Complete Results

HOUGHTON, Mich. (csssaints.com) – St. Scholastica's Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS) led the field by four seconds at two kilometers into Saturday's 15 kilometer freestyle race, but three Northern Michigan skiers, and one NMU red-shirt skier, flipped the game on Schommer's early attack to take the top four spots at the Michigan Tech Christmas Classic. 

2012 NCAA Champion Erik Soderman (who is red-shirting the 2014 season), turned the 12-second 2km deficit he had to Schommer into a 17 second win over 2013 All American, Kyle Bratrud, who won the college race.  Soderman posted a time of 41:21, while Bratrud posted 41:38.  NMU scored perfectly with George Cartwright in second (third overall) with 41:59, while Fredrik Schwencke took third (fourth overall) in 42:36. Schommer fought to hang on to fourth (fifth overall) after his quick start, finishing in 42:54.

Scott Johanik (Washburn, Wis./Washburn HS ) finished ninth (11th overall) in a time of 45:20, while freshman Reitler Hodgert (Bend, Ore./Summit HS ) rounded out the scoring for the Saints in a time of 45:40, placing 13th (15th overall).

The Saints took third behind Northern Michigan who recorded 42 points and Michigan Tech with 30 points, with the Saints scoring 27.

"Early season racing is always a crap shoot and I think I'd be lying if our team feels great about the results," said Saints head coach Chad Salmela.  "I feel like everyone skied hard, we have good fitness and we are where we need to be to have a good season, but we simply were not prepared to give our conference's best team a run for their money today, and Tech skied better.  That's clear.  But we aren't any different today as a team than we are at this time every year.  We need to stay focused and we need the upcoming races."

The Saints get another race Sunday with at 10km classic to close out the Christmas Classic.