COLERAINE, Minn. — Michigan Tech’s Sarah Goble stood atop the podium of the 5K skate at the CCSA Mt. Itasca Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.

Goble topped the 5K skate field with a time of 16:11.7, finishing 13 seconds ahead of Northern Michigan’s Nadine Matter. Henriette Semb finished fourth with a time of 16:30.6, while Oda Hovland crossed the finish line in 16:41.2 to take sixth, and Anabel Needham recorded a time of 17:07.1 for a finish of ninth-place.

“We had a number of strong performances for the men and the women,” said head coach Tom Smith. “One of the points of focus this weekend was to score points for NCAA qualification. We had some success there, and having a number of athletes be able to score for the team with top three finishes is a great sign that any one of our student-athletes can be the leading scorer for us on any given day.”

In the first competition for Tech since hosting the 2020 L.L. Bean U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships earlier this month, the Huskies continued their strong start to the season by scoring a number of strong individual performances in Saturday’s skate races.

In the men’s 10K skate, six Huskies finished inside the top 10. Reid Goble crossed the finish line in 28:11.9 to finish fourth, and he was followed closely by Patrick Acton in fifth with a time of 28:28.9. Aleksi Leino finished sixth with a time of 28:58.1, and Mark Ousdigian recorded a time of 29:01.5 to place seventh. Rounding out the top-10 finishers for Tech was Mitch DeLong in ninth (29:27.0) and David Jaszczak in 10th (29:39.1).

In Sunday’s men’s 20K classic, Reid Goble earned a spot on the podium after a third-place finish as he crossed the finish line in a time of 59:19.9. Aleksi Leino recorded a time of 59:56.1 to place sixth, while Mark Ousdigian (eighth, 59:57.0), David Jaszczak (ninth, 1:00:48.6), and Patrick Acton (10th, 1:01:00.4) rounded out the top 10 for Michigan Tech. In the women’s 15K classic, four MTU skiers finished inside the top 10. Henriette Semb, Sarah Goble, and Oda Hovland finished 4-5-6 in the race with Semb clocking in at 51:52.8, Goble recording a time of 52:01.0, and Hovland crossed the finish line at 52:21.5. Emma Albrecht placed ninth in a time of 53:57.6 in her first race since winning the Girls’ Junior Classic Sprint on the final day of the 2020 L.L. Bean U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships.

The Huskies will hit the competition course again on January 26 for the CCSA Gitchi Gamie Games in Cable, Wisconsin. The men will ski in the 10K Classic at 10:30 a.m., while the women’s 10K Classic race will begin at 11:45 a.m.