Complete Results
DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) -- The Saints Christmas Classic was inherited first by Michigan Tech, then Northern Michigan University, due to poor snow cover in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but another warming trend in Duluth threatened to derail the event once and for all. After a half hour straight of rain Saturday morning, the ski trails at the Marshall School were not capable of holding a race.
As a last ditch effort to find snow holding up through the day of rain, led CSS Head Coach
Chad Salmela to Snowflake. A phone call to the owner who was alpine skiing in Dear Valley, Utah, allowed the Christmas Classic to happen; at least the first day of it.
“I knew there was a huge high school race with about 400 skiers at Snowflake, so I didn't think there was a chance,” according to Salmela. “But when I got there, they were confined to a 2.5km course I had almost no interest in using. I went out on the 5km and it was incredibly good considering the rain.” The races were moved back an hour, but went off on compressed, saturated snow.
Not surprisingly, Northern Michigan's Erik Soderman, the defending NCAA Champion in this event, took top honors in 33:45. But it was surprisingly close with teammate George Cartwright just seven seconds back in second in 33:52, and Saints senior,
Jeremy Hecker (Andover, Minn./Andover HS (Minnesota-Twin Cities)) clocking in just another five seconds back of Cartwright in 33:57. The podium skiers did dominate, however, putting 39 seconds on the rest of the field as NMU's Kyle Bratrud finished fourth to secure the team title for Northern Michigan.
Saints sophomore,
Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS), was the next to stop the clock taking fifth spot for the Saints in 34:48. Junior,
Scott Johanik (Washburn, Wis./Washburn HS ) rounded out the scoring for the Saints in 10th overall, eighth amongst the collegiate field, in 35:52.
Northern Michigan won with a score of 23 to the Saints 14. Michigan Tech was third with seven points.
“Overall, it was great just to get a race off against these two teams,” said Salmela. “We wanted to test our fitness against some of the best conference competition, and we got that, with some very sound results, so I'm happy all the way around.”
Competition is scheduled to resume Sunday at 10:00 a.m., weather permitting. With snow depth as challenging as it became Saturday, any event held will likely be another freestyle event.
