RESULTSDULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) - After a tour de force that put two St. Scholastica women's teams on the podium in the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) conference championship in the relay, the Saints men followed suit with CSS 1's
Reitler Hodgert (Bend, Ore./Summit HS ),
Paul Schommer (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly HS), and
Joe Dubay (Coon Rapids, Minn./Andover HS) winning in at time of 1:05:13.0, while CSS 2's
Jake Richards (Callaway, Minn./Detroit Lakes HS ),
Nick Power (Duluth, Minn./Marshall School), and
Calvin Mehrhof (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids HS ), crossed the line third in 1:06:19.4.
A similar race transpired between CSS 1 and Michigan Tech 1, as in the women. Tech's Kyle Hanson skied a brilliant first leg leaving Hodgert and Richards chasing and unable to match pace. At the first exchange, Hanson handed off 15 seconds up on the CSS teams. Then both
Paul Schommer (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly HS) and
Nick Power (Duluth, Minn./Marshall School) worked over the Huskies second leg, Sam Holmes.
Schommer knew that CSS needed a big cushion on Tech's final leg, Norwegian exchange student, Haakon Hjelstuen, who had recently won the latest CCSA 10km freestyle race, and has closing speed that put him third in the U.S. Nationals freestyle sprint in early January.
"Paul is a great, great skier," said Saints head coach
Chad Salmela, "but the guys saw me putting Paul last against Haakon, and they actually told me they knew Paul could ski with him if they were knotted together, but they all agreed Paul couldn't outsprint Haakon if it came down to that. They asked for an order change and I gave it to them."
CSS 1 felt Schommer could give time to Dubay, and the team could assess the situation in the final loop, with Dubay notorious for tactical savvy. "I liked their thinking," said Salmela, but in the end, Schommer so handily took over the second leg, that the outcome never came into question after that. Schommer posted the fastest time of the day by 22.3 seconds and handed Dubay a lead over MTU 1 of a minute and 47 seconds. In fact, CSS 2 was the nearest pursuer at a minute and twenty seconds back.
Hjelstuen got the Huskies back to second in the end, crossing the line in 55.5 seconds in arrears.
CSS 2 will be recognized for their third place finish, but not receive points toward the championship nor championship medals. Salmela was a little surprised at their success today. "I have to say, I was gearing up for a nervous day against Tech. We have a good rivalry, and I thought it was going to be tough for us, so to go 1 and 3 in both relays is just awesome. We have our work cut out for us in the sprint though. They have a zippy team in that discipline, so we'll take today and realize we have a lot to do
tomorrow against them."
The relay is the first of four scoring events for the 2015 CCSA Championship team score, and the Saints gain a big advantage with a 69-point day over Tech's 60. Add to it that neither Northern Michigan nor Alaska sent teams to contend for points this weekend, and the Saints sit in very good position for the championship, one-quarter of the way into it.
The CCSA Championship Individual Sprint takes place
Sunday at Spirit Mountain, with the conference championships concluding at Wirth Park with two distance races, Friday, February 13 and Saturday February 14.
