RESULTS

DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) - The St. Scholastica women proved they liked being home in Duluth for the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) Relay and Sprint Championships as they soundly won both days of competition, finishing the weekend with at 2, 3, 4 finish to win by seven points over the Michigan Tech Huskies. St. Olaf finished third as a team on the day.

Sharmila Ahmed (Burnsville, Minn./Burnsville HS) narrowly edged teammate, Anita Kirvesniemi (Simpele, Finland/Joensuun Yhteiskoulun Lukio (New Mexico)) in the qualifier, posting a time of 3:31.0 to Kirvesniemi's 3:31.4. The Saints put all seven skiers on the start in the top 16 in qualifying, so all Saints were in the semifinal heats. 

The Saints appeared to be ready to pack the 6-skier A final. With Ahmed second in her semi and Ellie Evans (New Hope, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) winning hers, Kirvesniemi and Liz Peterson (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) were first and second in a hard fought third and final semi, but as Peterson turned to look behind her to see if she could let up the effort of holding off Gustavus' Marit Sonnesyn, she lost her balance and fell just 10 meters short of the finish. She got up in time to finish fifth in the heat, but that was too little to advance at all and kept her from a guaranteed top-6.

Still, the Saints were well represented in the A final with three skiers, guaranteeing a team win as the only school with all their scorers in the A final. Kirvesniemi took early control, but aggressive skiing by Tech's Axelsson started to blow the race open on the final climb to the finish. As Kirvesniemi faded, Ahmed and Evans surged almost simultaneously in an effort to challenge Axelsson for the victory. Evans then tired and Ahmed pulled even on the arching turn to the finish line.  Ahmed appeared to have nearly enough to get by Axelsson on the outside with 20 meters to the finish, but Axelsson gutted it out for the win by just a few inches. 

"It was everything an A final should be" grinned Saints head coach Chad Salmela. "The course is such that you really want the best line on the final turn even if perhaps you're dying, because it's a long way around the outside to take the win. Ulrika made the right decision at the right time, but Sharmila almost still had enough to go around. It was really a great way to end the weekend."

As to his women's team's performance this weekend, Salmela was concise. "What more could a coach really ask for?"  The women took 69 points in the relay win and 67 in the sprint win for the first two of four CCSA events. "That's a lot of points!" said Salmela. With the championships half done and powerhouse teams Northern Michigan and Alaska opting out of the sprint and relay events, Salmela likes where the team stands in the conference championship hunt. "We'll take it.  That simple. One more big weekend for the conference. One more big weekend for the regional, and we're firing on all cylinders. We just have to keep rolling; nothing special."

The Saints lead the Huskies by 16 points going into the CCSA Distance Championships on Friday and Saturday, which will be a 20km classic mass start and 10km freestyle, held at Wirth Park in Minneapolis.