Northern Michigan University women’s nordic skier Lena Kjelstrup competes in a race for the Wildcats earlier this winter. (Photo courtesy of NMU)

DULUTH, Minn. — Led by junior Henriette Nilssen sweeping both women’s events, the men’s and women’s nordic ski teams at Northern Michigan University dominated the top-three podium finishes at the NCAA Central Region Skiing Championships held in northeastern Minnesota on Saturday and Sunday.

Nilssen won the gold medal in Friday’s classic individual start race by more than 25 seconds, then added a victory the next day in the freestyle mass start by just fractions of a second.

For the NMU men, Adrik Kraftson led a Wildcats’ 1-2-3 sweep in the freestyle mass start, a day after teammate Luke Fricker earned Northern’s top medal of silver in the classic individual start.

The Wildcats now await the NCAA Championships to be held Thursday and Saturday, March 12 and 14, at Soldier Hollow in Park City and Midway, Utah.

Here are more details from the regionals:

Friday

The 7.5-kilometer classic interval start was held for both genders on opening day.

Nilssen won in 22 minutes, 10.9 seconds, exactly 26 seconds ahead of runner-up Greta Hansen of Michigan Tech, who herself had better than 20 seconds on her third-place teammate Bridget Burns.

Nilseen posted lap times of 7:13.0 at 2.5K, 7:22.8 for the second 2.5K and 7:34.6 for the final third, each the fastest interval as she made it three straight race victories dating back to the CCSA conference championships.

Northern’s Lauren McCollor just missed the podium in fourth place in 23:08.5, less than 10 seconds after Burns, as she was second after the first 2.5K marker and third after the middle one.

Teammate Greta Leitheiser was sixth in 23:24.7, hitting each marker also in sixth, while the Wildcats’ Emma Klevenberg came in eighth in 23:42.7.

In addition, NMU’s Lena Kjelstrup was 13th in 24:56.3, Meija Peterson 16th in 25:10.8, Riley Grossklaus 21st in 25:25.7 and Marquette graduate Monet Argeropoulos 27th in 26:20.5.

Among the men in the 7.5K classic interval start, Fricker crossed in 21:11.1 to be runner-up to MTU’s Markus Groethe exactly 12 seconds ahead of him. No other racer was within a minute of either of those skiers.

Fricker had laps of 6:48.2, 7:05.6 and 7:17.1, each second to the winner.

Kraftson was seventh in 22:39.5, missing third place by a shade under 20 seconds. He was third after 2.5K in 7:00.5 and fourth at the 5K mark in 7:40.0.

Teammate Jonathan Clarke came in 10th after being 14th at the first marker as he finished in 23:11.2. Caden Albrecht was 12th in 23:21.0, Hendrik Peterson 25th in 25:23.7 and Jack Dahlby 27th in 26:08.8.

Saturday

The second day with the 20K mass start came right down to the wire in both races.

For the women, Nilssen edged out St. Scholastica’s Della Bettendorf and Tech’s Julia Junkkala each by 0.3 of a second by finishing in 52:33.7, with the NMU racer wavering anywhere between first and seventh at various markers until she took over and led the final 3.4K.

Bettendorf was declared the silver medalist and Junkkala won bronze despite their identical times.

Leitheiser was part of the top six racers who all finished within 45 seconds of each other, while all other racers were more than two minutes out of first place.

Leitheiser came in fifth in 52:58.1, some 24.4 seconds out of the top spot, with McCollor sixth in 53:18.4, just shy of 45 seconds behind Nilssen.

Grossklaus was next for Northern in 17th in 57:38.7, then Jordan Parent 19th in 57:50.1. Kjelstrup was 27th in 59:36.5 and Argeropoulos 28th in 1:02:12.9.

Among the men, Kraftson also pulled out a victory by 0.3 of a second, it’s just that he did it against his teammate Fricker. Kraftson totaled 46:43.2 with Fricker in at 46:43.5.

Kraftson was back in third place up to the 10K marker before moving in front for good at 13.3K. Fricker was back in sixth at 3.3K before a big move to second at 6.6K, where he would remain.

The Wildcats finished the sweep of the podium as Clarke was third in 47:07.7, just a tenth of a second ahead of fourth-place Wes Campbell of MTU. Clarke was fourth from 6.6K to 16.6K, then made a move up as he neared the finish line.

Albrecht had finished eighth, but was disqualified after his finish, leaving NMU’s next finisher as Peterson in 16th in 48:50.1, then Dahlby 27th in 54:45.9.

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