IRONWOOD, Mich. â€Ã‚“ The Northern Michigan menâ€Ã‚™s Nordic ski teamopened their season over the weekend at the Grand View XC Challenge, which washeld at the Wolverine Nordic Ski Club in Ironwood, Mich.

The first event of the weekend onSaturday was the College Menâ€Ã‚™s Freestyle event. Bryan Cook captured the event with a time of 22:02.4 less than twoseconds over Matt Weier (22:04.2).  Four other â€Ã‚˜Cat skiers finished the event inthe top 10 as Hjalmar Westiewas fifth (23:22.1) and Joe Graci was sixth(23:18.6).  The next two skiers to placein the event were Michael New who was eighth (23:47.7) and AdriaanOstrander who was ninth (23:58.8).

Ben Cline won the OJ Menâ€Ã‚™sFreestyle race in a time of 23:26.8 about four seconds ahead of teammate RobertBaldwin (23:30.2).

Westieplaced second in the College Menâ€Ã‚™s Classical race on Sunday with a time of24:17.0.  The â€Ã‚˜Cats then took the fourththrough the seventh place in the event. Ostrander led the charge with a fourth place showing (24:54.2) followedby Graci (24:59.3). Cook (25:03.5) and New (25:23.8) were the next two â€Ã‚˜Cats to cross thefinish line in sixth and seventh place respectively.

NMU had the top three finishers inthe OJ Menâ€Ã‚™s Classical event as Baldwin won the eventwith a clocking of 24:45.0.  Cline wassecond (25:43.6) and Cameron Ross was third (25:57.9).

The next event on the schedule forthe skiers is the U.S. National Championships in Mainewhich will be held January 3-10, 2004.

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