Michigan Tech’s Hannah Loughlin (255) and Anabel Needham (257) set the pace for the Huskies women’s cross country team during the Yooper Skirmish race Saturday at the Tech Trails in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech Trails were a sea of Black and Gold on Saturday as the MTU cross country teams opened the season in a dominating fashion. The meet, dubbed the “Yooper Skirmish” featured the Tech men and women runners hosting the Lake Superior State Lakers to a showdown on the trails. The race proved to be a good preview for the upcoming 2023 GLIAC Cross Country Championships, which Tech will be hosting in late October.

The men ran their 8K first. Wearing bib number 241, Tech’s Tucker Ringhand came in first with a time of 25:39.28.

“I felt good,” he said. “I was able to conserve energy and kept in mind that the last (kilometer) was going to be all uphill.”

He added that he knew what he was facing in the last kilometer, and wanted to be in a position to not have to pass anyone at the end.

“I paced myself for the first mile or so with a couple of other runners and then made my move up front,” he said.

After more than 15 other Tech runners crossed the finish line, Lake Superior State’s Ethan Nachazel was the first to come in for the Lakers with a time of 28:21.10. It was his first time running at the Tech Trails.

“It was a hard course with lots of hills,” he stated.

His twin brother, Aaron was just 25 seconds behind him. They were one quarter of the eight Lake Superior runners who made the trip from Sault Ste. Marie.

“It felt good to get those pre-race jitters out here at the start of the season,” Aaron said. “My effort felt good, and I felt strong at the end – all positive things here on opening day.”

After all the men finished, it was time for the women’s 6K, and the Tech women controlled that one as well.

Leading the Huskies pack was Hannah Loughlin with a first-place time of 22:53.71.

“It was tough being the first race of the year,” she said. “One of the good things though is that we have a good pack to run with this year.”

The Tech “pack” placed first through 13th before Lake Superior’s Sydney Kapushinski crossed the finish line at the 26:28.15 mark.

“It’s hilly on the back side of the course,” she said, “so I tried to conserve some energy going down towards that.”

Kapushinski, a junior, was one of nine Lakers women to run on Saturday.

“We are a young team,” she added. “We have a lot of incoming freshmen, but they are all hard workers and eager to learn. This was a good start to the year.”

UP NEXT

The Huskies travel to Green Bay on Friday, Sept. 8, for the Phoenix Open hosted by University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The men will race at 3 p.m. and the women at 4 p.m.