The Lode at Michigan Tech » Liz Quinley

Husky skiers perform well at home trails in NCAA Regional Championship

Marc Sanko — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:13:30 +0000

The Michigan Tech ski teams played host this past weekend to a handful of other teams from across the region, as Houghton was the site of the NCAA Central Region Championship. As the teams took to the course, it was supposed to be a break out weekend for the Huskies who had been skiing well all year, and even more so in the past few weeks.

Senior Henna Riikonen-Purtsi finished 4^th in the classic race, giving her an all-region honor. Unfortunately for teammate Liz Quinley, her 11^th place finish would see her miss the all-region honor. Sunday, Riikonen-Purtsi finished 7^th in the freestyle race, giving her a second all-region honor of the weekend, but would get no help in what was a critical race day for the Tech women.

For the men it was a different story in the classic as senior Oskar Lund won the classic race, earning his fourth win of the year and an all-region honor. Two others would finish in the top ten, grabbing all-region honors as well, Jesse Lang (7^th) and Jesse Smith (9^th). The three men would counter their strong performances by racing hard on Sunday. Lund finish 9^th with Smith and Lang finishing 10^th and 11^th, giving Lund and Smith another all-region honor.

The whole weekend would see the Tech Men’s team finish 2^nd out of 8 teams, with the Women’s team finishing in 3^rd out of 9. The skiers will head to Cable, Wisconsin for the American Birkebeiner this Saturday.

Ski teams improve as CCSA and NCAA Central Region championships approach

Marc Sanko — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:36:31 +0000

The Huskies ski team continued a good run in the Central Super Tour this past weekend in Telemark, Wisc. Good showings from both teams is an encouraging sign as the teams will begin to prepare for the CCSA Championships which will be hosted in Ishpeming February 13 and 14. The Ski team will then host the NCAA Central Region Championships here at Tech the weekend after the races in Ishpeming.

But this past weekend saw Oskar Lund for the Men’s team have a stand-out weekend. Lund won the 10k Classic in a time of 29:28 on Saturday, and then skied to a third-place finish in the 15K freestyle. The impressive part about the third-place finish is that Lund was part of a minor crash after battling for the leading spot earlier in the race, and was able to race back and finish so well. Jesse Lang added to the team success with a fifth-place Classic finish and a sixth-place Freestyle finish. Sophomore Jesse Smith added to the Tech top three trio, finishing seventh and ninth in the two respective races.

For the Women, it was stand-out senior Henna Riikonen-Purtsi winning the 10k freestyle for the first time. She finished the 5k the day earlier in fourth place. Help for Riikonen-Purtsi came from senior Jenna Klein who finished ninth in the Classic and 10th in the freestyle. Senior Liz Quinley finished sixth and 12th bringing up the last of the Huskies to finish in the top 10.

Nordic skiers gear up for only home race

Stephen Anderson — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:35:37 +0000

With only a few skiers competing at the West Yellowstone Ski Festival Super Tour over Thanksgiving break, and with last week’s race in Marquette cancelled due to the lack of snow, the Huskies are excited for their first full race and their only home race of the year, the Michigan Tech Challenge, which will take place this Saturday and Sunday.

The snow came at just the right time for Joe Haggenmiller’s men’s and women’s teams to compete on their home trails, which will be groomed and ready to go.

Early indications point to Senior Jesse Lang and sophomore Petter Sjulstad as the men’s leaders, while seniors Karen Jarvey, Laura Kangas and Liz Quinley are expected to lead an experienced group of women’s skiers.

Nordic ski teams preparing to host NCAA Central Regional Championships

Dan Boyer — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:26:51 +0000

The Michigan Tech men’s and women’s nordic ski teams ski at home for the first time this season, hosting the NCAA Central Regional Championship Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Tech trails. It will be the “deciding factor in who qualifies” for the national championships. “We potentially send six athletes to NCAA Championships [in Rumford, Maine], so that’s exciting,” said senior team member Karen Jarvey. “We’re excited to be hosting; it’s a huge advantage to race on the trails we train on daily,” said junior Liz Quinley. “After some good races earlier this year, we know we are [one] of the top three teams in the region.”

Last weekend’s (Feb. 21-22) American Birkebeiner at Hayward, Wis. saw a first-place finish in his Kortelopet race heat by junior Jesse Lang – a racer in a later heat would take first overall.

Tech took a bittersweet second at the Central Collegiate Ski Championships (National Ski Qualifier No. 4) at Camp Ripley in Little Falls, Minn. the previous weekend, coming in just one point behind Northern. Oskar Lund’s Valentine’s Day win in the 10-kilometer classic, beating NMU’s Martin Banerud by nine seconds, was his first in college. Lang came in fourth, and Peter Sjulstad took sixth. A sick Quinley had considered scratching but changed her mind to take fourth in the 15-kilometer freestyle. Still “a little under the weather,” she would finish fifth in the 5k.

Quinley said that although the field was “competitive,” she thinks that Tech is “ready to beat Alaska Fairbanks and challenge Northern Michigan (one of the best Nordic teams in the country).”
The Central Regional Championships will begin on Saturday with the women’s 5k individual start at 12:30 p.m. and the men’s 10k classic start at 1:30 p.m. On Sunday, the men’s 15k will start at 10 a.m. and the women’s 10k at noon.