Northern Michigan University’s Cassidy Whitener shows her form during a past Wildcats’ alpine ski meet. (Photo courtesy of NMU)

DULUTH, Minn. — The men’s and women’s alpine ski teams at Northern Michigan University had an excellent weekend at the USCSA Spirit Mountain meet held in northeastern Minnesota.

Over two days of racing, the Wildcats claimed nine of the dozen top-three podium spots in slalom and giant slalom events for men and women.

On Saturday, the men competed in the GS and women in slalom, then reversed those on Sunday.

The NMU alpine skiers stay home to compete in the USCSA regionals to be held at Marquette Mountain on Saturday and Sunday. The only other meet left this season is the USCSA National Championships scheduled for Monday through Saturday, March 9-14, at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, New York.

Here are details from Spirit Mountain:

Saturday

The Northern men won their team title by sweeping the podium, with NMU “A” team member Noah Bindas, a freshman, winning in a two-run combined time of 48.92 seconds as he had the fastest initial and third-fastest second runs. His runs were 24.16 and 24.76 seconds.

Senior teammate Reed Heathman of Houghton was only fourth after his first run, but tacked on the fastest second run to take the second-place silver medal in a 49.20 time, while Wildcats sophomore Anthony Petkov was third-place bronze medalist with the third- and second-fastest times for a 49.22 total.

Heathman had runs of 24.70 and 24.50, while Petkov included runs of 24.53 and 24.69.

The NMU men’s combined time was 2:27.34 for a win by nearly nine seconds, outdistancing runner-up St. Olaf with 2:36.19 and third-place Wisconsin-Madison with 2:39.40.

In the women’s slalom, Northern failed to sweep the podium for the first time this season and didn’t get the team victory. However, Northern senior Kaylee Byrne won the individual title in a two-run time of 1:24.90 after putting up the fourth-fastest opening run of 42.26 and fastest second run of 42.64.

Other NMU racers had some spills that knocked them from contention. Tommie Springer was second after her first run with 41.86 before being unable to post a second run, while Marquette product Madalyn Stern was seventh after her first run with 42.77 before suffering the same fate in run No. 2.

Another Northern racer, Ashley Schaffer, couldn’t get downhill in her first run but had a second run of 43.52, while Blanac Srock was the only other Wildcat posting a score, sixth place with 1:29.99 on runs of 44.09 and 45.90.

Sunday

The Northern men dominated the slalom on Sunday, taking five of the first six and eight of the top 13 times en route to a nearly three-second team victory, 4:07.93 to St. Olaf’s 4:10.76 and Wisconsin-Madison’s 4:33.77.

Bindas won again with the fastest time of each run, 38.25 and 43.84, to combine for 1:22.09.

That beat out teammate Kyan Hopke in 1:22.32, who had the second-fastest time of each run, 38.31 and 44.01.

Heathman was fourth in 1:23.52 on runs of 38.96 and 44.56, while Petkov was fifth in 1:23.61 with runs of 39.00 and 44.61, then Eli Heathman sixth in 1:24.01 on runs of 39.19 and 44.82.

In the women’s GS, NMU won by nearly four seconds in 1:22.60 with runner-up St. Olaf posting 1:26.52 and third-place Wisconsin-Madison at 1:28.53.

In this meet, the single best time of two was used for scoring. Springer won with 27.23 seconds, with Stern earning silver with 27.53 and Byrne third with 27.84.

Northern swept the top seven positions. For NMU, following Byrne in order was Schaffer, Onalee Wallis, Maya Bubolz and Cassidy Whitener.

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.