In Saturday’s giant slalom, NMU individual skiers won five of the six podium spots reserved for the top three finishers in a race as each Wildcats team posted the fastest three-skier combined time.

Then in Sunday’s slalom, Northern pulled off a total whitewash, taking every podium position and winning the team competition by comfortable margins.

NMU jumps right back on the hills of Minnesota this weekend at the USCSA Giants Ridge meet in Bewail, Minnesota, north of Duluth, on Saturday and Sunday.

Here are details from Wild Mountain:

Kyan Hopke

Giant slalom

On Saturday, the NMU women swept the podium, with Tommie Springer posting the best two-run time of 52.50 seconds with the fastest time of each run, 26.07 on the first and 26.43 on the second.

Teammate Ashley Schaffer was runner-up in 53.85 seconds, putting up the second-fastest opening run of 26.42 before adding 27.43.

Northern’s Onalee Wallis was third in 53.96 on runs of 26.72 and 27.24, while teammate Madalyn Stern was fourth in 54.04 on runs of 26.63 and 27.41.

The Wildcats not only had great quality, but quantity, too, as Georgette Sake was seventh in 54.65 seconds, Blanca Srock eighth in 54.68, Cassidy Whitener ninth in 54.95, Julia Greene 12th in 55.70, Lucy Stern 16th in 56.18 and Anna Roethlisberger 24th in 57.14 in a field of 47 skiers.

Northern’s three-skier time of 2:40.31 was more than five seconds ahead of runner-up St. Olaf and nearly nine seconds ahead of third-place Michigan Tech.

The Wildcat men also posted a team-winning time of 2:29.54, just over four seconds ahead of St. Olaf and more than nine seconds better than MTU.

That was despite St. Olaf’s Jackson Reents winning the individual competition in 49.58 seconds, just 0.18 of a second ahead of Northern’s Reed Heathman in 49.76 as the Wildcat skier had runs of 24.63 and 25.13.

In fact, NMU had the next five finishers after the St. Olaf winner, with Noah Bindas third in 49.77 on runs of 24.58 and 25.19, Kyan Hopke fourth in 50.01 on runs of 24.89 and 25.12, Anthony Petkov fifth in 50.20 on runs of 25.07 and 25.13, and Cash Jaeger sixth in 50.61 on runs of 25.14 and 25.47.

Additionally, the Wildcats’ Nathan Dehart was eighth in 51.62, Connor Abraham 10th in 52.22 and Eli Heathman 21st in 54.60 in a field of 49 competitors.

Slalom

On Sunday, the NMU men posted a combined time of 3:00.23 to beat out runner-up St. Olaf by four seconds and third-place Michigan Tech by 24 seconds.

The NMU women were just as dominant, posting 3:18.85, 11 seconds better than St. Olaf and 20 seconds ahead of the Minnesota-Twin Cities club team.

Hopke led the Northern men by claiming gold with a two-run combined time of 59.72 seconds, while Bindas was runner-up in 59.87 and Jaeger third in 1:00.45.

However, Jaeger was designated a “B” team member for the meet, so fourth-place Reed Heathman became the Wildcats’ third scorer in 1:00.64.

Hopke was fourth after his initial run in 29.56 seconds, but on a slower course for his second run, more than made up the time he was behind by posting 30.16.

Bindas was second-fastest for both his runs, 29.45 and 30.42, while Jaeger had runs of 29.58 and 30.87 and Reed Heathman had runs of 29.54 and 31.10.

Springer led the Northern women by winning in 1:05.63, with Stern runner-up in 1:06.41 and Schaffer third in 1:06.81.

In addition, Srock was fifth in 1:08.63.

Springer had the fastest time in each run, 33.14 in her first and 32.49 in her second. Stern had runs of 33.57 and 32.84, while Schaffer turned in 34.07 and 32.74 and Srock 35.24 and 33.39.

The Wildcats had several other skiers also compete. In the men’s meet, Petkov was seventh in 1:01.45, Eli Heathman eighth in 1:01.46, Abraham ninth in 1:01.81, Dehart 11th in 1:02.41 and Forsberg 28th in 1:13.16 in a field of 49 skiers.

For Northern’s women, Greene was 12th in 1:13.29, Roethlisberger 13th in 1:13.39, Maya Bubolz 15th in 1:13.69, Sake 20th in 1:14.49 and Camryn Zotalis 31st in 1:18.33 in a field of 48.

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.