Complete Results
COLERAINE, Minn. -- The first ever Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) Championship in the individual sprint was held in conjunction with the Saints Hilltop Invitational at Mt. Itasca, Sunday.
The individual 1.5km classic sprint is an official Federation International de Ski (FIS) and United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) discipline that is common repertoire in the sport of cross country skiing, but is not contested at the NCAA Skiing Championships. The conference voted in its spring meeting to add an individual sprint to the 2012 calendar and CCSA team championship to broaden the racing opportunities within the conference. The 1.5k individual classic sprint team score will be combined with a 20km mass start classic and 3x5km freestyle to be held at the CCSA Championships, February 11 and 12 in Houghton Michigan.
The 1.5km individual sprint began with a qualification time trial to rank the fastest skiers around the course. The top 18 skiers moved on to three semifinal, head-to-head heats of six skiers each, in which the first two competitors at the finish moved to an A final to contest overall victory, third and fourth move to a B final to contest seventh through 12th places, and fifth and sixth were eliminated and ranked 13th through 18th in order they qualified in the time trial.
The Saints women qualified three skiers to the semifinal heats. Freshman
Sharmila Ahmed (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS) paced the Saints placing 10th in 4:25.7. Junior
Christina Groulx (Thunder Bay, Ontario/St. Ignatius HS (Lakehead University)) qualified 13th in 4:26.3, and sophomore
Brooke Adams (Spooner, Wis./Spooner HS ) qualified 16th in 4:27.2.
Alaska Fairbanks' Marit Rjabov, fresh off of Saturday's win in the 4.6km freestyle, outskied the field by an impressive 6.4 seconds to win the qualifier ahead of teammate, Rebecca Konieczny in 4:15.4. Northern Michigan's Monica Markvardsen finished just one-tenth of a second further back in third.
In the first semifinal heat, Groulx started aggressively positioning herself early in second, chasing eventual overall winner, Rjabov, up the major climb. But the final 500 meters proved too difficult the hold off the charging field, as she fought off Northern Michigan's Marie Helen Soderman, to finish fifth of 6 in the heat, and thus being eliminated from moving on.
The two remaining Saints, Ahmed and Adams, found themselves head to head in the final of three semifinals. Adams began to make a move for the top five on the major climb, but a few missteps at the crest of the hill created a gap that proved too much to make up in the final 500 meters. Adams finished fifth and Ahmed sixth in their heats and were eliminated. Ahmed's 10th qualifying moved her upon elimination into 14th on the final results, Groulx was relegated to 16th, and Adams wound up in 17th.
“It was a very exciting day for us as a program,” said Saints head coach
Chad Salmela. “You always want to advance of course, but to put over fifty percent of your skiers in the heats against this kind of field shows that our women's program is in a place it has never been before. The heats are competitive and it takes experience and perfect form to negotiate moving to the next round, and I think just little things like being a touch nervous or a couple of mistakes at critical moments kept all three of our skiers from the A and B finals. I am thrilled with how the women skied today. I think it was our best team showing so far.”
The Saints continue CCSA and NCAA qualifying competition January 21 and 22 at the USSA Supertour in Minneapolis with a 5km classic on Saturday and 15km freestyle on Sunday.
