Sports Staff

CRAFTSBURY, Vt. — The Northern Michigan University men’s and women’s Nordic ski teams won the six-day U.S. Nationals on Tuesday, combining to score 709 points.

NMU was the No. 1 team among collegiate men’s teams and the third for collegiate women.

Northern junior Zak Ketterson was named collegiate Grand Champion after his performances.

Ketterson won the collegiate division of the men’s 15-kilometer classic interval start on Jan. 3 in 42 minutes, 57.5 seconds. He was eighth overall. In addition, senior teammate Ian Torchia was 12th in 43:17.3 and sophomore Kjetil Baanerud was 17th in 43:31.9.

Three Wildcats cracked the top 50 in the women’s 10K classic — senior Nicole Schneider was 40th in 34:09.7, junior Julie Ensrud 48th in 34:30.9 and freshman Abigail Jarzin 49th in 34:33.5.

And senior Sarah Bezdicek was the lone Northern athlete to advance past the women’s classic sprints qualifier, making it to the quarterfinals and finishing 28th.

Two Wildcats did well in men’s classic sprints. Ketterson advanced to the final heat and finished sixth overall, top among collegians, while sophomore Daniel Streinz just missed the finals in seventh. In addition, advancing past the qualifier were junior teammate Mathias Aas-Rolid in 11th as he made the semifinals and Baanerud in 24th making the quarters.

Schneider led NMU in the women’s 20K freestyle mass start in 18th in 1:02:52.7, while Ensrud was 34th in 1:05:52.2 and Bezdicek 55th in 1:08:34.8.

Baanerud was 18th in 1:02:59.6 in the men’s 30K freestyle mass start, while Ketterson 20th in 1:21:13.7, Torchia 22nd in 1:21:13.7 and Northern sophomore Xavier Mansfield 61st in 1:28:29.9.

Schneider was 14th and Bezdicek 17th as they made the quarterfinals of the women’s freestyle sprints on Tuesday.

Streinz place fourth and Ketterson sixth as they made the finals of the men’s freestyle sprints. Advancing out of the qualifier were Baanerud, who was 12th, and Aas-Rolid, who came in 16th.

Next up for the Wildcats is the CCSA/CXC Cup on Jan. 19-20 in Hayward, Wisconsin.

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

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