GIANTS RIDGE, Minn. â€Ã‚“ The NMU womenâ€Ã‚™s cross countryski team competed at the CCSA Regional Championships over the weekend at GiantsRidge, Minn.  The event was scheduled tobe competed on Saturday and Sunday, but because of the forecast of cold weatherthe competition was held in one day.

NMU won the womenâ€Ã‚™s 5km freestyle event with 83 points, asAlaska Fairbanks was second with 81 points. Scoring points for the â€Ã‚˜Cats were Rachel Daw who was second with a timeof 15:17.2 as she was 17 seconds off the winning time of 15:00.2.  Hilary Patzer was next in third place with atime of 15:20.8.  The third scorer forNMU was Maria Stuber in fifth place as she raced the course in 15:31.1.

The second event on the docket was the womenâ€Ã‚™s 10km classic asthe â€Ã‚˜Cats won that event with 83 points. Alaska Fairbanks was second again with 79 points.  Scoring points for the â€Ã‚˜Cats in this eventwere Daw who was second as she skated the course in 30:05.8.  The winning time was a 29:51.7 turned in bySigrid Aas of Alaska Fairbanks.  Fifteenseconds behind Daw was teammate Patzer in third place (30:20.6).  Tami Kochen placed fifth in the event andwas the final scorer for the â€Ã‚˜Cats (30:37.1).

Daw, Patzer and Kochen will represent NMU at the NCAA SkiingChampionships at Dartmouth College, March 3-8, in Hanover, N.H.