Complete Results
HOUGHTON, Mich. – St. Scholastica sophomore #Jeremy Hecker# finished third for the second straight day at the Michigan Tech ski trails in the men's 10km classic Husky Challenge on Sunday.
Hecker's time of 32:59.1 put him 33.8 seconds behind Northern Michigan's Chris Bowler, who took the top spot in 32:25.3. Bowler's teammate, Kevin Cutts, outpaced Hecker for second by 5.9 seconds finishing in 32:53.2.
CSS senior #Waylon Manske# posted the sixth fastest time of the day with 33:28.8, while sophomore #Kasey Bacso# rounded out the Saints scoring in eighth, 12.3 seconds behind Manske in 33:41.1. The Saints finished second to the Wildcats for the second day in a row, but unlike in the freestyle, Michigan Tech gave the Saints a run for their money, falling just a point shy of the Saints trio of Hecker, Manske, and Bacso.
Lake effect snow dumped overnight and all day making the conditions tricky for kick waxing. Saints head coach #Chad Salmela# was concerned about getting the wax right before the start. “We really thought it was going to be a straightforward day with the waxing as we went to bed, but we woke up to a few inches of snow and it just kept falling,” said Salmela. When new falling snow mixes with the soft, sticky grip wax, called “kick” wax, often a wax that will grip the snow will turn the snow into icy chunks in the sticky zone of the ski, rendering ski slow and giving poor or no kick. “Part of the focus for these races, as much as they are for the athletes, is to get us, the coaches, dialed back in to race support. We got a good wake up today, and thankfully, (Saints assistant coach) #Josh Tesch# went out there, under the gun and just delivered a great wax job that kicked really well and iced very little. It's not easy to say that on a day like today.”
With the Saints men finishing second twice in two days against three of the conferences top Division I and II teams, Salmela was once again pleased with Sunday's results. “Well, like yesterday, I went to the finish line before anyone knew how they stacked up in the field, and the overall feeling from the guys was that they couldn't get moving the way they'd like to and there was still a little frustration with early season form,” said Salmela. “But the results came out and we'd done fairly well again compared to how the guys felt about their races, so that's always a nice surprise. Tech had a rough day yesterday and they came back hard today and nearly beat us. To come out ahead twice on their home course all things considered, I'm pretty happy, but NMU is still a ways ahead, and at some point, it would be nice to see all of us in the conference close that gap.”
Combined scoring with the women for the weekend put the Saints third of the four teams present.
Classic Men Team Scores
NMU 29
CSS 22
MTU 21
UWGB 6
Classic Men/Women Combined Team Scores
NMU 57
MTU 47
CSS 31
UWGB 21
Overall Combined Team Scores
NMU 118
MTU 76
CSS 67
UWGB 51
