4th Annual
Marquette, Michigan
January 26, 2002
42K Freestyle Marathon
Overall Gender Group Place Time Pace/Km
Place Place
99 92 Eric Piscopo M45-49 20/79 2:12:12 3:08
239 213 Tom Piippo M45-49 53/79 2:41:58 3:51
243 217 Mario Festival M45-49 55/79 2:43:11 3:53
334 287 Alan Sloan M65-69 2 / 2 3:29:21 4:59
Starters: 358, 52 females, 306 males
Finishers: 352, 51 females, 301 males
42K Classic Marathon
Overall Gender Group Place Time Pace/Km
Place Place
91 9 Marg Meincke F45-49 1 / 2 3:21:09 4:47
Starters: 132, 17 females, 115 males
Finishers: 130, 17 females, 113 males
The following story was from the Noquemanon Ski Marathon web site.
NOQUEMANON IV A HUGE SUCCESS
Marquette, MI, January 26, 2002 – The smiling faces of almost 900 skiers on Saturday told the story of the fourth running of Michigan’s largest skiing event, the Noquemanon Ski Marathon. After race officials altered the course slightly and hauled in snow to lower elevations because of the unusually mild winter, skiers were rewarded with great skiing over almost the entire 42 kilometer course. Due to the low snow level, the normal 53 K distance was shortened to 42k and its start was moved to the Dead River Basin. A six kilometer jaunt along the Basin brought skiers to the regular Noque course and the dash to the Superior Dome in downtown Marquette was on!
Skiers first got to enjoy the 400 foot climb into Granite Pointe and its rocky bluffs and clifftop overlooks, the Mead Highlands, scenic views of Lake Superior and the 1,000 foot descent. The feature event was the 42 K Classic races, one of the Champion’s Cup races to determine the overall American Ski Marathon Series Champion, and it featured a very strong field. Despite Team Rossignol’s Justin Freeman taking the cash as the first over the Subaru Road Crossing Preme Line 15 K into the race, the Subaru Factory Team ruled the day in the men’s race.
In the Mead Highlands, Swedish native Magnus Eriksson pulled away from teammates Dave Stewart, Chad Geise and Scott Loomis to win the men’s race in a time of 1:49:38. Stewart and Geise finished second and third. On the women’s side, Norway’s Unni Oddegaard made it a classic sweep for the Subaru Factory Team. She continued her dominance on the ASM circuit by leading from the start and winning by more than seven minutes over former Olympian Suzanne King of Bend, Oregon. Irene Eder of Denver took third. The 42 K men’s freestyle crown was taken by Duluth’s Brian May in a time of 1:44:31. He was followed by Christopher Sachs of Marquette and Dale Niggeman of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. The ladies’ race came down to an exciting sprint to the finish by three Duluth skiers. Team Rossi’s JoAnn Hanowski managed to hold off hard charging Sara Zimmer and Abigail May to take the win by just hundredths of a second.
Winners in the 25k National Ski Hall of Fame Half Marathon were Team Rossi’s Pete Moran (Minneapolis) in the Men’s Classic, Cory Coogan (Hudson, WI) in the Women’s Classic, Joey Graci (Marquette) in the Men’s Freestyle, and Maggie Sorenson (Marquette) in the Women’s Freestyle.
Skiers were generally very pleased with the conditions and thrilled that the race was held after so many cancellations on the Midwest race calendar this winter. “For the kind of weather we’ve been having, its amazing they could even pull this off,” stated Lynn Johnson of Marquette.
Race organizers reported that all events went off smoothly with over 1,000 skiers participating in the weekend’s events. Race day weather was 20 F degree temperatures in the morning rising to the low 30’s F under mostly cloudy skies.