NMU skiers capture CCSA titles

Courtesy of NMU Athletics

MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University Nordic skiing team captured both the men’s and women’s title at the Central Collegiate Ski Association Championships at Al-Quaal Sunday.

The men completed the competition with 129 points while the women totaled 133 points over the two-day competition.

“It was a great weekend, the conditions were perfect, the trail held up really well and our team won so I couldn’t be happier,” said NMU head coach Sten Fjeldheim. “I love having our home meet, it is an honor for us to put it on. The trail here is really awesome, I mean we have a world class trail here.”

Senior Rosie Frankowski and sophomore Mary Kate Cirelli finished in first and second place respectively in the women’s 15K freestyle race. Frankowski finished with a time of 36:15.1 and Cirelli clocked a time of 36:17.1. Sophomore Hannah Boyer finished fifth overall with a time of 36:53.3 followed by freshman Kristen Bourne in 11th (37:38.6), freshman Sophie Schimpl in 18th (38:41.3) and junior Felicia Gesior in 20th (39:06.8).

In the men’s competiton, NMU finished in second and third overall in the men’s 20K freestyle race with junior Kyle Bratrud coming in second with a time of 40:24.8, just 1.4-seconds behind Alaska’s Logan Hanneman who won the event. Freshman Fredrik Schwencke was just 0.5-seconds behind Bratrud at 40:25.3 to finish third overall.

Senior George Cartwright finished in seventh place with a time of 40:48.2 followed by sophomore Sam Elfstrom in 11th (41:46.1), freshman Krystof Kopal in 13th (42:09.0) and senior Ben Hugus in 18th (43:18.8).

Northern Michigan will travel to Houghton, Mich. for the NCAA Regionals on Feb. 15 -16.