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.
The St. Scholastica men were 3rd as a team behind the 5th-place finish of Waylon Manske (40:25) and the 10th-place finish of Mason Bacso (41:03). Nick Maki in (42:14) 18th place contributed to Ocariz’ win and put the UWGB Phoenix in 4th. Jens Brabbit 40:20) posted a season-best 4th place for Gustavus Adolphus and Anders Bowman (41:33) was 12th to put the Gustie men in 5th place. The finishes of Jared Sundstrom (42:00) in 15th and Bob Gerten (42:11) in 17th put the St. John’s men not far behind in 6th. Tom Jorgenson posted a very strong result, finishing in 14th to lead St. Olaf. Ben Noren was 32nd to lead Gogebic Community College.
In the team results, the Northern Michigan women triumphed with 166 points on the weekend. Michigan Tech was 2nd with 150. Wisconsin-Green Bay took down 3rd with 115 points, just ahead of St. Scholastica with 111. On the men’s side Michigan Tech edged out Northern Michigan, 155-154, for the men’s victory. St. Scholastica snagged 3rd with 131 points. The Green Bay men were 4th with 117. Combined, the team scores put Northern Michigan in 1st, Michigan Tech in 2nd, and St. Scholastica in 3rd. Complete team results are below.
Team Women Men Total
1. NMU 166 (1) 154 (2) 320
2. MTU 150 (2) 155 (1) 305
3. CSS 111 (4) 131 (3) 242
4. UWGB 115 (3) 117 (4) 232
5. GAC 95 (6) 103 (5) 198
6. STO 52 (8) 82 (7) 134
7. CSB 100 (5) 100
8. SJU 94 (6) 94
9. SCSU 83 (7) 83
10. GCC 22 (8) 22
