HOUGHTON, Mich. (csssaints.com) -- Like Chris Parr on the men's side, it's been a long time since Kelsey Dickinson (Winthrop, Wash./Liberty Bell HS) dawned the Saints uniform; two years time, to be exact.  Dickinson qualified for the U.S. Biathlon Junior World Championship Team in 2013-14 and then raced for the U.S. in IBU Cups in 2014-15.  All that international racing experience delivered Dickinson to a new realization of competitive skiing, and she put that experience to use Sunday to lead the Saints in the Women's 10km Classic at the U.S. National Championships in Houghton. Dickinson started late in the field being seeded poorly with no recent points rankings in cross country skiing, but let her fitness do the talking, stopping the clock in 32:44.6, good for 40^th overall and eighth in the CCSA.

Caitlin Patterson of Craftsbury (VT) Green Team matched her brother's performance earlier in the day to take the U.S. title in 28:58.4. Patterson's Green Team teammate, Kaitlynn Miller, took second in 29:34.4, while Alaska Pacific University's (not NCAA) Chelsea Holmes took third in 30:01.0.

Northern Michigan's Vivian Hett won the CCSA race-within-a-race, taking 13^th overall in 31:14.4.  Teammate Sophie Schimpl took second and 19^th overall in 31:51.6, while Alaska's Nichole Bathe broke up the Wildcat dominance in third and 31^st overall in 32:21.0.

For the Saints, Allison Ternes (Vadnais Heights, Minn./White Bear Lake HS) sprouted some form coming off a late fall broken thumb, to claim 15^th and 69^th overall in 33:56.3, while Ellie Evans (New Hope, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) rounded out the scoring for the Saints in 23^rd and 103^rd overall, in 35:29.1. The Saints finished fourth as a team behind Northern Michigan, Alaska, and Michigan Tech.

"Kelsey has really upped her level these past two years with great increases in training load," said Saints head coach Chad Salmela, about Dickinson. "The changes she's made to training are bearing fruit, but I think she gets concerned when everything isn't always rosy day to day.  She had some early season struggles with the feeling in her legs and got concerned, but we made good adjustments and today went really well.  I think it's still going to go better yet too, so the result today is encouraging."

Salmela was also relieved at the performance of Ternes.  "Allison had a rough fall, breaking her thumb.  It's easy to get out of good, effective training mode without even realizing it when that happens.  Her first couple races were pretty rough, but she just needed a good bit of training to get back to a higher level, and today was a step in that direction for her."

The Saints take the field again Monday with a 1.5km Freestyle sprint at the U.S. Nationals.  It is not a college race, but counts in the U.S. Nationals College Cup standings.