Huskies Nordic Skiing Routs Competition in Sunday’s Freestyle Event
CABLE, Wis. – Michigan Tech's Tom Bye took the podium in Sunday's freestyle event at the Birkie Start CCSA series, finishing in 1st place in the men's 15K race. Five Huskies followed to finish in the freestyle's top 10 overall to wrap up the weekend's competition.
"Today was an absolutely awesome day for the team," said head coach Tom Smith. "We had our best ski results of the season so far."
In a field of 49 competitors, Tom Bye hit the line at 34:35.2 to earn 1st place overall. Gaspard Cuenot, just seconds behind, took 3rd place with a time of 34:37.3 followed by Mitch DeLong (4th, 34:43.4), Patrick Acton (5th, 34:44.4) and Reid Goble (10th, 35:15.5) all shining in the top 10.
"Our guys skied really smart and controlled the race out front pretty much the entire way," added Smith. "They set themselves up very well for an awesome finishing sprint that was very exciting from a spectator's standpoint. Tom Bye took the win today for us and overall at the competition."
Tech's Daniel Wood earned 12th place with a time of 36:25.3. Olav Vestol, clocked in at 36:34.5 in 13th place. Other competitors representing the Huskies were Brad Baas (21st, 37:48.0), Aiden Truettner (22nd, 37:48.4), David Jaszczak (23rd, 37:52.8), Somer Schrock (27th, 38:50.5) and Eric Houck (29th, 39:43.3).
The Black and Gold had four Huskies compete in the U20/U18 10K; Josh Albrecht (8th, 24:16.7), Tres Green (18th, 25:01.7), Gabriel Pfeiffer (34th, 25:50.5) and Hunter Dercks (68th, 28:05.9).
Sarah Goble took 5th place in the women's 10K overall and earned 4th in the college division. Goble clocked in at a time of 26:20.1. Amanda Kautzer filed into the top 20 with a 14th place overall finish. Kautzer hit the line at 27:40.0. Erin Lipp finished in 37th place at a time of 29:29.7.
"We had incredible team results and a really great bounce back for the team today especially after the difficult classic race yesterday," said Smith. "It was a very honorable day for the team today."
MTU will compete again next Saturday and Sunday when they compete in the Minnesota-Duluth CCSA race. Classic races will be held on Saturday (Jan. 27) with freestyle events to follow on Sunday (Jan. 28).