The 2023-24 edition of the Northern Michigan University nordic ski teams waves their Wildcat flags after finishing as overall runner-up at the NCAA regionals held in Houghton on Feb. 24-25, 2024. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University nordic ski teams get to stay at home — or at least as close as is possible in their sport — when they host the NCAA Central Regional Championships at Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming today and Sunday.

The 7.5-kilometer individual race in the classic style will be held today, with the 20K mass start in the skating style goes off Sunday. Today’s races begin at 10 a.m. for the men and noon for the women, while Sunday’s are at 9:30 a.m. for the men and 11:30 a.m. for women.

The Wildcats are coming off a second-place finish at its Central Collegiate Ski Association conference championships last weekend hosted by Michigan Tech in Houghton.

At that meet, in the 20K mass start, Northern’s Victoria Dybwad took first place to win women’s gold and Adrik Kraftson finished fourth for the men. Then in the 7.5K individual races, Kraftson took gold and men’s teammate Luke Fricker second-place silver, while Henriette Nilssen was fifth for the women.

This weekend’s results will be posted online at MyRaceResult when available.

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Last year’s regional

At the 2023-24 NCAA regional, which was held in Houghton, NMU finished a close runner-up to the host Huskies, the Wildcats accumulating 205 points overall to 212 for Tech.

Northern won the women’s meet over MTU, 106-104, but the Huskies had a bit bigger advantage in the men’s meet, 108-99, to get the overall victory.

In the women’s meet, Nilssen and teammate Merle Richter dominated the podium each day, Nilssen finishing second in the 7.5K freestyle in 18 minutes, 46.3 seconds with Richter third in 18:55.8. The following day, Richter won the 20K interval start in 1:01:21.8 with Nilssen second.

For the NMU men, Fricker got the only podium spot in the 7.5K freestyle with a silver medal-winning time of 16:16.8. In the 20K, Kristoffer Karsrud was second in 57:17.1 and Fricker third in 57:24.1.

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Last time in Ishpeming

Al Quaal also hosted the NCAA regionals in the 2022-23 season when the Wildcats missed winning by a single point with 244 as Tech had 245, while the College of St. Scholastica was just about as close in third with 242.

Similar to last year, the NMU women won their half of the meet with their Northern men counterparts third.

In that meet, Richter won the 20K mass start while Katerina Hyncicova was third in the 5K freestyle, while Karsrud led the Northern men with a third place in the 20K mass start.

Members of the CCSA First Team that year were Karsrud, Hyncicova and Richter, while Kolibri Dobrish, Pearl Harvey and Kraftson made the Second Team.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release previewing the meet. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.