Men's skiers turn in four top-10 finishes, take third at CCSA Championship
February 19, 2013
Jamie Foland
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The Alaska men's skiing team completed the 2013 Central Collegiate Ski Association Championship Sunday at Mt. Itasca with four top-10 finishes in the 20-kilometer freestyle mass start as the program finished in third place overall for the championship.
“It was a better day all-round for the team,” head coach Scott Jerome said. “Yesterday we had some okay results but certainly they knew they had more to give. I was really impressed and proud of the team in the way they responded today.”
The Nanooks put up 70 points for the day, only being outdone by Northern Michigan, which tallied 76 points. Following the 'Nooks were College of St. Scholastica (56), Michigan Tech (55), Wisconsin Green Bay (41), Gustavus Adolphus (35) and St. Olaf (24).
Leading the way for Alaska was senior Lex Treinen (Anchorage, Alaska/Northern Studies), who placed third with a time of 55 minutes, 30.5 seconds. His mark was only 5.4 seconds back of the individual champion, Erik Soderman of NMU (55:25.1). Kyle Bratrud, also of Northern Michigan, was runner-up in 55:30.5.
Following Treinen was freshman Michael Fehrenbach (St. Märgen/Mechanical Engineering), who took fourth place in 55:47.0.
Sophomore Jonas Loffler (St. Märgen, Germany/Business) crossed the finish line in eighth place with a mark of 57:08.4 while rookie teammate Max Olex (Aalen, Germany/Northern Studies) was just under a minute behind him in ninth place in 58:06.2.
“Jonas had a good day today and he needed that points-wise,” Jerome said. “Michael certainly had his best skate race so far of his young collegiate career. That was really important for those two guys. Overall I'm really pleased how it went, especially today.”
Alaska's other competitor, senior Tyler Kornfield (Anchorage, Alaska/Mechanical engineering) did not finish the 20K race.
The Nanooks wrapped up the CCSA Championship with a third-place finish out of seven competing teams after compiling 242 points over the four-race event. Northern Michigan captured the individual title with 303 points, followed by College of St. Scholastica, which was runner-up with 252 points. Following Alaska in fourth was Michigan Tech with 229 points.
Alaska will now head to Houghton, Mich., where it will compete in the NCAA Central Region Championship Feb. 23 and 24.
“I think this sets us up well for next weekend,” Jerome said. “We did well, certainly will get a couple days rest and then we'll have some interval training Wednesday and cruise easy into the championship.”