The Michigan Tech Nordic Ski team returned to competition this past weekend at the Ariens Nordic Invite Salomon CXC Cup in Brillion, WI, navigating a revised schedule while continuing conference and NCAA qualifying efforts.
Due to the forecasted cold temperatures, Saturday’s race was canceled, leaving the Huskies to compete in a 15-kilometer skate race on Sunday only. Despite this adjustment, the competition was still scored as a Central Collegiate Ski Association Invite and served as an NCAA qualifier.
“We’re experiencing some cold temps right now,” head coach Tom Smith said in his pre-race interview. “We can’t complain too much because we’ve had just a really outstanding snow year thus far. So, the training has been really unaffected for us as a team.” Smith also said that the decision to move the race to Sunday was made to prioritize athlete safety and ensure the NCAA qualifying race could be held. “We’re flopping on race days,” Smith said. “We’re going to do the skate individual start race on Sunday, that’s an NCAA qualifier for us as a region, so we really need to prioritize getting that race in.”
The Huskies raced on the trails at the Ariens Nordic Center, the home course for UW-Green Bay. The course’s hilly terrain and long climbs provided a challenging test of endurance and strategy for the athletes. In the men’s 15K race, Wes Campbell led the Huskies, finishing in first place, followed by Noa Kam-Magruder in sixth place and Samuel Stertz in eighth place. On the women’s side, top individual performances came from Bridget Burns in sixth place and Hannah Smart in seventh place.
Smith said that the team entered the weekend treading upward after very strong performances at the US Nationals. “Our student athletes were on fire,” Smith said. “I don’t think we’ve actually even looked this good up until this point in the season.”
