Posted: Apr 14, 2021

Nordic skiing announces team award recipients

HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech Nordic ski team recently handed out its team awards at its annual skimeister and team banquet held at Mont Ripley outside on the snow and under amazing spring blue skies. Reid Goble, Henriette Semb, and Anabel Needham were named the Most Outstanding Skiers.

Reid Goble was named the men's Most Outstanding Skier for the second year in a row. He was an All-CCSA First Team member, All-Region a skier, and had his best NCAA Championship of his career with a pair of 22nd place finishes while leading the Huskies to an Elite 8 finish at the NCAA Championship. Goble had a pair of CCSA podium finishes and skied at NCAAs for the third time in his career.

Henriette Semb and Anabel Needham shared the women's Most Outstanding Skier award. Semb had the top finish for the Huskies at the NCAA Championship with a 13th place showing in the skate. She won the skate at the Gitchi Gami Games along with another podium finish and four top-fives in CCSA races. Semb was named All-CCSA First Team and was fourth in the NCAA Central Regional rankings.

Needham was the classic champion in the CCSA and NCAA Central Region. She was All-CCSA First Team and ranked second in the NCAA Central Regional rankings. She was an NCAA qualifier with a top 20 in the classic. Needham had a podium finish in every CCSA classic race and three top-five finishes in skate races, placing in the top 10 in each race. She was also named the Most Improved Skier after she climbed from 12th in the NCAA Central Region Rankings in 2020 to second in 2021.

Patrick Acton was named the men's Most Improved Skier as he led the Huskies during the championship portion of the season. He was an All-CCSA Second Team and all-region with a second-place finish in the 20K skate. In his third appearance at the NCAA Championships, Acton scored with a 23rd place result in the classic.

Mary Lyon received the Scholastic Achievement Award. She had a 4.0 grade-point average in the fall and is majoring in exercise science with a minor in public health.

Cedric Keller was the men's recipient of the Scholastic Achievement Award. He holds a 4.0 GPA and is double majoring in marketing and management information systems. Keller is participating in Enterprise. He scored for the Huskies three times in both skate and classic and had an all-region finish in the classic. Keller was in the top 15 in all the classic races and had a pair of top 10s in the skate. He improved from 23rd in 2020 to 14th in 2021 in the NCAA Central Region rankings.

Student Managers Brad Baas and Hunter Dercks shared the Harold Meese Sportsmanship Award. The duo helped with travel and race support, waxing skis late into the night, giving spot-on race splits coaching on course, and testing skis. They helped with fall training with video analysis, practice logistics, and coaching student-athletes through technique.

Tech has 10 graduating seniors from the program, which is the first class that has been with Tom and Kristen Monahan Smith through their coaching tenure at Tech. The class is Josh Albrecht, Patrick Acton, Brad Baas, Tres Green, Reid Goble, Mitch DeLong, Hunter Dercks, Aleksi Leino, Somer Schrock, and Aiden Truettner.

"We have truly grown together throughout all of our tenures as Nordic Huskies, and we couldn't have asked for a more amazing group of men through these past four years," Tom Monahan Smith said. "We're proud to see what opportunities Michigan Tech has created for them. It'll be exciting to see what they now plan to tackle in this next chapter in their lives. It's a team of graduates taking so many exciting yet different pathways in this next chapter, yet I know they will always remain loyal Nordic Huskies not just to our program but as comrades through the rest of their lives."

Michigan Tech Nordic Season Highlights

18 USCSCA All-Academic Honorees
Men finish in Elite 8 Nordic Team at NCAA Championships
Women finish 9th with all underclasswomen
First time in program history full team 6 student-athletes scored at NCAA Skiing Championships
Anabel Needham - CCSA & NCAA Regional Champion
12 All-NCAA Central Region Individual honors
Three named All-CCSA First Team (Reid Goble, Anabel Needham, Henriette Semb)
Four named All-CCSA Second (Patrick Acton, Aleksi Leino, Olivia Laven, Oda Hovland)
Women's Team Champions - CCSA Gitchi Gami Games

Coach Comments

The year posed challenges and was a season unlike any we could have even imagined. What we are most proud of through this season was this team's ability to:

Live in the present moment for that is all we could focus on – Not two weeks down the road, not the Championship event, but the next step in front of us and what we could truly do to give and be our best every day.

Face unforeseen challenges – The most valuable lesson in sport teaches us to embrace and even relish challenges. This is what brings true personal growth not just competitive success in results. Many of the challenges we faced this year were ones we could not predict, yet this taught us the true importance and value of being able to adapt and persevere. Being able to adapt and persevere allows you to overcome any challenge.

Be a Championship Team – Three S's, this year's social environment and ski team were the same as your team was to a great extent the only people you were able to have in-person relationships with. We're proud of how we supported each other not just as teammates this year, but as roommates and true friends that allowed us to get through this season with everyone healthy and competing. The support this team gave to each other in every capacity of their lives this year was what truly allowed us to be a Championship Team this season.