Complete Results, including Minnesota Championship Results
DULUTH, Minn. – St. Scholastica senior #Lindsay Wallis# led the Saints with a 16th place finish in Sunday's Saints Hilltop Invitational 5km classic, finishing in a time of 19:43.4.
Alaska-Fairbanks' Raphaela Sieber took top honors, stomping the field by 27 seconds in a time of 17:34.9, ahead of teammate Theresia Schnurr. Wisconsin-Green Bay's Carolyn Freeman, Saturday's freestyle winner, finished third in 18:06.4.
Wallis, who has battled back the past several years from overtraining symptoms, posted her best Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) performance to date.
“I felt like I was finally racing,” said Wallis. “It was fun to feel that.”
Teammate, senior #Julia Curry#, finished 21st in 20:04.4, and #Christina Groulx# finished just four seconds further back in 22nd place in a time of 20:08.4 to round out the Saints scoring.
“This was the kind of day Lindsay and I have both kind of been hoping would come, for about the last two years,” said Saints head coach #Chad Salmela#. “Overtraining is subtle, confusing, hard to identify, and devastating, and even harder to come back from because it just takes so much patience. It most often ends ski careers outright. She never gave up. I never gave up. We were both patient, and we just didn't get overly anxious and always took the safe course even though it must have felt like an eternity to her. For her to come back and say 'I felt like I was racing' is just music to my ears…a truly proud moment for me personally as a coach.”
The Saints moved up a spot from Saturday, finishing sixth as a team. Alaska-Fairbanks won the team competition ahead of Green Bay.
The Saint women also finished fourth in the Minnesota College Skiing Championships, contested within the invitational. St. Olaf's Paige Schember won in a time of 18:21.0, which put her fifth overall in the invitational. Gustavus' Erica Hett was second and St. Cloud State's Elizabeth Simak was third. Wallis finished sixth, Curry eighth, and Groulx ninth in the Minnesota Championship field respectively. After two days of racing, St. Cloud State and the Saints women tied with the Huskies prevailing in a total-time tiebreaker. The three Huskies skiers out-skied the Saints trio by a total of a minute on the weekend to push the Saints from the top three.
“Our top two ranked skiers ultimately decided third for us, which was nice, because looking back, I probably shouldn't have raced either of them coming off colds as they were,” said Salmela. “It's nice that even though they weren't having their best weekends, they contributed in an unintended manner.”
The Saints continue NCAA qualifying competition next weekend at the USSA Supertour at Wirth Park in Minneapolis.
