Complete Results

MIDWAY, Utah (csssaints.com) – Junior Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS) used all 30km to move into the top 25 overall to post St. Scholastica's best U.S. National Championship finish in program history, taking 25th overall, 13th among collegiate skiers, and second in the CCSA conference, with a time of 1:22:48.7 on Wednesday. 

Starting slowly and cautiously, Schommer trailed off the lead pack for most of the race, then passed many of the pack skiers in the final 5km when the pace quickened at the front of the field.

Vail, Colorado's, Sylan Ellefson, won the national title in 1:19:11.0. St. Olaf's Jake Brown took the entire CCSA men's field to the proverbial wood shed, finishing 11th overall and as the second collegiate skier in the field, besting Schommer for the CCSA win by a full 2:06.3 to post his first CCSA win of his collegiate ski career.  Northern Michigan's George Cartwright finished in 1:24:21.0 in 33rd overall to take the final spot on the CCSA podium.

Sophomore Joe Dubay (Coon Rapids, Minn./Andover HS) finished 51st overall and seventh in the CCSA in a time of 1:27:11.0. Senior John Wessling (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove HS) finished 65th and 12th in the CCSA to round out the scoring for the Saints.

The Saints finished second in the CCSA team score, 38 points to Alaska's 42 points. Northern Michigan finished third with 33 points, marking the first time in program history that the Saints have ever bested the Wildcats as a team.

"I'm really happy with our performance today as a team," glowed Saints head coach Chad Salmela. "This was kind of more what we are looking for from Paul, Joe had a great race really just plugging away, and John and Chris fought hard and got great experience at this long a distance."

As for the historical day in beating NMU for the first time, Salmela has a fairly sober take.

"Yes, technically we finished third in the team score and beat NMU for the fire time, but their team was extremely abbreviated for this race," said Salmela. "It's a technical first as I see it, but not very indicative of when we race with full teams. We'll take it, but I'd feel much more jubilant if everyone was racing at full team strength."

The Saints race Saturday at the Minnesota College Championships at Saint John's University.