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Nordic Ski Teams MIAC Champions

Fred Kueffer
February 19, 2001

The St. Olaf men's and women's Nordic teams returned home from their competition in Winona, Minnesota this past weekend as MIAC Champions. Both teams dominated Saturday and Sunday's races on the grueling courses of St. Mary's College. The team?s success is displayed by the two-team championships and four individual MIAC champions.

In Saturday's classical events, senior Dawn Youngen (Roseville, Minn.) skied to her first MIAC championship win and one of her better races of the year, winning the race in a time of 17:28 for the 5 kilometer course. Rounding out the top three Sonja Bostrom (Jr., St. Paul, Minn.) in 17:40, and Margie Tilman (Sr., St. Louis Park, Minn.) in 18:00. On the men's side, Kevin Hochtl (Jr., Vail, Co.) held off the surge from a few skiers to earn his first MIAC title in the 10 kilometer classical event. Hochtl recorded the fastest first lap of the field, and had enough left to hold off the fast second laps of Owen Hanley of Carleton College and Hocthl's teammates, Nate Christopherson (So., St. Paul, Minn.) and Fred Kueffer (Sr., Shoreview, Minn.). Hochtl's recorded a time of 30:45 to Hanley's 30:52,Christopherson's 31:05 and Kueffer's 31:10.

In Sunday's freestyle event, the Ole women were able to distance themselves from the field on the very tough skating course. The course included a sustained climb of over a kilometer long, which the women had to battle against twice during the two lap race. Sonja Bostrom capped off a big win for the 10 kilometer race, with a winning margin of 1:12 over her next closest competitor, teammate Margie Tilman. Tilman finished in 36:03 with Hillary McCulloh (Jr., St. Cloud, Minn.) in third place with a time of 37:12. The men's team competed in a 15 kilometer race, two 7.5 kilometer loops which was the same tough course as the women's with an added 2.5 kilometer extension. The extension added another extremely tough climb, creating one of the more difficult courses the Oles skied on all year. Hot off his freestyle performances from the past few weekends, Jay Eidem (So., Bloomington, Minn.) captured his first MIAC title by winning the 15 kilometer freestyle race in 44:10. The Oles were separated in this race with a Carleton and St. John's skier slipping into 2nd and 3rd place, but with times of 46:38 and 47:14, Kevin Hochtl and Alec Steward (So., Duluth, Minn.) finished respectively in fourth and fifth.

In team competition, the Ole women won with 102 points over Gustavus Adolphus (78 points) and Carleton College (65 points). The men also won the overall title with 95 points to Carleton College's 81 and Macalaster's 58.

Full individual and team results can be found at the St. Olaf Nordic Ski webpage at www.stolaf.edu/athletics/nordski.

Next weekend, February 24-25, the Oles compete in the Central Collegiate Ski Association Championships at the courses of Giants Ridge in Biwabik, Minn.

Contact Pat Buresh at 507-786-3315 or buresh@stolaf.edu.