COLERAINE, Minn. (csssaints.com) -- With the scheduled junior national qualifier early season events in Houghton cancelled, St. Scholastica skiers convened in an ad hoc friendly open meet on a two-kilometer loop at Mt. Itasca in Coleraine, Saturday.

Reitler Hodgert (Bend, Ore./Summit HS ) posted the Saints top result in 12^th overall and eighth among college skiers in a time of 24:35.0.  Adam Martin of Northern Michigan edged former teammate, Kyle Bratrud for the overall win, 22:51.5 to Bratrud's 22:55.6.  NMU's Jake Brown finished third in 23:11.0.

Ryan St. Clair (Bend, Ore./Summit HS (Walla Walla)) debuted for the Saints in 17^th overall and 11^th in the collegiate ranks in 25:08.4, while Gerrit Garberich (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd HS ) posted the 18^th best time overall and 12^th collegiately in 25:19.2.  No team scores were taken.

"It was a sound start for the team today," remarked Saints head coach Chad Salmela.  "A late finals schedule and challenging skiing conditions the past two weeks has really challenged us with what we could do, and what we actually did particularly this last week.  I've felt we are bit disjointed right now on sound preparation to compete this weekend so I was prepared for anything results wise.  We had some really good performances by a few skiers, some so-so ones, and some flat ones.  It will be good to get out of finals week and really have the athletes focus again on sound preparation and really good training for the coming season.  I was mostly pleasantly surprised, but we need some refocus for sure now that we have some snow to ski on and finals are finishing up."

The Saints compete again Sunday at Mt. Itasca with a 10km classic event.