MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – St. Scholastica junior #Julia Curry# (Jr.-Woodbury, Minn.) landed a personal and program-best finish in the women's 10km mass start classic Sunday, finishing eighth in Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) competition at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis.

Curry got a clean start and a clear path to the lead group in an otherwise congested early going. She never lost contact of the main CCSA group that struggled to maintain pace with Alaska Fairbanks' Aurelia Kourthauer and Northern Michigan's Laura DeWitt. Korthauer was the only collegiate skier to attempt a chase of the three leaders in the open Supertour division, her effort to do so distancing herself from DeWitt by just under a minute to take the collegiate win and third overall in the Supertour field in a time of 29:43.0 seconds. Henna Riikonen-Purtsi of Michigan Tech finished third.

Curry led a groundbreaking performance not only personally in a program-best individual finish in CCSA competition in a time of 31:34.3 seconds, but also leading the Saints women off of a program-best fifth place team finish Saturday to a fourth place high-water mark for the program Sunday.

 
Rounding out the Saints scoring was sophomore #Eleanor Magnuson# (So.-Champlin Park, Minn.) with yet another strong performance in 17th in 32:48.6 seconds after finishing 11th Saturday, and senior #Megan Holmes# (Sr.-Gilbert, Minn./Mesabi East) in 31st with at time of 34:50.9 seconds. The Saints were the first NCAA Division III program on Sunday.

“This was just a thrilling performance by our women today,” said Saints Head Coach Chad Salmela. “Over the last four years, our women have had to watch the men set competitive performances against the big DI and DII programs of the CCSA, but today they shined and stood out, and that is super gratifying to me.”

Curry recently had a career-best ninth place finish in CCSA competition in the women's 20km classic in Anchorage, but Salmela felt this was a bigger accomplishment.

“The 20km in Anchorage was a huge confidence boost for Julia, but the conditions were so tough, the juniors were not in the race, and the spread was just huge. Today was something completely different. She was throwing punches all day with some of the best women in our conference, all of them with NCAA Championship experience. She was in the group of the big names, and she's never been there before. Like Eleanor yesterday, it just showed that our women's program is very new, exciting territory.”

The Saints take to the snow next weekend in CCSA NCAA qualifying competition at the Telemark Resort Supertour in Cable, Wisconsin.

CCSA NCAA QUALIFIER
THEODORE WIRTH PARK, MINNEAPOLIS, MN
1/24/10

1 KORTHAUER, Aurelia SR/MA UAF 0:29:43.0
2 DEWITT, Laura SR/MA NMU 0:30:42.1
3 RIIKONEN-PURTSI, Henna SR/MA MTU 0:31:06.7
4 QUINLEY, Elizabeth SR/MA MTU 0:31:10.7
5 PIERSON, Julia SR/MA UAF 0:31:15.9
6 MARKVARDSEN, Monica OJ NMU 0:31:27.0
7 SODERMAN, Marie Helen SR/MA NMU 0:31:29.1
8 CURRY, Julia SR/MA CSS 6223006 0:31:34.3
9 GILLIS, Christina SR/MA NMU 0:31:41.4
10 KLEIN, Jenna SR/MA MTU 0:31:46.2
17 MAGNUSSON, Eleanor OJ CSS 0:32:48.6
31 HOLMES, Megan SR/MA CSS 0:34:50.9
42 JOHNSON, Lindsey OJ CSS 0:36:52.3
47 KALLEMEYN, Mary SR/MA CSS 0:37:30.6
58 JOHNSON, Sarah OJ CSS 0:39:09.2
59 LUND, Caroline SR/MA CSS 0:39:10.3

TEAM SCORES
1 NMU 69
2 MTU 68
3 UAF 67
4 CSS 42
5 CSB 38
6 UWGB 34
7 GAC 30
8 SCSU 15
9 STO 15