Classic Results
Team Scores

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Freshman Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS) led all Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) skiers by placing 18th in Friday's 20km classic mass start at the NCAA Skiing Championships, hosted by Montana State University.

Schommer started towards the back of today's mass start, but worked his way forward very quickly. In the last circuit, Schommer was in 17th before getting passed on the final sprint to take 18th in a time of 59:06.7. Schommer beat the other seven CCSA skiers in the field.

Jeremy Hecker (Andover, Minn./Andover HS (Minnesota-Twin Cities)) also started towards the back and had trouble working his way towards the front, but was able to pass a couple of skiers on the final lap to place 36th overall with a time of 1:03.56.1.

“It was just another incredible day,” summed up Saints head coach Chad Salmela. “Both of our skiers performed well once again. We got lucky because by racing before the women there was just enough cloud cover to keep temperatures cool. There was a lot of overheating in the women's race as temperatures were in the 60s.”

In today's race the Saints accumulated 26 points to finish 12th out of 17 teams. In the overall standings, the Saints are 16th out of 21 teams. However, the overall total includes both men's and women's Nordic skiers and alpine skiers. In the two men's Nordic Ski races, CSS had 75 points to finish ninth out of 17 teams.

Schommer and Hecker cap off a fantastic year for the St. Scholastica Nordic Skiing programs. This season saw the men's team's first individual CCSA winner in Hecker and team victory in a CCSA event. Schommer also had the most podium finishes in CCSA events with three. On the women's side, Eleanor Magnuson had the program's first podium finish and Sharmila Ahmed won the program's first individual junior national championship.

The Saints will return everyone except Magnuson for next year. The whole men's team returns for another run at nationals. For future news on the CSS Nordic skiing programs, be sure to keep checking csssaints.com.