Complete Results

MINNEAPOLIS (csssaints.com) -- St. Scholastica sophomore Sharmila Ahmed (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS) continued to show strong form off of a sixth place finish in the opening Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) competition several weeks ago in Utah, finishing seventh Saturday, among the CCSA collegiate field in a time of 13:09.2 in the women's 5km freestyle event at Wirth Park.

The collegiate race held within the USSA SuperTour, was won by Alaska Faribanks' Alyson McPhetres in 12:50.8, good enough for ninth overall in the SuperTour field, won by fellow Alaskan, Rosie Brennan, from Anchorage.  Teammate Crystal Pitney, finished second in 12:56.7 (10th overall), while Northern Michigan University's Jordyn Ross (15th overall) rounded out the podium in 13:03.1.  Places four through eight were separated by a mere 2.4 seconds, with Ahmed finishing just 1.9 seconds from fourth, and 6.1 seconds from the podium and 19th in the SuperTour field.

CSS freshman Kelsey Dickinson (Winthrop, Wash., Liberty Bell HS) debuted splendidly for the Saints, posting a 12th place CCSA finish in a time of 13:25.8.  Senior Sarah Allen (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS (Northern Michigan)) posted a time of 13:59.9 for 23rd in the CCSA to round out the scoring for the Saints on a banner day.

Alaska Fairbanks ran away with the team event with 77 points to Northern Michigan's 66.  The Saints narrowly missed their first CCSA podium in program history, edged by Michigan Tech, 54 to 53.

"Not only is this the best full-team CCSA season debut our women's team has ever had, it's our best day as a program," gleamed Saints head coach Chad Salmela.  "It's a bummer not to podium as a team for the first time with just a few seconds anywhere among our top three turning the tables, but that's sport.  We just have to be thrilled we skied the way we did and nearly did something we've never done." 

Ahmed's second straight CCSA top-ten and Dickinson's impressive start as well as all skiers putting up some of their best performances in college skiing, had Salmela praising his team. 

"It's really nice to see pretty much smiling faces across the board.  We've had some weird adversity hit us--stuff you just can never really anticipate, and as a coach, not really sure how to navigate.  With this race, we proved to ourselves as a team that we can make things happen.  That's huge."

The Saints wrap up competition in Minneapolis with a 15km mass start classic race Sunday.

CCSA NCAA Qualifier
Wirth Park, Minneapolis
Women's 5km Freestyle 

1. Alyson McPhetres  UAF   12:50.8
2. Crystal Pitney   UAF   12:55.7
3. Jordyn Ross   NMU   13:03.1
4.  Rebecca Konieczny   UAF   13:13:07.3
5.  Theresia Schnurr   UAF   13:07.5
6.  Raphaela Sieber   UAF   13:07.6
7.  Sharmila Ahmed (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS)  CSS   13:09.2
8.  Marit Rjabov   UAF   13:09.7
9.  Lynn Duijndam   MTU   13:11.3
10.  Rosie Frankowski   NMU   13:16.1
12. Kelsey Dickinson (Winthrop, Wash., Liberty Bell HS)  CSS   13:13:25.8
23.  Sarah Allen (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS (Northern Michigan))   CSS   13:59.9
26.  Brooke Adams (Spooner, Wis./Spooner HS )   CSS   14:08.6
27.  Liz Peterson (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS)  CSS   14:24.5