Complete Results
BIWABIK, Minn. (csssaints.com) -- The St. Scholastica women's ski team charted new territory in their Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) regional opener in Minneapolis last week and picked right up where they left off at Giants Ridge Saturday, finishing second to the Northern Michigan Wildcats in the Saints' home meet.
Sharmila Ahmed (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS) not only posted by far her best classic result as a collegiate skier, but set a new high mark of second place overall to lead a strong Saints team effort.
In the short 5km distance, Ahmed went out in control and at the halfway mark was in a deadlock with two other Northern Michigan skiers at the front of the field, but eventually with all three trailing NMU's Hannah Boyer by two seconds after the entire field was through that point. With half the race to go, it was anyone's race.
Upon hearing the news, Ahmed picked up the pace and began distancing herself from everyone but Boyer. By the finish, Ahmed crossed the line 22.4 seconds in the lead over Northern Michigan's Jordyn Ross, and another six-tenths of a second ahead of Ross's teammate Mary Kate Cirelli. With Ahmed's first CCSA win in the balance, she waited for another two minutes and 50 seconds for Boyer, who started three minutes later, dash her hopes at win, posting a time 10.6 seconds faster, with a winning time of 19:15.3 to Ahmed's 19:25.9. The performance is the best single finish by a Saints' woman and is the closest any Saint has come to winning a CCSA race with NMU present..
But Ahmed was not the only story for the Saints. While she was the only Saint to break the top 10 in the college race, senior,
Sarah Allen (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS (Northern Michigan)) posted her career second-best CCSA finish in 11th among the college skiers in a time of 20:30.5. Freshman
Kelsey Dickinson (Winthrop, Wash., Liberty Bell HS) rounded out the Saints scoring in 14th among college skiers in a time of 20:42.8.
While Alaska Fairbanks was not present, Saints head coach
Chad Salmela feels the performance was still top notch despite the Nannooks' absence.
“Sharmila had a great race today, period. The margin of victory was tight, she had a gap on third, she looked the best I've seen her all season, and I think it was a top-notch performance period,” said Salmela. “You always want everyone in the conference at the race, but UAF simply has to be in school this week. NMU brings a lot of punch and for Shar to put up that kind of race against that team is just awesome. I'm so happy for her today.”
The Saints finished second, to the Wildcats, 67 to 52, tying the best finish without a full CCSA field, though their high water team finish prior was with both Northern Michigan and Alaska Fairbanks absent. Michigan Tech finished third in with 44 points, marking the second straight race that the Saints out paced the Huskies. “This is our best female team race in history. It's sounding a little cliché after last weekend, but it's the truth. It's so fun to see the team skiing at an unprecedented level.”
The Saints have been working at both classic, and this Giants Ridge course. The team held their training camp at the venue over winter break and have been making the drive up to do hard training workouts on the difficult trails over the past two months. “We have been talking as a team about doing well here at our home meet, and we've focused on improving our classic skiing performance,” said Salmela. “I think we did both of those things in spades today.”
After finishing consistently fourth in 2012, the Saints continue to make a bid at being one of the top CCSA teams, and today's performance helps solidify that according to Salmela. “We just keep trying to do the things that will allow us to move up and be competitive with the best teams. We have been shooting for years to give the Michigan Tech women a run for their money, and it's great we are doing that, but we know that every race is tough and they will shoot to beat us every day. We just keep trying to do what we can to be competitive.”
The Saints close out their home meet Sunday with a 15km mass start freestyle event.
