Northern Michigan University men’s alpine skier Reed Heathman tackles a gate during a past Wildcats’ meet. (Photo courtesy of NMU)

BIWABIK, Minn. — After races were canceled Saturday due to extremes in winter weather, alpine ski teams had to jam two days worth of skiing into one on Sunday at the USCSA Giants Ridge meet held in northern Minnesota.

That didn’t to deter the men’s and women’s teams from Northern Michigan University, with both teams sweeping the top three places on the podium and a lot of the other top finishes, too.

Teams raced the giant slalom on Sunday morning and came back that afternoon for the slalom. And even with the delay of one day, temperatures dipped below 10-below zero with wind chills closer to 20-below.

The NMU teams have this weekend off before returning to the slopes on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 7-8 at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, Minnesota.

A week later, Marquette Mountain will host the USCSA regionals on Feb. 14-15.

Here is a breakdown of how the women’s and men’s teams did at Giants Ridge:

NMU women

In GS held in the morning, Northern’s total time of 3:12.61 was the winner, and despite times measured to the hundredth of a second, a pair of Wildcats tied for first place — Kaylee Byrne and Tommie Springer each had a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 4.13 seconds. Byrne’s runs were 32.00 and 32.13, while Springer came in at 31.73 and 32.40.

Teammate Onalee Wallis was third in 1:04.35 after runs of 32.00 and 32.35 as NMU claimed nine of the top 10 places.

Also for Northern, Ashley Schaffer was fourth in 1:05.08, Madalyn Stern fifth in 1:05.69, Georgette Sake sixth in 1:05.87, Cassidy Whitener eighth in 1:05.95, Bianca Srock ninth in 1:06.20 and Maya Bubolz 10th in 1:06.28.

Additionally, the Wildcats’ Julia Greene was 14th, Anna Roethlisberger 17th, Lucy Stern 18th and Camryn Zotalis 34th.

In slalom, only run was held as daylight ran out by late afternoon and the course isn’t equipped with lights.

Schaffer led a top-six sweep by NMU, winning her run of 39.24 seconds, with Springer runner-up in 40.15, Byrne third in 40.24, Srock fourth in 40.49, Madalyn Stern fifth with 41.22 and Wallis sixth with 41.42.

Also, Greene was 12th, Roethlisberger 13th, Whitener 14th, Bubolz 17th, Lucy Stern 18th, Sake 24th and Zotalis 32nd.

NMU men

In GS, the Wildcats’ team time of the top three “A” racers was 3:03.02, with Anthony Petkov winning in 1:00.82 with runs of 30.80 and 30.02, the fastest time of each run.

Despite that, he only won by 0.14 of a second over teammate Eli Heathman, who finished in 1:00.96 with runs of 30.92 and 30.04.

NMU swept the top five places and eight of the first nine.

Also for Northern, Reed Heathman was third in 1:00.97 with runs of 30.84 and 30.13, Noah Bindas fourth in 1:01.23 with runs of 31.11 and 30.12 and Kyan Hopke fifth in 1:01.32 with runs of 31.17 and 30.15.

Then Nathan Dehart was seventh in 1:01.57, Cash Jaeger eighth in 1:01.76, Connor Abraham ninth in 1:02.29 and Mitchell Forsberg 11th in 1:02.88.

In slalom, again with just one run getting in, the Wildcats swept the top six spots and eight of the top 10.

Hopke won this one with a run of 33.84, about two-thirds of a second ahead of runner-up Reed Heathman with 34.48.

Jaeger was third in 35.05, Petkov fourth in 35.24, Eli Heathman fifth in 35.31 and Bindas sixth in 35.74.

Forsberg was ninth in 36.60, Abraham 10th in 36.70 and Dehart 14th in 37.23.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the meet. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.