Nordic Ski Teams Shine at Salomon Cup - Duluth
DULUTH, Minn. – Michigan Tech's season opener was started off by earning the combined team CCSA win, being highlighted by top performances in the classic interval start 7.5k while five Huskies qualifying for the freestyle sprint final at the Salomon CXC Cup - Duluth over the weekend.
In total, the Huskies accrued three victories, with the winners of both the men's and women's classic interval start, along with the winner of the women's freestyle sprint.
Anabel Needham won the women's freestyle sprint, clocking in at 3:22.47, over three seconds before the second-place finisher. Henriette Semb was outside of top-three with her fourth-place finish of 3:26.86.
The Huskies also had five qualifiers for the semi finals, with Olivia Laven, Marie Sølverud Wangen and Cat Stow joining the aforementioned Needham and Semb.
"On the women's side we had really strong performances on both days," Monahan Smith said. "We had all seven of our women in the heats yesterday which was a really, really awesome team win in and of itself and then obviously having a couple of gals in the final was awesome."
The men's freestyle sprint showcased three of the top six finishers being from Tech. Adam Witkowski earned a bronze finish for his performance, with Félix Cottet-Puinel and freshman Wes Campbell placing fourth and fifth, respectively.
In the classic interval start on Sunday, Henriette Semb was victorious after she held onto the first position after the first lap to open her season with a win, clocking in at 20:46.7.
Houghton native Anabel Needham (20:58.5) was close behind, taking third in the race.
Olivia Laven (21:16.7) and Sølverud Wangen (21:33.1) placed fifth and seventh, respectively.
"Today in the classic interval start race we had probably our best performance as a men's team in our tenure year coaching with the program," Monahan Smith said.
"It was hard classic skiing and we're really proud of the crew for being able to pull it together especially since this was the first time we've been able to be in classic tracks this season."
Skylar Patten led from the start in the men's classic interval start, going through the first lap in 5:32.7, almost four seconds faster than the chase pack. The Park City, Utah, native finished 23 seconds ahead of teammate Campbell who earned the runner-up finish in 17:38.5.
The Huskies earned four more spots within the top-ten, with Colin Freed and Adam Witkowski going fourth and fifth. Tryg Solberg and Yanik Pauchard rounded out the Black & Gold with eighth and ninth-place finishes.
"It was a really fun weekend as a team too, everybody was incredibly supportive of each other just to be out there cheering each other on it's a special part of our sport and what we always love about the race season so we kind of started off in a more positive note and gets us even more fired up for the rest of the race." Monahan Smith added.
The Huskies return to action by hosting the Pret-Nationals CCSA Invite/CXC Cup at the Tech Trails on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 17-18.