ST. PAUL, Minnesota – Northern Michigan University swept the men’s and women’s cross country skiing titles at the Central Collegiate Ski Association Championships conference meet on Sunday.

Led by individual winner Ian Torchia, the NMU men won the two-day meet with 172 points as the Wildcats women took their crown with 170.

Torchia led the way for the Northern men Sunday in the 10-kilometer freestyle, posting a time of 20 minutes, 11.8 seconds. NMU swept the podium spots as teammate Adam Martin, who won Saturday’s 10K, was second in 20:39.8 and Jake Brown was third in 20:40.6.

Teammate Sam Elfstrom was sixth in 20:57.3.

In the women’s 5K?freestyle, Northern was paced by runner-up Felicia Gesior in 15:00.3 and and third-place Sarah Bezdicek in 15:03.2.

The duo was joined by teammate Sophie McDonald, fifth in 15:10.5, Sophie Schimpl, eighth in 15:26.3, and Caroline Brisbois, 10th in 15:33.0.

Like Martin on Saturday, Torchia won the overall title Sunday, topping a club skier by four seconds. Wildcat recruit Zak Ketterson, who was competing for Loppet Nordic Racing, finished fourth in 20:32.1.

Michigan Tech was second in the men’s meet with 146 points while Alaska-Fairbanks had 135 to take third in the CCSA.

For the women, UAF had 158 to finish as runner-up while MTU had 131 to come in third.

“Both of our teams skied well this weekend,” head coach Sten Fjeldheim said. “Now we’re looking forward to competing at our NCAA regional. While it will be a challenge without our skiers who qualified for the World Junior and U-23 championships, the remaining Wildcats are excited to have the opportunity to represent Northern Michigan.”

The Wildcats return to action much closer to home when they host the NCAA Central Regional Championships in Ishpeming on Saturday and Sunday.

NMU’s Torchia, Leo Hipp, Vivian Hett, Bezdicek and Nicole Schneider will compete at the World Junior Ski Championship, while Martin and Gesior and Kristen Bourne will race at the World Under-23 Ski Championship, both starting Thursday and running through Feb. 29 in Rasnov, Romania.

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