MARQUETTE, Mich. – Three St. Scholastica men's Nordic ski members competed this afternoon in classic skiing at the Wildcat Invitational and finished fourth with 10 points.

Coming into his sophomore year at St. Scholastica, the first year of the varsity ski program, #Tyler Kjorstad# (Sr.-Duluth, Minn./Marshall) was a proven freestyle skier, but had not stood out in classic events to that time.

As the 2009 racing season takes flight, Kjorstad's focus on the technique in training has been palpable, and he got his first test classic skiing this season in the Wildcat Invitational Men's 10km Classic today near Marquette, MI. Kjorstad proved he is not a one-technique wizard, finishing a solid eighth place in a time of 26:32, 1:32 behind Northern Michigan winner, Phill Viollett. Viollett bettered NMU red-shirt freshman, Chris Bowler, by 14 seconds with teammate Justin Singleton finishing another 14 seconds down to Bowler. Northern Michigan swept the top five spots, counting the unofficial "open" entry of Bowler.

CSS sophomores #Waylon Manske# (So.-Bemidji, Minn.) and #Stefan Hupperts# (So.-North Oaks, Minn./Mounds View) finished 19th and 24th respectively.

"This was a good test. We know we have a very strong skating team, and with #Jason Kask# (Sr.-Duluth, Minn./East), our most consistent classic skier at home, I knew this would be a good test for us as a men's team," said Saints Head Coach Chad Salmela. "I'm very enthused about Tyler's race today. He went out and actually finished closer to the win in classic, compared to his freestyle race yesterday. That's a nice thing to see," said Salmela. "We clearly face a challenge with classic skiing the deeper we go into the men's team. We have focused intently on bridging the classic gap this year with a lot of work on the fundamentals of good classic skiing performance, but we still have to find the relaxation and rhythm we've practiced, and actually do it when the starter says 'go.' This is the first race though. We will work together to find the groove of classic racing with the deeper athletes in the coming races."

A noteworthy fact is that the classic race, usually much slower than freestyle, saw a faster winning time today by 1:27, on the same course. Yesterday's freestyle race was held in blizzard conditions with considerable snow fall and a very soft track.

The Saints field a full men's and women's team next weekend at the Grandview Early Season Challenge in Ironwood, Mich.

RESULTS
NMU Wildcat Open - Dec. 7, 2008
Men 10km Classic
Place        Name                         School            Time
1                Phill Violett                NMU                 25:00
2                Chris Bowler            OPEN               25:14
3                Justin Singleton       NMU                 25:28
4                Kevin Cutts                NMU                 25:29
5                Sindre Stokke           NMU                 25:30
6                Santi Ocariz              GB                     25:38
7                Kyle Fredrickson     GB                     26:19
8                Tyler Kjorstad (Duluth, Minn./Marshall School)           CSS                  26:32
9                Erik Mundahl            MTU                  26:44
10              Tim Cook                  NMU                 26:45
19              Waylon Manske (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji HS)       CSS                 28:28
24              Steffan Hupperts      CSS                29:16

TEAM SCORE CLASSIC, MEN
1   NMU                 33       
2   GB                    21           
3   MTU                 14       
4   CSS                 10