March 1, 2009 (Houghton, Mich.) – Laura DeWitt of Northern Michigan University defended her classic-technique title at the NCAA Central Region Championships on Saturday in Houghton, Mich., by cruising to an easy 5-kilometer win. DeWitt’s time of 17 minutes, 33 seconds was nearly a half-minute faster than teammate Marie Helen Soderman (18:00) on the Michigan Tech University Trails.

The thinnest of margins decided the men’s 10-kilometer crown, as NMU’s Martin Banerud edged Michigan Tech University’s Oskar Lund by 0.4 seconds. Banerud won in 29:58.9 while Lund clocked 29:59.3 and defending champion Phil Violett of NMU was third in 30:14.4.

In the team standings (comprised of all the schools in the Central Collegiate Ski Association), NMU’s men have a narrow margin so far over MTU (93-89) while NMU’s women are comfortably ahead with 95 points to MTU’s 82.

The Central Region Championships conclude Sunday with mass-start freestyle races.

Results (brief)

Women
1. Laura Dewitt (NMU College) 0:17:33.4
2. Marie Helen Soderman (NMU) 0:26.7
3. Carolyn Freeman (UWGB) 0:34.8

Men
1. Martin Banerud (NMU) 0:29:58.9
2. Oskar Lund (MTU) 0:00.4
3. Phil Violett (NMU) 0:15.5