Complete Results
IROWNWOOD, Mich. – Over a foot of snow fell on the Gogebic Range over Saturday night to challenge skiers Sunday morning at the Grandview Wolverine Challenge men's 10km classic.
Santiago Ocariz cruised to victory for the second straight day ahead of Northern Michigan's Andy Liebner. Ocariz won in a time of 27:36.4 to Liebner's 28:01.0, while NMU red-shirt, George Cartwright, finished 16.1 seconds further back of Liebner in third.
CSS senior #Waylon Manske# narrowly led the Saints for the second straight day, finishing 10th overall and seventh collegiately, in a time of 29:30.8, just 3.2 seconds ahead of Saints teammate, sophomore #Jeremy Hecker#. Hecker's time of 29:34.0 placed him 11th overall and eighth collegiately. After 20km of racing over the weekend, the Saints teammates were separated by a grand total of 6.2 seconds over two races, with the advantage going to Manske.
“It's fun to have a one-two punch forming on your team,” said Saints head coach #Chad Salmela# of the two teammates close performances this weekend, and so far this year. “This is a time of year where a tone starts to get set on your team. Jeremy and Waylon are setting it, but they also have to work to be the top ranked guy on the team. Then you've got guys down the list trying to match them, training, traveling, eating meals with these guys, and I believe it just raises the bar for the entire team.” Sophomore #Kasey Bacso# rounded out the top three for the Saints in 15th place overall and ninth collegiately.
“Overall, I'm pleased with the weekend,” said Salmela. “Almost everyone on the team had at least one solid-to-good race out of two. Those are good odds played out this time of year. Now we have some races behind us and we can hone in on finding our racing fitness over the next month to be ready to rock in January.”
A small selected group of skiers will compete at the USSA 2011 National Cross Country Skiing Championships in Rumford, Maine, January 2-6. On Monday, Salmela will name the team who will travel to Maine.
