ANCHORAGE, Alaska – After two days of delays due to cold weather, St. Scholastica Sophomore #Waylon Manske# (So.-Bemidji, Minn.) paced the Saints Skiers in the men's 10 kilometer freestyle event Monday at the U.S. National Cross Country Skiing Championships.

Manske skied to a 78th place finish in the field of 197 men, with a finishing time of 28:22.7. The U.S. Ski Team's Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) out-classed teammate Lief Zimmerman (Bozeman, MT) by 50.3 seconds, winning in a time of 24:17.2 to Zimmerman's 25:07.5, with CXC Elite team member, Matt Liebsch (Minneapolis), surprising the field in third with a time of 25:19.8. Junior #Tyler Kjorstad# (Sr.-Duluth, Minn./Marshall) and #Jason Kask# (Sr.-Duluth, Minn./East) rounded out the Saints skiers in 123rd and 140th respectively.

The National Championships also were the first of five Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) conference qualification races that select skier to the NCAA Skiing Championships in March. Manske posted the third best finish in the Saints three-year history in CCSA competition, finishing 6th among CCSA male skiers.

“I wasn't sure what we'd see from the guys being cooped up in a hotel for the better part of a week, but Waylon came out guns blazing in the first 5km and really put himself in position to do something fantastic,” said Saints head coach, Chad Salmela of Manske's performance. “They all struggled in second half of the race. We haven't raced much yet and I think the slow conditions just caught them off guard as the race went on. Waylon hung on to a strong performance for him and in context to program history, while Tyler was off his game a little with a sore throat a couple days ago. Jason simply needs more racing and training to perform, and I think the waiting and sitting around really diminished what he could do today. I think we'll see better things from both as we race more, but even though Waylon was initially disappointed in how he felt, it was a really solid race for him.”

The U.S. National Championships have been plagued by cold temps all week, causing postponement of Saturday's 1.5 classical sprint until Wednesday. Today's competition was originally slated to be a 15km freestyle race but was shortened to fit the forecasted window of legal race temperature. The Federation International de Ski prohibits racing below negative 20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit). Today's race was conducted just above legal temperatures.

Tomorrow was originally scheduled to be a rest day, but with the weather related challenges, the organizers have scheduled a 15 kilometer classic event in hopes of holding all four scheduled races in four straight days. Forecasts indicate yet another challenging day tomorrow for the race jury in pulling off the second of four scheduled National Championship races.

2009 United States National Championships
Men's 10km Freestyle
1. FREEMAN, Kris USST 1 24:17.2
2. ZIMMERMANN, Leif USST 25:07.5
3. LIEBSCH, Matthew CXC Elite 25:19.8
78. MANSKE, Waylon College of St Scholastica 28:22.7
123. KJORSTAD, Tyler College of St Scholastica 29:46.1
140. KASK, Jason College of St Scholastica 30:21.7

CCSA Conference NCAA Qualifier Results
Men's 10km Freestyle
1. OCARIZ, Santiago Wisconsin - Green Bay 27:08.7
2. BRABBIT, Jens Gustavus Adolphus College 27:41.0
3. WATTERDAL, Oyvind University of Alaska Fairbanks 27:52.1
4. MORRIS, Alex University of Alaska Fairbanks 28:21.5
5.VIOLETT, Phillip Northern Michigan University 28:21.6
6. MANSKE, Waylon College of St Scholastica 28:22.7
7. OFTEN, Einar University of Alaska Fairbanks 28:23.0
8. LANG, Jesse Michigan Tech University 28:28.1
9. PARRY, John University of Alaska Fairbanks 28:28.3
10. SINGLETON, Justin Northern Michigan University 28:37.7
17. KJORSTAD, Tyler College of St Scholastica 29:46.1
19. KASK, Jason College of St Scholastica 30:21.7