St. Peter, Minn.- The Gustavus men’s and women’s nordic skiing teams will travel to Coleraine, Minnesota this weekend to compete in their second NCAA Qualifier of the season. The Qualifier is a two-day event, which will be held on Jan. 24th and 25th at Mt. Itasca Winter Sports Center.
On Friday, Jan. 24th, the men will compete in a 10k classic race, while the women will compete in a 5k classic. On Saturday, there will be a 10k freestyle race for the men and a 5k freestyle race for the women. Races will begin at 9:00 a.m. on both days.
This weekend’s Qualifier meet comes on the heels of last weekend’s NCAA Qualifier in Cable, Wis. At last weekend’s meet, Marian Lund (Sr., Duluth, Minn.) led the way for the women’s team with a 28th place finish in Saturday’s freestyle race and raced a career-best classic race on Sunday, leading the Gusties with an eighth place finish. Gustavus will look for continued success from Lund this weekend, as well as Marit Sonnesyn (So., Plymouth, Minn.) who also had a pair of strong performances at last weekend’s meet.
The men will look for continued strong performances this weekend from Scott Williams (Jr., Maple Grove, Minn.), Josh Blankenship (Jr., Maple Grove, Minn.), and Tyler Gustafson (Jr., Grand Rapids, Minn.). Williams led the Gusties on both days of last weekend’s Qualifier, finishing in 43rd place in Saturday’s freestyle race and in 37th place in Sunday’s classic race. Blankenship followed Williams closely on Saturday for a 44th place finish in the freestyle. On Sunday it was Gustafson who was on Williams’ tail with a 38th place finish in the classic.
Results from the NCAA Qualifier meet will be posted on the Gustavus Athletics website shortly following the races.