Lee Wins Title; Four Skiers All-Region

ISHPEMING, Mich. — Andrea Lee is a regional champion after winning today's women's 15-kilometer classic at the NCAA Central Region Championships hosted by Northern Michigan. For the second straight day, Tech had four athletes earn top-10 finishes to claim all-region honors.

Lee's performance defended the Huskies' title in this race from a year ago, when Ulrika Axelsson stood atop the podium. Lee made her move with three kilometers to go and skied away from the field for a winning time of 53:37.3. The second-place finisher from Alaska was 16 seconds back. The next two Tech finishers were Sonja Hedblom (15th) and Carolyn Lucca (17th) with times of 56:57 and 57:43, respectively.

Three Tech men had top-10 performances led by Gaspard Cuenot, who took the last spot on the podium in third. He clocked in a 1:01:06—less than five seconds behind the winner. Kyle Hanson and Didrik Fjeld Elset were ninth and 10th in the field with times of 1:01:50 and 1:02:02. 

Both teams took third on the day, and both were a combined third on the weekend. The were seven women's teams and six men's teams at the event.

"Andrea really had a good race, and it was awesome for us to defend our title," said Tech coach Joe Haggenmiller. "Gaspard had a good showing and feels much better about his race today. Overall, to have four all-region athletes on back-to-back days is a great result. 

"The Ishpeming race organizing committee, with John Kangas and Jay Wilder, should be commended on their efforts to give us the best race conditions we could have hoped for with the warm weather and rain this weekend. Our wax crew again did an excellent job giving our athletes the chance to compete at a high level."

Four athletes—Cuenot, Elset, Hanson and Lee—have all put themselves in position to qualify for the NCAA National Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colo., on Mar. 9-12. The official qualifier list will be released by the NCAA on Tuesday (Feb. 23).