The Gustavus men’s nordic skiing team placed fifth out of eight teams at the fourth NCAA qualifier of the season. The Gusties placed sixth overall in the classic race and third overall in the freestyle race to compile 107 team points. The qualifier took place at Camp Ripley near Little Falls, Minn. on February 12-13. Northern Michigan University won the qualifier with 169 team points.
The Gusties compiled 46 points in the 10k classic race on Saturday. Erich Ziegler paced the Gusties with a time of 27:29.8 to place 19th overall. Nate Porath finished 12 seconds behind Ziegler to place second on the team and 24th overall. Jon Miller rounded out the top three skiers for Gustavus by placing 34th overall with a time of 28:37.5.
Coach Friedrich’s squad performed well in the 16k freestyle race on Sunday. The Gusties had four skiiers place in the top twenty and compiled 61 team points to place third overall. Erich Zielger led the Gusties with a time of 41:09.4 to place eighth overall. Nate Porath placed 11th with a time of 41.33.2. Lorin Skoglund and Andy Rishavy rounded out the top twenty. Skoglund recorded a time of 42:52.8 to place 19th and Rishavy was right on his heels to place 20th with a time of 42:57.3.
Gustavus will return to action next weekend February 19-20 in CCSA Regional Championships. The championships will take place in Houghton, Michigan.
Final Team Results
1 NMU 83 86 169
2 UWGB 67 76 143
3 MTU 82 57 139
4 STO 57 56 113
5 GAC 46 61 107
6 SJU 52 51 103
7 MAC 23 12 35
8 FIN 19 0 19