The Northern Michigan University men’s and women’s nordic ski teams celebrate sweeping the overall title at the Central Collegiate Ski Association Championship held in Duluth, Minn., last weekend. That includes winning the men’s trophy, top center left, and women’s trophy, top right. (Photo courtesy NMU)

DULUTH, Minn. — The Northern Michigan University nordic ski teams were more than winners, they were the dominant victors at the Central Collegiate Ski Association Championship meet held near Duluth, Minnesota, last weekend.

The Wildcat men’s and women’s teams combined to claim 11 of the 12 top-three podium spots over two days of competition.

That gave them a combined score of an unbeatable 287 points, scoring either 71 or a perfect 72 points in each event both days. Michigan Tech was second with 238, not scoring more than 64 in any event, while St. Scholastica was third with 184, Wisconsin-Green Bay fourth with 116 and St. Olaf fifth with 86.

NMU had one double winner, women’s freshman Henriette Nilssen, who captured gold in both Saturday’s 7.5-kilometer freestyle race and Sunday’s 20K classic.

With this weekend off, Northern jumps back into competition next Saturday and Sunday at the NCAA Central Regional Skiing Championships set for Houghton and hosted by Michigan Tech. Day 1 features a skate interval start and day 2 a classic mass start.

After that comes the NCAA Skiing Championships in Steamboat, Colorado, on March 7 and 9.

Here is a rundown of each NMU team at the CCSA event:

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Nilssen sweeps women’s titles

Nilssen’s closest competition for the women came from teammates Merle Richter and Victoria Dybwad, with Richter runner-up and Dybwad third on Saturday and that pair reversing those positions on Sunday.

Nilssen clocked 20 minutes, 31.2 seconds Saturday in a three-lap race with her splits being 6:44.3, 6:53.0 and 6:53.8.

Richter was just over 11 seconds back in 20:42.3 as her lap times were 6:47.9, 7:01.8 and 6:52.5, while Dybwad came in third another 13 1/2 seconds behind in 20:55.9 with laps of 6:45.4, 7:07.2 and 7:03.3.

Northern’s Lauren McCollor was fifth in 21:00.2, so she missed the podium by less than five seconds, while teammate Kolibri Drobish was ninth in 21:21.7. In addition, the Wildcats’ Pearl Harvey was 11th, Jordan Parent 17th and Ella Niznik 21st.

On Sunday, Nilssen won the 20K marathon race by the closest of margins, edging out Dybwad by a tenth of a second. Four of their eight lap times were no more than two-tenths of a second apart. Nilssen finished in 1:05:15.6 while Dybwad came in at 1:05:15.7.

Nilssen’s laps were 7:43.6, 8:21.0, 8:14.9, 8:08.6, 8:12.8, 8:17.4, 8:22.4 and 7:54.5. Dybwad clocked 7:43.0, 8:21.2, 8:14.7, 8:08.6, 8:13.9, 8:16.4, 8:22.4 and 7:55.4.

Dybwad led by less than a second after each of the first four laps before Nilssen’s 1.1-second edge in lap 5 gave her a smaller-than-a-second advantage. Then Dybwad won lap 6 by a second to go back ahead, keeping it in lap 7, while Nilssen’s 0.9-of-a-second win in the final lap pushed her over the top by the single tenth of a second.

Richter was third in 1:06:11.8, not quite four seconds back, as she lapped in 7:42.5, 8:23.1, 8:14.6, 8:18.5, 8:26.0, 8:26.0, 8:24.3 and 8:16.3.

Continuing NMU’s dominance of the top 10 this day, McCollor was fifth in 1:07:26.9, Drobish sixth in 1:07:29.5, Harvey seventh in 1:07:51.0 and Parent 10th in 1:08:38.4. In addition, Northern’s Flisa Ravald was 12th and Niznik 19th.

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Fricker, Karsrud win for men

Northern’s Luke Fricker posted a more than four-second win over a pair of teammates in the Saturday men’s 7.5K freestyle race.

He clocked 18:14.6 with laps of 5:56.8, 6:02.7 and 6:15.1, while NMU’s Mathias Haugen was runner-up in 18:19.0 with splits of 5:52.0, 6:13.4 and 6:13.5. And the Wildcats’ Kristoffer Karsrud was just a tenth of second back in third in 18:19.1, lapping in 5:53.8, 6:14.2 and 6:11.0.

In an interesting twist, Haugen had the fastest first lap among the three teammates, Fricker was fastest in lap 2 and Karsrud got around quickest in lap 3.

Teammate Cooper Lennox was 10th in 19:09.1, Jonathan Clarke 12th in 19:17.7 and Hendrik Peterson 14th in 19:23.7.

Karsrud bumped up into the winner’s spot in Sunday’s 20K classic, clocking 56:50.9 to beat out Fricker by 1.3 seconds in 56:52.2. Karsrud held a narrow lead through the first five of eight laps before giving up the lead to Fricker after lap 6, then recapturing it at the end of the final lap.

Karsrud’s split times were 6:44.0, 7:10.3, 7:04.9, 6:56.2, 7:26.9, 7:33.0, 6:52.2 and 7:03.0, while Fricker posted 6:45.6, 7:10.8, 7:04.7, 6:55.1, 7:26.9, 7:34.0, 6:50.1 and 7:04.8.

Third place in this race was the only podium spot all weekend the Wildcats didn’t claim, as it was taken by Michigan Tech’s Alex Aflodal even as he was about 21 seconds behind Fricker.

But NMU did get fourth with Clarke coming in at 57:15.6, about 2 1/2 seconds after Aflodal, while Peterson was eighth in 58:12.7, Lennox coming in 11th and Haugen 25th.

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