It was "One of the best days ever!" said head coach Chad Salmela of his men's team results in Saturday's 10-kilometer Freestyle race at the CCSA NCAA Qualifier in Marquette, Mich.

Little, old -- well, in only their second season they're technically still the new kid on the block -- Division-III St. Scholastica raced to a 3rd place team finish against Division-I heavyweights and other D-II and D-III programs.

Alaska-Fairbanks and Northern Michigan, both D-I and perennial NCAA championship contenders, finished 1-2 in the team scoring, and then there were the Saints, coming in ahead of Wis.-Green Bay (D-I) and Michigan Tech (D-II) as well as Gustavus Adolphus, St. John's, and St. Olaf (all D-III).

Senior Bjorn Bakken (Duluth, Minn./Marshall School) set the pace for the team with his 6th place finish in a time of 28 minutes, 54.4 seconds.

Not far behind was freshman Waylon Manske (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji HS) whose time of 29:47.4 placed him 8th in the field of 62 college racers. Junior teammate Tyler Kjorstad (Duluth, Minn./Marshall School) clinched the stellar showing for the Saints with a 22nd place time of 30:38.7.

Last year Salmela led his squad of skiers to the doorstep of such a feat many times in their inaugural season. With the addition of transfer Bakken and newcomer Manske to a pair of returners in Kjorstad and junior Jason Kask (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) -- 24th place, only five seconds behind Kjorstad -- the Saints didn't just rap on the door, they kicked it in.

The skiers will try to duplicate their results on Sunday with the 15K Classic race.