The Gustavus men’s nordic ski team turned in its finest performance in the program’s history with an impressive third place finish at the NorAm Regional meet in Cable, Wisconsin. Erich Ziegler led the way with a 10th place finish in the 10K freestyle race. An ecstatic Scott Jerome (head coach) stated, “It was an awesome weekend. We have been working toward this kind of a team performance for the past three years.”
Jerome’s enthusiasm was due to a very strong overall team performance. The Gusties, who placed third out of eight teams, scored a school record 82 points. Gustavus finished behind Division I programs Northern Michigan (131) and University of Alaska-Fairbanks (127), but ahead of Division I foes University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (70) and Michigan Tech (54). Jerome commented, “It was particularly sweet to beat teams that have had snow to train on all winter. It speaks to the character of our team to keep training hard through tough snow conditions.”
The complete team results were: Northern Michigan (131), Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks (127), Gustavus (82), UW-Green Bay (70), St. Olaf (65), St. John’s (59), Michigan Tech (54), and Macalester (12).
Individually, sophomore Erich Ziegler finished 10th in the 10K freestyle race which is the first top ten finish in a NCAA Qualifying race in the program’s history. Other Gustie finishes in the freestyle race included sophomore Kevin Patzoldt finishing 12th, junior Nate Porath placing 20th, sophomore Andy Rishavy finishing 26th and sophomore Dan Kueffer placing 38th.
In the 15K classical race, Gustavus was led by Patzoldt in 13th, followed by Ziegler in 16th, Porath in 21st, Rishavy in 23rd, and sophomore Chuck Anderson in 28th.