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HOUGHTON, Mich. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica women skiers capped off their season with a stellar second place performance on the final day of the NCAA Central Regionals on Sunday. 

Sharmila Ahmed (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS) was not able to keep pace with Northern Michigan's Rosie Frankowski, but she was the one closest to doing so, finishing 38 seconds behind in a time of 33:00.9 to Frankowski's 32:22.7. In a clutch performance, Northern Michigan's Hannah Boyer finished third in 33:07.4 to take the final spot on the podium, but the performance may have more significance.

Sarah Allen (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS (Northern Michigan)) finished with All-NCAA Central Region honors for the second straight day in seventh, with a time of 33:22.3.   Allen finished fourth in Saturday's 5km classic. Brooke Adams (Spooner, Wis./Spooner HS ), in her final race as a Saint, brought home the Saints final score, to secure second on the day and second for the championship weekend, placing 14th in a time of 34:54.3.  Northern Michigan won with 65, the Saints were second with 54, and Alaska wound up third with 48 points, respectively.

The Saints had never finished better than fourth at an NCAA Central Regional Championships, jumping over Michigan Tech and Alaska for the first time at these championships to take the second rung. The Saints finish second overall for the NCAA Central Regional Championships with 109 points, behind NMU with 128 points, and ahead of Alaska with 99 points.

The NCAA Championship hunt came down to the final day, and while the points have not been calculated and finalized, Ahmed and Allen with their races Saturday, had big potential to move into the sixth and final spot. With her race today, Ahmed drops a race that was weighing her qualifying points down, as does Allen. The race for the final spot essentially boiled down to a battle between the two Saints, Michigan Tech's Deedra Irwin, and Felicia Gesior and Boyer from Northern Michigan.

This is where Boyer's performance on this day was particularly impressive.  With a reputation as a classic specialist, Boyer or Gesior needed to race well to nab the sixth spot from Michigan Tech's Irwin, who entered the weekend in the sixth and final spot. At the same time, if either of those two faltered and Allen and/or Ahmed performed well, they had a good shot of taking that final spot as well.

With Irwin way back in 15th Saturday and worse off this day in 18th, she all but conceded the final spot. Despite stellar performances by both Ahmed and Allen on the final day of competition, Boyer finishing third both days would appear to move her ahead of the two Saints for the final berth.

"I'm so happy with how our ladies skied this weekend and this entire season," said Saints head coach Chad Salmela. "We don't know the final NCAA breakdown so we can't say for sure, but our ladies gave it their all this weekend, and you can never ask for anything more than that."

Ahmed's second becomes the best ever Saints finish for a female at the NCAA Central Regional and the third podium finish for the third Saint this season.  Allen and Anita Kirvesniemi (Simpele, Finland/Joensuun Yhteiskoulun Lukio (New Mexico)) finished first and second to lead the team to victory at Mt. Itasca in January.

Nobody from the current team, but Allen leaves due to graduation, should she not move on to the NCAA Championships, making the future bright for Saints women's skiing.

"Sarah came here looking for an opportunity and she created one for herself," according to Salmela. "If you consider the year she's had, it is so rewarding to me as the coach but should be hugely rewarding to her. We will miss her next year, but I think this season will live in Sarah for the rest of her life, showing her what she can do when she puts her mind to it and believes in herself."

"If you think of where we've come as a team this year, it's just awesome," glowed Salmela.  "We had multiple podiums, multiple team podiums, and a diverse group contributing to the scoring.  It's just a really special year.  It was the breakout year of Saints women's skiing."

NCAA Championship qualifiers will be announced on Tuesday, February 25th.

Saints Combined Program Takes First Podium at NCAA Central Regionals The combined women's and men's ski program took third spot in the NCAA Central Regionals for the first time in program history. Led by the women's program finishing second in both the 5km classic and 10km freestyle mass start, and supported by the men's third place in the 10km classical and fourth place in the 15km freestyle mass start, the program finished the weekend with a 202 point total. Winners, Northern Michigan, scored 257 points to win while Alaska scored 220 to take second.  The Saints edged Michigan Tech 28 points to take their first combined program trophy. The Saints also posted 8 All-Region performances on the weekend, by far the most in program history.  All-Region performances were turned in by Sharmila Ahmed (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS):  2nd, 10km freestyle Sarah Allen (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS (Northern Michigan)): 4th 5km classic; 7th 10km freestyle Anita Kirvesniemi (Simpele, Finland/Joensuun Yhteiskoulun Lukio (New Mexico)):  6th, 5km classic Chris Parr:  10th, 10km classic Paul Schommer: 8th, 10km classic; 3rd, 15km freestyle John Wessling: 9th, 10km classic