Banerud and DeWitt win Central Region classic ski titles
Sun, Mar 1, 2009 - By Matias Saari
Laura DeWitt of Northern Michigan University defended her classic-technique title at the NCAA Central Region Championships on Saturday in Houghton, Mich., by cruising to an easy 5-kilometer win.
DeWitt's time of 17 minutes, 33 seconds was nearly a half-minute faster than teammate Marie Helen Soderman (18:00) on the Michigan Tech University Trails.
The thinnest of margins decided the men's 10-kilometer crown, as NMU's Martin Banerud edged Michigan Tech University's Oskar Lund by 0.4 seconds. Banerud won in 29:58.9 while Lund clocked 29:59.3 and defending champion Phil Violett of NMU was third in 30:14.4.
In the team standings (comprised of all the schools in the Central Collegiate Ski Association), NMU's men have a narrow margin so far over MTU (93-89) while NMU's women are comfortably ahead with 95 points to MTU's 82.
The Central Region Championships conclude Sunday with mass-start freestyle races.
Below are overall results (which include open-class skiers), college results (from which the regions standings are taken) and team results for both men and women
Women
Men