished 8-9, exhibiting the impressive depth of NMU.
Wisconsin-Green Bay placed 2 skiers in the top 7 and finished as the 3rd-place women’s team. Carolyn Freeman (32:00) was in 4th after a strong classic race the previous day, and Lindsey Marshall (32:24) in 7th added a strong second skier for the Phoenix. St. Scholastica’s Eleanor Magnuson (32:13) improved on a strong classic result and finished 5th to lead the Saints. Julia Curry (33:01) posted a strong result in 13th to contribute to a 4th-place finish for CSS.
Megan Smith (33:15) and Christi Nowak (33:31) led the St. Benedict women in 14th and 15th, respectively, for a team result of 5th. Erin Eppler (33:56) in 18th was the top woman for the 6th-place Gustavus Adolphus team. One spot further back in 19th was Hannah Sanborn (34:04) who led St. Cloud State into 7th place. Emma Lee in 31st led St. Olaf.
Santiago Ocariz of Wisconsin-Green Bay has made a habit of claiming the top spot in CCSA races this season. Sunday was no different, as he completed the 15-kilometer freestyle course in 39:09 to better 2nd-place finisher George Cartwright by 22 seconds. Cartwright led Northern Michigan to a 2nd-place team finish. Tim Cook (40:52) and Chris Bowler (40:59) finished 8-9 to complete the scoring for Northern Michigan. Michigan Tech claimed top honors on the men’s side behind 3 finishers in the top 7. Oskar Lund (40:02) was 3rd, Jesse Lang (40:39) was 6th, and Jesse Smith (40:48) was 7th, giving the MTU men 77 points to 74 for NMU.