RESULTS

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (csssaints.com) -- St. Scholastica's Paul Schommer (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly HS) moved as high as 22nd place in the NCAA Championship 20km classic mass start before battling slick kick zones on the final lap to end up 29th in a time of 59:31.9.  

Fredrik Schwenke of Northern Michigan won a four-way sprint-to-the-finish thriller over last year's 20km champion, Mads Ek Stroem of Colorado in a time of 56:12.3, just 6-tenths ahead of Stroem. In the sprint melee, Rune Oedegaard of Colorado lost his balance and fell into New Mexico's Aku Nikander, after the Lobo did most of the heavy lifting as the pace setter, breaking apart the field and driving the pace that put the quartet in position to sprint it out for the win. Oedegaard got to his feet first to finish third with Nikander fourth.

Nearly the entire field stayed together through the first of four 5km loops. Schommer and about half of the field started to string out on the second big climb, with Schommer in traffic between 25th and 30th through the second lap. On the third lap, Schommer charged and began to move up and got as high as 22nd, before he started losing his kick wax on the final loop.

"I felt really good," said Schommer of his third loop. "I just had almost no kick the last lap. I could make it work, but I had to work so hard to make it work."

"The track was really abrasive," said Saints head coach Chad Salmela. "We knew that wax durability was going to be a factor, and Josh Tesch, the assistant and kick wax coach, had everything worked out." Salmela misunderstood which pair of skis Schommer wanted to race on, and the coaching staff prepared Schommer's warm up skis for the race.

"We figured out the mistake with 18 minutes to start, when Paul asked us for his warm up skis and pointed to the skis we prepped to race on." recounted Salmela. To put the intended pair of skis in action, the staff needed to apply two layers of glide wax, and two distinct grip waxing jobs that needed heating and cooling to be done right, and they needed to have them done in time for Schommer to try them against the already-prepared pair.

"Miraculously, we got it done," said Salmela. "Paul tried the skis against each other and the second pair were much faster. Unfortunately, the speed with which we had to apply the grip wax didn't allow it to bond to the ski like we needed it to."  The result was a pair of skis, that for 15km, allowed Schommer to ski the best classic race of his season, but eventually caused him to lose all the work he put into the third lap to take a shot at a top-20 finish. "It was kind of awesome at first, how we got him the skis that quickly and watched as he marched on the field the third lap. But then it kind of became a big bummer to realize my screw up caused Paul a lesser performance for a second straight classic race at NCAAs. It was all my fault for mixing up his skis in the first place. Paul did great, and I think would have kept moving up the field if the wax stayed on. It would have stayed on if I'd gotten the skis right to begin with."

Schommer ends his career as a Saint setting all superlatives for the program. "Paul simply changed Saints skiing," said Salmela. "He came so far so fast. It hurts to have your worst NCAA Championships as your last, but both Paul and I know why he struggled this year, and today was a great physical performance against the context of the situation. I think while the short run hurts for Paul, 2015 will end up being a pivotal year in a good way for the ski career of Paul Schommer (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly HS). We will miss him, but I sense we are going to enjoy watching what he does post college."