Huskies Nordic skiers announce 2020-21 schedule

HOUGHTON, Mich.(WBUP) – The Michigan Tech Nordic ski team will participate in eight weekends of competition during the 2020-21 season. The Huskies will host two full weekends on January 2-3 with the MTU Holiday Championships – Super CXC Cup and the NCAA Central Regional Championships on February 27-28. Tech and Northern Michigan will split the UP Opener on December 12-13 with the Huskies hosting Sunday’s races.

“This has been the most consistent fall training we have ever had as a team,” Head coach Tom Monahan Smith said. “Every team member has done their part to stay healthy, and we have kept our focus on what we’ve been able to control with high-quality training and just getting a little better every day.

“We will be ready for any and every competition we get this season. No matter what the competition season brings, the Huskies will keep training hard to become better skiers, maintain excellence in the classroom and continue to define the spirit of Sisu through these challenging times.”

Preseason Races

UP Opener
We will open our 2020-21 competition season with a home-and-away competition weekend at NMU and MTU. It will be an exciting change to our traditional race weekends in that we will compete at Al Quaal (NMU’s home venue on Saturday), and at the Tech Trails on Sunday.

MTU Holiday Championships
This regional event will count as a discretionary selection opportunity for all US Ski Team international race events including World Junior Championship and U23 World Championship team selection, and we will have Nordic Huskies competing and vying for these discretionary selections. This will also be a showcase event for Michigan Tech as it will bring in the best regional athletes of all ages, and feature our annual alumni weekend!

CCSA NCAA qualifying series

The Central Collegiate Ski Association plans to have a full NCAA Championship qualifying race season, with the ability to adapt our competition season if needed. We will have 5 NCAA Championship qualification weekends beginning with the January 16-17th Gitchi Gami Games in Cable, Wisconsin, and concluding the regular season with the CCSA Championships in Duluth, Minnesota. Michigan Tech will host the 2021 NCAA Central Regional Championships at the Tech Trails as our penultimate event leading up to the NCAA Championships. Middlebury College was slated to host the 20201 NCAA Championships and they have unfortunately canceled hosting as the NESCAC conference canceled winter sports competition seasons. The NCAA is now looking to replace this Championship site with another host.

All host venues are working so hard to host races as scheduled this year with mitigation plans in place to allow us to have safe and great competition experiences and opportunities. We thank everyone who has been working diligently around the clock to provide us the privilege to represent Michigan Tech.