MINNEAPOLIS (csssaints.com) - The Butch Reimer Cup will make its way to the St. Scholastica trophy case for 2015, as the Saints women won the CCSA Conference Championship title for the first time in program history, finishing second to Northern Michigan on the final of four days of Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) conference championship competition in the women's 5km freestyle, 60 to 55 points respectively with the Saints edging Michigan Tech by a single point. 

Sharmila Ahmed (Burnsville, Minn./Burnsville HS) led the Saints, reaching the podium with the third fastest time of the day in 14:20.4. Anita Kirvesniemi (Simpele, Finland/Joensuun Yhteiskoulun Lukio (New Mexico)) delivered arguably her best freestyle distance performance to date with a sixth place finish in 14:33.3, while Allison Ternes (Vadnais Heights, Minn./White Bear Lake HS) continued a surge in the results with 11^th and a time of 14:53.6.

Alice Flanders of Michigan Tech tried to fire up the Huskies with a win individually, outclassing the field by 11.1 seconds in a time of 13:53.2, to Northern Michigan's Jordyn Ross, who clocked 14:04.3 to claim second.

The CCSA team title for 2015 was contested over four competitions and two weekends, with a relay and individual sprint held in Duluth, and two distance events at Wirth Park. The Saints won both the relay and the sprint and finished second in both distance events to win soundly over Michigan Tech, 241 points to 220 points respectively. The Saints improve from finishing second in 2014 with only a two-day, all-distance championship.   

"This is just a huge achievement for our program," said Saints head coach Chad Salmela. "We had a spectacular day again as a team." Salmela was concerned about Tech's increased strength with the return of Deedra Irwin to the line up. Irwin is fresh off a trip to the Under-23 World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan as a representative of Team USA. "I didn't know if we'd hold our own today with them at full power, but our ladies stepped up big. To finish the championship by edging Tech by a point was kind of an icing on the cake…a sign that we earned this title."

With only one more weekend of NCAA qualifying action, the weekend went a long way as well to securing NCAA Championship berths for the Saints. Kirvesniemi was still in need of a strong freestyle race, and Ahmed could use anything that put her near the top of the results. "This weekend makes the NCAA Regional way less stressful for both skiers because of what they tallied this weekend. That's pretty nice."

The Saints have a week off of preparation for the NCAA Central Regional hosted by Northern Michigan in Ishpeming, Mich., February 28-March 1. The NCAA Skiing Championship qualifiers will be announced March 2.