Nordic Huskies Take Overall Team Title at Ariens CCSA Invite
BRILLION, Wis. – The Michigan Tech Nordic Ski teams continued to trend upwards with its first overall CCSA team title to cap the regular season at the Ariens CCSA Invite over the weekend.
Quotable
"We are so psyched for the team to take away our first overall team title this weekend, "If there was one weekend for us to do it–this would be the weekend with Sunday's mixed gender team sprint, which was a fun format for the team to race. We came out guns blazing, which was awesome to see. Big shout outs go to Axel Aflodal, who had the fastest men's splits of the day in his leg of the relay. Marie Wangen had the fastest women's splits of the day and took second place with teammate Jasper Johnston. We had nearly the whole team double pole the race, which is challenging to do in a classic race. That decision could've been a big risk, but they competed lights out by making the decision to double pole. In Saturday's skate race, we had a podium sweep in the women's race with Anabel Synne and Olivia all making the podium. I also want to give special mention to the freshmen women with Hailee, Greta and Bridget all cracking the top-10 in the skate race, which was an outstanding day for them. On the men's side we saw two podium finishers, with Henry leading the way again in a skate race. Skylar just continues to get stronger throughout the season and it was nice to see him make the podium again. Lastly we had so many student-athletes have impactful performances for us which makes the coaching staff proud to see everyone contribute to the team win."
The women's skate race was highlighted by a podium sweep, with Anabel Needham leading the charge with a sub 20 7.5km performance, clocking a time of 19:49.5. Synne Herheim and Olivia Laven rounded out the podium, finishing second and third, respectively.
The freshmen core of Hailee Zimpel (7th place), Greta Hansen (8th place) and Bridget Burns (9th place) cracked the top-10. Cat Stow was close to a top-10 finish, with less than a second between her and the 10th place finisher.
In the men's race, Henry Snider and Skylar Patten podium for the Black & Gold, finishing in second and third-place, respectively.
Colin Freed and Tryg Solberg also had notable finishes in fifth and sixth-place, respectively.
Sunday's mixed gender relay saw Marie Sølverud Wangen and Jasper Johnston take silver with a sizable lead over the third-place team, who was over 15 seconds behind.
The next Huskies relay team was Axel Aflodal and Greta Hansen, who finished in 5th-place by less than a second. Skylar Patten and Synne Herheim took seventh-place.
Up Next
The Nordic Huskies will enjoy a weekend off before ramping up for the CCSA Conference Championships, being held in Duluth, Minnesota, on Feb. 10 & 11.
Overall team standings
Team | D1F | D1M | D2 Total
MTU | 057 | 053 | 100 | 210
NMU | 048 | 049 | 110| 207
CSS | 030 | 032 | 78 | 140
UWGB | 016 | 020 | 60 | 096