Flanders Wins Freestyle Race; Teams Both Second

CCSA Freestyle Distance Championship Results: Women's 5K | Men's 10K

MINNEAPOLIS — Alice Flanders claimed the women's freestyle distance crown at today's CCSA Championships at Theo Wirth Park. Overall, three Michigan Tech skiers had top-10 finishes to help both the men's and women's teams to a second-place showing among eight schools in the conference.

Flanders covered the five-kilometer course in 13:53 to beat the nearest competitor by 11 seconds. Deedra Irwin, in her first race back from the World Junior Championships in Kazakhstan, took seventh in a time of 14:35. Ulrika Axelsson, who was second in yesterday's classic distance race, was 16th with a 15:06 clocking. Lisa Konig was just one second and one spot back of Axelsson.

Tom Bye, who also recently returned from Kazakhstan, skied to sixth place among collegiate racers in the men's 10K freestyle. The Tech freshman completed the course in 20:33. Thomas Kendrick and Kyle Hanson were the next two Huskies across the line in 15th and 16th just two tenths of a second apart at 21:16.

"Alice had a really solid day," said Tech coach Joe Haggenmiller. "To win by more than 10 seconds in a 5K is a great result. I also thought Deedra and Tom raced really well considering they're still acclimating after traveling back from Asia earlier this week.

"Overall, I give a lot of credit to the athletes. We delayed the starts by an hour and were barely making the legal limit for temperatures to hold the races. The athletes competed hard in the bitter cold."

St. Scholastica won both CCSA team titles. The Huskies were second. CCSA team scores were compiled from the results of last weekend's Sprint and Relay Championships in Duluth, Minn., as well as both days of racing this weekend in Minneapolis.

Michigan Tech will stay in Minneapolis to take part in freestyle sprint races tomorrow.