GIANTS RIDGE, Minn. â€Ã‚“ The NMU menâ€Ã‚™s cross country skiteam 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.

The NMU men took second in the 10km freestyle race with 80points.  Alaska Fairbanks won the eventwith 85 points.  The â€Ã‚˜Cats took three ofthe top six places in the event for their points.  Scoring points for NMU were Chris Cook who was second in theevent with a time of 25:15.0.  MichalMalak of Alaska Fairbanks won the event with a clocking of 25:02.1.  Dave Duede was fifth (26:11.6) as teammateHjalmar Westie was right behind him in sixth place (26:13.2).

NMU won the 10km classic race with 86 points.  Fairbanks was second with 79 points.  C. Cook won the event as he skated thecourse in 26:16.5.  Filardo was secondin a time of 26:53.6.  He had to placeat least second to qualify for the NCAA Skiing Championships.  Bryan Cook was the third and final scorerfor the â€Ã‚˜Cats in fourth place (26:55.4).

C. Cook, Duede and Filardo will represent NMU at the NCAASkiing Championships at Dartmouth College, March 3-8, in Hanover, N.H.