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Northern Michigan University skiers earn top-10 finishes at US Distance Nationals

daniel streinz

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Six skiers from Northern Michigan University participated at the U.S. Distance Nationals against some of the top professional skiers in the country. The event ran from last Thursday through Tuesday of this week.

It ended the NMU ski season as the Wildcats earned six All-American honors at the NCAA Championships and fourth place among Nordic teams, with the men second on their side.

Northern also captured the NCAA Central Regional as junior Zak Ketterson and freshman Abigail Jarzin were named Skiers of the Year in the Central Collegiate Ski Association and head coach Sten Fjeldheim named CCSA Coach of the Year.

Sophomore Daniel Streinz led NMU on the first day in Maine by placing seventh in the 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint in 2 minutes, 51.47 seconds. Ketterson was ninth in 2:51.79.

Another Wildcats junior, Mathias Aas-Rolid, was 23rd in 2:56.53, while senior Ian Torchia was 39th in 3:02.62.

julie ensrud

The Northern women also competed at the same sprint distance with junior Julie Ensrud leading NMU by finishing in 3:26.70 for 23rd place. Right behind her in 24th was freshman teammate Nadine Matter in 3:27.01.

Torchia paced the Northern men in the 15K mass start classic race in 39:05.9 to finish 11th in a field of 61. Aas-Rolid was 18th in 39:49.4, Ketterson 30th in 41:31.6 and Streinz 39th in 42:22.4.

For the Wildcats women in the 10K classic, Ensrud was 30th in 33:53.9 and Matter 34th in 34:13.8 in a race with 44 competitors.

In the men’s final race, the 50K freestyle, Ketterson was 10th among 41 skiers in 2:22:57.6. Torchia was 20th in 2:30:55.0, Aas-Rolid 30th in 2:40:22.8 and Streinz 33rd in 2:47:31.4.

Matter paced the Wildcats in the 32-woman 30K freestyle in 1:31:44.9 for 24th place.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.

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