Complete Results

MINNEAPOLIS (csssaints.com) -- A slight sickness over winter break forced St. Scholastica senior Jeremy Hecker (Andover, Minn./Andover HS (Minnesota-Twin Cities)) off of his normal season prep plan.  Saturday's 10km freestyle Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) region opener at Wirth Park, is a discipline Hecker has consistently done well at, including a 16th place finish at the 2012 NCAA Championships. 

With a flip in the Championship discipline to a 20km Mass Start freestyle, Hecker had one final opportunity as a collegiate skier to crank out a 10km individual start freestyle as part of the USSA SuperTour.  Despite uncertainty with current form due to a lack of racing while trying to get his health back to 100 percent, he didn't disappoint.  Starting slow, Hecker threw down a blistering second of two 5km laps to charge from eighth at 3km into the CCSA top five, finishing fifth in a time of 22:16.5, 23rd overall in the SuperTour.

Alaska Fairbanks' Tyler Kornfield set the pace with an early start and was never really challenged, stopping the clock in 21:45.1, good enough for ninth overall in the SuperTour.  Northern Michigan went second and third respectively with George Cartwright in 21:55.9 and Erik Soederman in 22:00.3, 15th and 18th overall in the SuperTour.

The big disappointment was the inability of Saints star sophomore Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS) to start due to feeling under the weather.  The men stepped up to fill in with Scott Johanik (Washburn, Wis./Washburn HS ) finishing 10th in the CCSA in 22:50.3, and John Wessling (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove HS) in 12th with a time of 23:14.1 to round out team scoring.  The Saints finished a sound six points up on perennial rivals, Michigan Tech, to take third in the team scores, 58 to 52.  Northern Michigan narrowly defeated Alaska Fairbanks for the win, 73 to 72.

"We have never quite done this well as an entire team at Wirth ever," said Saints head coach Chad Salmela, alluding to the strong women's team performance earlier in the day.  "To come here without arguably your tied-for-strongest skier, and put up a performance like that as a team, shows me just how far we've come as a program." 

Wirth has not been kind to the Saints in the past with some of there most discouraging days as a program at the venue.  "We always seem to have bright spots at this venue, but in general, it's historically been the venue that just feels wrong to me because I always seem to leave here feeling a tad dejected as a coach--like we left something on the table.  It's really feeling good to turn that around, and that has a lot to do with how the whole team skied.   I don't think I've ever felt this good about a competition day at Wirth since we started coming here, and that's saying a lot without Paul even on the start today.  I don't think it's a secret he would have helped the team a lot, but it shows the kind of character we have in how the guys stepped it up."

The Saints wrap up competition at Wirth Park, Sunday, with a 20km mass start classic.

CCSA NCAA Qualifier
Men's 10km Freestyle,
Wirth Park, Minneapolis

1. Tyler Kornfield   UAF   21:45.1
2. George Carwright  NMU   21:55.19
3.  Erik Soederman   NMU   22:00.3
4. Lex Treinen   UAF   22:11.6
5.  Jeremy Hecker (Andover, Minn./Andover HS (Minnesota-Twin Cities))   CSS   22:16.5
6.  Chris Bowler   CSS   22:21.1
7.  Michael Fehrenbach   UAF   22:29.2
8.  Max Olex   UAF   22:39.2
9.  Raphael Bechtiger   MTU   22:44.2
10.  Scott Johanik (Washburn, Wis./Washburn HS )   CSS   22:50.3
13.T  John Wessling (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove HS)   CSS   23:14.1
17.  Chris Parr (Eagan, Minn./Eagan HS)   CSS   23:24.0
25.  Kasey Bacso (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata HS)   CSS   23:58.3
27.  Nick Power (Duluth, Minn./Marshall School)   CSS   24:10.6
28.  Jake Morgan (Bozeman, Mont./Bozeman HS)   CSS   24:22.0
29.  Calvin Mehrhof (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids HS )   CSS   24:22.2
31.  Kelin Dunfee (St. Paul, Minn./St. Paul Central HS)   CSS  24:23.4
33.  Jake Richards (Callaway, Minn./Detroit Lakes HS )   CSS   24:28.8
37.  Matt Lee (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji HS )   CSS   24:53.3
49.  Mike Widmer (Bend, Ore./Summit HS (Central Oregon Community College))  CSS    25:44.3
54.  Ryan Wright (Wyoming, Minn./Forest Lake HS)   CSS   26:09.0
59.  Kyle Hellman (Andover, Minn./Andover HS )   CSS  26:33.3
74.  Mike Johnson (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS )   CSS   33:07.8