Men's Freestyle Results
Team Scores

COLERAINE, Minn. (csssaints.com) -- As the fourth and final day of competition for the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) Championship began, the Saints held a 22-point advantage over Michigan Tech and a 24-point advantage over Alaska Fairbanks.  While the deficit was nearly mathematically insurmountable, a day of dramatic head-to-head ski racing saw Alaska make up nearly half of the gap with a stellar performance, moving past Michigan Tech for third.  But the Saints held on to come home, one rung higher than their program-best finish of third in 2012, to claim second in the 2013 CCSA Championships.  But it was quite a story that unfolded on the way to the result.

Jeremy Hecker (Andover, Minn./Andover HS (Minnesota-Twin Cities)) and the Saints men found themselves in the middle of what can only be described as a ski racing “brawl” on the difficult 5km freestyle course of Mt. Itasca, in the men's Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) Conference Championship 20km mass start freestyle.  Brawl number one: the race for the individual win.  Brawl number two: the race for third between now-weekly-rivals, CSS and Michigan Tech.

Hecker, wearing bib 2 as the second ranked freestyle skier coming into the championships, led early, but quickly found a spot in line of seven skiers that pulled away from the field; three from Northern Michigan, three from Alaska Fairbanks, and Hecker.

The group of seven led the rest of the field by about 40 seconds through halfway, when defending NCAA freestyle champion, Erik Soederman from Northern Michigan, decided he would test the mettle of each and every skier in the lead pack.  Setting a blistering pace up the “wall,”—a nearly unskiable portion of climb at the top of a long ascent that nearly stops the best skiers in their tracks—Soederman started a blow after blow surge from the front that had him and Alaska's, Lex Treinen, trying to break the lead pack apart.  It almost worked, but by 13.5km the group the group was largely still together, albeit with Alaska's Jonas Loeffler trailing roughly twenty seconds behind, sinking and taking on water fast, and Hecker hanging on for dear life a few seconds out of fifth.  The full effect was obvious, however, as the gap on the rest of the field opened up another full minute further in the course of the third 5km lap.

By the top of the final climb at 18.5 kilometers, Northern Michigan's Soederman, Kyle Bratrud, and Lex Treinen were in control but all showed the signs of a race that simply turned into a brow-beating of each other, each with red glassy eyes and sluggish body language.  The final drag race to the line dropped Treinen and it was an all Wildcat sprint for the win between Soederman and Bratrud, with Soederman prevailing by 1.1 seconds in a winning time of 55:25.1.  Treinen came across the line another 4.3 seconds later to claim third.

Hecker spent the final five kilometers just trying to keep the leaders in sight and give himself a chance to creep up on NMU's George Cartwright to claim his seventh straight top-5 finish this season.  But Cartwright held Hecker at bay, crossing the line sixth, just 2.7 seconds off of Cartwright, and 31.8 seconds off the winner, with a time of 55:56.9.  It was Hecker's first CCSA finish out of the top 5 this season, and only third of seven out of the top two.

Meanwhile, back in the field a couple minutes back, sophomore Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS) had moved from as far back as 19th in the early running, right into the top 10, running eighth with less than 2km in the race, but had four Michigan Tech Huskies he was trying to stave off for team purposes.  With Hecker sixth and a trio of Saints, Scott Johanik (Washburn, Wis./Washburn HS ), Chris Parr (Eagan, Minn./Eagan HS), and Jake Richards (Callaway, Minn./Detroit Lakes HS ), vying for the final Saints scorer running in the late teens, Schommer's role for the team race seemed critical.  But a spill on the final downhill dashed his chances at his first top-10 of the season, finishing 11th, right behind the Huskie's top scorer, Matt Dugan, in 10th.

Down the finishing stretch, it would be Richards who would score for the Saints for the second time in his freshman season, taking 17th spot in 1:00:07.5, securing third on the day for the Saints with 56 points to Michigan Tech's 55.  Northern Michigan won with 76, with Alaska second with 70.

“That was one of the most brutal races I've seen as a college coach,” said Saints head coach Chad Salmela.  “It was compelling and exciting, but the course was so hard, and what that lead pack did to each other out there was nothing short of jaw dropping.  That was an exhausting, hard earned victory for Erik, and I think these guys are going to need a very good recovery after that race.”

As for the historic second place finish for the Conference Championship, Salmela couldn't be more pleased.  “When you look at what a Division III school like ours is up against in this conference, finishing second is a true testament to how hard these skiers work all year, day in and day out, to be competitive as ski racers.  I could not be more proud of a group of guys.  They have been so good, so focused, so professional.  To have it pay off this way is so rewarding.  It's definitely a high point as my time as a collegiate ski coach.”

The Saints wrap up the regular season with the NCAA Central Regional Championships, February 23 and 24 in Houghton, MI.