Complete Results

LAKE ELMO, Minn. -- Racing for the St. Scholastica ski team was moved for the second of three weekends of racing due to lack of snow. The Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) races held in conjunction with the The US Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) SuperTour, was moved from one St. Paul area venue to another, a tubing hill with manmade snow, called Green Acres in nearby Lake Elmo.  A challenging course held around the tubing hill and through a rolling corn field greeted the nation's best domestic and region's best collegiate skiers.

Saints freshman Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS) paced the Saints in a frantic 10km mass start classic race, posting a time of 27:45.9 to finish 18th overall in the SuperTour, and third in the collegiate race, the first ever podium finish for the program in CCSA competition.  Michigan Tech's Mikko Harju and Jesse Smith finished first and second in 27:13.1 and 27:40.4. 

Saints junior Jeremy Hecker (Andover, Minn./Andover HS (Minnesota-Twin Cities)) finished fourth in the CCSA competition and 21st overall in 27:52.7.  Sophomore Scott Johanik (Washburn, Wis./Washburn HS ) lost a photo-finish battle with Michigan Tech's Luke Gesior, both taking 26th overall in the SuperTour and seventh in the college race, to round out the Saints scoring.  The Saints finished second the Michigan Tech as a team.

With CCSA  powerhouses University of Alaska Fairbanks and Northern Michigan absent, the collegiate race turned into a dual between the Saints and the Huskies, but not before a traffic jam and several mishaps early set the stage for a big Saints comeback late in the race in what initially looked to be a runaway win for the Huskies.

Two hundred meters into the mass start, last weekend's SuperTour double winner, Matt Liebcsh, crossed his skis as he tried to switch tracks, and brought roughly half of the entire field of 70+ starters to a grinding halt.  Tech's Harju was the lone collegiate skier and one of 10 skiers who did not get tangled at all from the Liebsch incident, and jumped to a big early lead in the college race.  Tech's Smith and CSS's Schommer both escaped the crash with minimal slow-down while Hecker swung wide, tangled shortly, and continued on.  However, for Hecker, strides later one pole was pulled loose from its grip, and his pole was gone.  Receiving a pole from a coach, Hecker continued, albeit with a much shorter second pole.  The process would repeat itself meters later.  After finding yet another replacement pole, he then sought two poles of more normal length, which took the better part of the first 2.5km loop.  By the start of the second of four loops, Saints head coach Chad Salmela estimated his deficit to Harju to be nearly 50 seconds.

"Midway through the second loop, Tech had five guys ahead of our first, with Paul skiing well and hanging onto a group of them and Scott just a bit back," recounted Salmela.  But the Saints' strongest skier so far this season, whom Salmela believed would challenge for the program's first ever CCSA individual win, was still a long way back. 

"I thought, 'this is not looking good in general.'  Paul and Scott were skiing strong but had a lot of Tech guys to try to get ahead of."  With the day's results determining the pursuit start order Sunday, the Saints backs were against the wall as a team.

Over the final two laps they swung things much more in their favor as Schommer and Johanik moved into contention with all the Huskies but Harju, while Hecker, satisfied with his third set of poles, stormed through the field.  By the final climb less than a kilometer from the finish, Schommer dropped the closest Huskies and charged on Tech's Jesse Smith who had been hovering about 25 seconds ahead most of the race.  Hecker had caught and passed teammate, Johanik, and moved past the Huskie's third skier,  Sondre Sandvik, and Johanik had a battle on his hands for the team points with Gesior. 

By the finish, Schommer had cut his deficit to Smith by only 5.5 seconds, finishing third, Hecker and put 5.4 seconds on Sandvik for fourth, and Johanik eight seconds further back, nipped at the line by Gesior.

"It was an amazing team race," said Salmela.  "Paul raced so well today to lead the team, Scott kept his cool and raced into it, and with Jeremy, it could have turned into a disappointing team day, but the guys persevered, and while we didn't come out on top as a team, Paul posted the best CCSA finish in program history and had his best CCSA race of the season, and Scott and Jeremy just dug deep.  Jeremy actually closed on Mikko from the 3km mark on once he had some poles he could actually ski with and giving up a lot of time.  It wasn't just about the places and the team score, but about setting themselves up well for the start in Sunday's pursuit.  While we would have loved to have won today, Tech just beat us and that's just the way it goes.  If you look at how we skied as a team, we skied great, but I think we had enough bad luck that the results don't tell the story."

The Saints continue competition Sunday with a 20km pursuit start, based off the results of the 10km mass start classic.  Individual times will be used to generate collegiate results.