Nordic Skiing Returns to Action at GANC CCSA Invite
HOUGHTON, Mich. – After a two week hiatus, the Michigan Tech Nordic Ski team returns for the second half of the season, competing at the GANC CCSA Invite in Duluth, Minnesota, on Saturday & Sunday (Feb. 4-5).
The Huskies will compete in the 5k/10k freestyle interval start, with the women competing first at 8 a.m. before the men take to the course at 9 a.m.
On Sunday, the Black & Gold will switch gears for the interval start 20km classic with the men starting first at 8 a.m. followed by the women at 10 a.m.
SuperiorTiming will be the official timer of the event, with results available here.
"We've had two really nice weeks off," head coach Tom Monahan Smith said. "Especially coming right from U.S. Nationals into Seeley Hills CCSA SuperTour weekend, so it's been great to have a weekend to recover and another great week of training to prepare us for the second half of this season and I feel like we're only going to be stronger in the second half of the season."
Last Time Out
It's been a few weeks since the Huskies competed as a team, dating back to the weekend of Jan. 14-15 at the Seeley Hills SuperTour/CCSA Invite in Cable, Wisconsin, where the Black & Gold placed second behind College of St. Scholastica.
The event was highlighted by Skylar Patten's performance in the 32km classic mass start, where he placed third in the collegiate field.
Four additional Huskies placed within the top-15 in the college race in Colin Freed (fifth-place), Tryg Solberg (sixth-place), Henry Snider (10th-place) and Parker Courte-Rathwell (14th-place).
In the women's 32km classic mass start, Olivia Laven was the first finisher for Tech placing sixth collegiately and 12th overall.
Sunday's class sprint showed seven out of ten Huskies making it to the top-30 heats, highlighted by Félix Cottet-Puinel time of 3:14.79 leading the way.
In the women's classic sprint, Marie Sølverud Wangen paced the Huskies with a runner-up finish collegiately, good for 11th-place overall.
Huskies Competing Internationally
While the majority of the Nordic Huskies were recovering from the final push of the first half of the season, there were a few student-athletes that competed internationally during that time.
Senior Adam Witkowski competed in the FISU World University Games in Lake Placid, New York, the home of the 2023 NCAA Skiing Championships the second week of March, before traveling overseas to compete in the FIS World Cup in Livigno, Italy.
A recap of the FIS World Cup can be found here.
Also competing in the FISU World University Games was Houghton native Anabel Needham, who then went on to compete in the FIS U23 World Ski Championships in Whistler B.C., completing competition on Tuesday (Jan. 31).
A recap of the FIS U23 World Ski Championships can be found here.
Additionally, Henriette Semb, also competed in the FISU World University Games competing for Norway.
Meanwhile Parker Courte-Rathwell competed in the Nordiq Canada Selection Trials in Prince George, B.C., placing 11th overall and sixth among the U23 field in the 10km skate.
"It's awesome to see so many of our current and former student-athletes achieving their competitive goals and really being able to compete amongst some of the best athletes in the world," Monahan Smith added.