Houghton, Mich. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – The Green Bay Nordic Skiing team competed in the MTU CCSA Race this weekend despite frigid cold, finishing in fourth place as a team on both sides as well as a full, combined roster. The Phoenix took on the classic individual start races on Saturday, while racing in the skate mass start on Sunday. Full results can be found HERE.
 
In the women's 5k classic race, freshman Oda Bekkestad was the top collegiate finisher, taking 14^th place with a time of 19:19.8, with teammate Mykaela McMullen right behind her in 15^th. The redshirt junior posted a final time of 19:21.1. Fellow redshirt junior Maddie McKeefry was the third Phoenix to finish, taking 18^th in 19:50.2.
 
The other five women in the race included redshirt senior Kayla Billett, freshman Anna Zajakowski, redshirt freshman Mina Anderberg, redshirt junior Emily Burger, and redshirt freshman Maria Schoening. The rest of the squad placed 23^rd, 24^th, 27^th, 31^st, and 32^nd, respectively.
 
On the men's side, the top finisher in the 10k classic race was again senior Jake Ajax, taking 12^th in the collegiate field with a time of 32:25.9. Redshirt sophomore Quinn Duffy was the next Phoenix to cross the finish line, earning 19^th in 32:59.8. Rounding out the top three for Green Bay was redshirt freshman Tom Woolhouse, finishing 28^th with a time of 33:47.0.
 
Also racing was the pack of redshirt sophomore Cory Rouw, redshirt freshman Sam Myers, and freshman Shad Kraftson. They finished 30^th through 32^nd place, and just seconds apart, stopping the clock at 34:10.1, 34:12.0, and 34:15.0, respectively.
 
About Saturday's races, head coach Steve Teclaw remarked, "We slipped a little this weekend classic wise. Certainly, the race course was much different from our first two weekends requiring a different style of racing. The MTU course is very predicable with long climbs and decents, not much for technicality. Currently we're much better suited for a technical course. We need to get our fitness up over the summer to come back and be competitive on the MTU course next season."
 
The next day, in the 15k skate race, Bekkestad was again the leader for the women, taking home another 14^th place, but this time with a time of 1:00:17.4. McKeefry was the second Phoenix to finish, posting a time of 1:03:52.4 for 19^th. Billett raced to a 1:05:52.3 for 23^rd, with Zajakowski one place behind her with a time of 1:07:09.2.
 
"We're still out several athletes on the women's team to injury and illness," remarked Teclaw about the ladies. "We need to focus on health and prep well for our last two weekends on regular season racing. Oda had a good race and it was exciting to see her strategy in a longer skate race, something she has not been accustomed to thus far. Also exciting was Maddie's race. She is coming off a surgery and was able to put up a competitive race as well as her first skate competition since the injury."
 
The men battled in the 20k skate race, this time led by Myers with an impressive 13^th place finish and a time of 1:02:41.3. Kraftson also fought hard to the end, crossing the line at 1:04:07.2, just over a second ahead of the next finisher. He ended up 16^th in the collegiate field. Ajax ended up 22^nd with a time of 1:05:16.8, while Woolhouse rounded out the Phoenix racers in 25^th in 1:07:07.7.
 
Teclaw said, "Sam raced well and placed where we know he is capable of. We played the ski selection and wax service game nearly to perfection today with both the men's and women's skis. This paid off big for Sam and hopefully we can continue to find him the right skis that allow his talents to show through. Shad showed his tenacity today too. We look forward to putting together a complete race day in the next two weekends where each athlete places well throughout the depth of the roster, and pushing our team score beyond where we've been stuck lately."

The Nordic Ski team will be active for the fourth weekend in a row on February 10^th and 11^th, racing in Rhinelander, Wisconsin for the CCSA Conference Championships.
 
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