Complete Results

MINNEAPOLIS -- St. Scholastica junior Jeremy Hecker (Andover, Minn./Andover HS (Minnesota-Twin Cities)) started slow in Sunday's 15km freestyle race at Wirth Park in Minneapolis.  After a wheels-coming-off final kilometer in Saturday's 9 km classic race, Hecker was cautious at the start of the longer distance, and subsequently off the pace of the leaders by a small margin early in the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) field, but eventually skied his way to a strong fifth place finish in the latter half of the race, clocking 35:37.1.

It was Hecker's third top-5 finish in four CCSA races.  That sets the record for most top-5 CCSA finishes in a single-season by a Saint, and the 2012 season is only at the halfway point.

Northern Michigan's Erik Soderman took hold early of the CCSA race, held in conjunction with the USSA SuperTour, and never looked back.  Soderman bettered teammate, Kjell-Christian Markset, by a whopping 57.2 seconds to cruise to victory in 34:04.9 to Markset's 35:02.1. Soderman finished sixth overall in the SuperTour field.  Alaska Fairbanks' Logan Hanneman finished third in 35:11.9.

It was Saints sophomore Scott Johanik (Washburn, Wis./Washburn HS ), however, who turned the most heads as he pressed the top CCSA skiers with an early start number and increasing pace over the 15km course, to take the early lead in the CCSA field on the fourth of five laps.  At 11 km, with all collegiate skiers through, Johanik held fifth spot, 3.4 seconds ahead of teammate, Hecker, but Hecker would make a charge up the field in the final 3km lap to pass Johanik and nearly nab fourth place from Michigan Tech's Mikko Harju.  Harju would hold of Hecker by only four-tenths of a second at the finish; a margin that would prove to be more than just pride between Hecker and the tall Huskie from Finland.  Johanik wound up sixth in 35:50.4, for a career-best CCSA finish.  Freshman Paul Schommer (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly HS) posted his best CCSA performance of his young career as well, finishing in 14th with at time of 36:53.8, to round out a strong Saints team showing.

The split second between Hecker and Harju, who have established a friendly rivalry with tight finishes last season, proved to be the difference in the race for the second place team.  Tech eeked out a one point advantage, 62 points to the Saints' 61, to take second behind Northern Michigan's 74 points.  Alaska Fairbanks, without their ace, Tyler Kornfield, on the start, perhaps recovering from sub-par recent performances, finished fourth with 57 points.

“I knew we were coming around, but this was a huge race for us today as a team,” summarized Saints head coach Chad Salmela.  “Scott just had the race of his life on a course that has been a challenge to his strengths in the past, and Jeremy just keeps rolling.  Fifth and Sixth is just a great one-two finish for our team in any CCSA race.”

The team had to wait until the drive home to find out their final score as Schommer, who was relegated to a very late start position due to SuperTour seeding guidelines, did not appear on the results until hours later, rounding out the Saints scoring. 

“Paul skied really strong, particularly considering where he had to start; kind of outside the field of top collegiate contenders with much slower skiers all around him, so he was literally weaving through people and racing against the clock.  The early starters had a huge advantage with all the trains of like-paced skiers that form in a five-lap race.   You catch a good ride in that situation and it can make your race. Paul had none of that.  It was a gutsy effort and shows what kind of depth we have and what we are capable of every day with different guys stepping up and scoring, even from that far back in the field.”

The third-place finish is one of the best in recent history for the Saints; one that nearly tied their program-best, a second-place finish in the 2009 CCSA Championships 20km freestyle. 

“I didn't even consider we'd beaten UAF,” said Salmela.  “They are so stacked that I just never thought of it.  I naturally assumed we lost third to Tech by four-tenths, but UAF really left the door open for us to capitalize on great skiing by our guys today, and Tech nearly did too.  Second as a team would have been pretty great and it stings just a bit for it to be that close, but I think we showed ourselves as a team what we can do when we fire on all cylinders.  I think that's the important take-away for the guys going into the coming weeks.”

The Saints men gear up for a 10km mass start classic and 20km freestyle pursuit at the Battle Creek SuperTour in St. Paul next weekend.