Huskies Finish 2nd at NCAA Central Region Skiing Championships, Send Full Teams to NCAA Championships
Posted: Feb 23, 2020

Huskies Finish 2nd at NCAA Central Region Skiing Championships, Send Full Teams to NCAA Championships

ISHPEMING, Mich. – Sarah Goble earned a pair of third-place finishes as the Michigan Tech Nordic Ski team finished second at the 2020 NCAA Central Region Ski Championships from the Al Quaal Ski Area in Ishpeming, Michigan on February 22-23. With their strong performances, Michigan Tech will send their full men's and women's teams to compete at the 2020 NCAA Skiing National Championships in Bozeman, Montana.

The Huskies finished the two-day event with 349 total points, 180 points from the women's team and 169 points from the men. Northern Michigan would score a combined 424 points to win the overall team title, followed by Michigan Tech in second, College of St. Scholastica in third (288 pts.), Wisconsin-Green Bay in fourth (212 pts.), and St. Cloud State in fifth (57 pts.).

In addition, Michigan Tech will send two full teams to Montana for the NCAA Skiing National Championships. Sarah Goble, Amanda Kautzer, and Oda Hovland will ski for the Huskies in the women's races, while Reid Goble, Patrick Acton and Aleksi Leino will represent MTU in the men's races. In addition, Henriette Semb and Mitch DeLong will make the trip as race alternates. The Nordic Ski portions of the competition will be held on March 12 with the 5K/10K skate, and on March 14 with the 15K/20K classic races.

A senior from Harbor Springs, Michigan, Sarah Goble finished third in the 5K freestyle on Saturday and third in the 15K classic on Sunday. In the freestyle race, Goble skied across the finish line in a time of 13:48.7, just .2 seconds behind Northern Michigan's Molly Miller for second and 3.3 seconds off NMU's Malin Boerjesjoe for the race title. In the 15K classic on Sunday, Goble placed third with a time of 56:00.1, 2.1 seconds behind Nadine Matter of Northern Michigan.

Reid Goble also earned a spot on the podium for the Huskies with a third-place finish on Saturday in the men's 10K freestyle. Goble took third in the freestyle by completing the course in a time of 24:38.9, and he scored a fourth-place finish in the 20K classic on Sunday with a time of 59:00.7.

"It wasn't quite the weekend we were hoping for as a team, in terms of the results at the top-end of the standings with the podium finishes that we knew we'd have to have for both men's and women's competitions to get that team title," said head coach Tom Smith. "We're still proud of our student-athletes for the second-place team finish and for achieving those All-Region honors."

The Michigan Tech women's team also scored points from numerous top 10 finishes as Amanda Kautzer, Oda Hovland, Anabel Needham, and Henriette Semb all finished in the top 10 of the freestyle race, while Semb, Hovland, Kautzer, and Emma Albrecht represented the Huskies in the top 10 of the classic race. In the freestyle, Kautzer placed fifth in a time of 14:12.9, Hovland took eighth in a time of 14:21.1, Needham finished ninth in a time of 14:29.8, and Semb clocked in at 14:39.4 to finish 10th. In the classic, Semb took sixth with a time of 57:16.1, Hovland crossed the finish line in 57:19.4 to finish seventh, Kautzer took ninth with a time of 58:13.3, and Albrecht completed the 15K course in a time of 59:16.4 to place 10th.

On the men's side, Patrick Acton, Aleksi Leino, Mark Ousdigian, and Mitch DeLong finished in the top 10 of the freestyle, while representing Michigan Tech in the top 10 of the classic alongside Reid Goble was Acton, Leino, and DeLong. In the freestyle, Acton finished sixth in a time of 25:03.9, Leino finished seventh in a time of 25:25.1, Ousdigian placed ninth in a time of 25:54.7, and DeLong took 10th with a time of 26:12.5. In the classic, Acton finished sixth in a time of 59:19.2, Leino crossed the line at 59:19.3 to take seventh, and DeLong completed the 20K course in a time of 59:27.0 to finish eighth.

All skiers who finished inside the top 10 earned All-Region honors, giving Tech 10 combined All-Region honorees from Saturday's race and nine All-Region finishers in Sunday's race.