MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Three members of the St. Olaf College men's and women's Nordic skiing teams competed in the two-day Mayor's XC Ski Challenge at Theodore Wirth Park on Saturday and Sunday.

First year Lance Hastings, first year Liesl Cope-Schaeffer, and sophomore Lily Ward represented St. Olaf at the event, which was one of four Salomon CXC Cup qualifier races for the Junior National Nordic Ski Championships.

On Saturday, Cope-Schaeffer both advanced to the semifinals of the Freestyle Sprint in the U18/20 category, while Hastings did not advance from the qualifier after finishing 44th (3:18.72). Cope-Schaeffer (8th, 3:41.06) and Ward (11th, 3:42.64) started the day by posting top-12 times in the qualifier to move on to the quarterfinals. Ward (3:39.04) and Cope-Schaeffer (3:32.12) both finished second in their respective quarterfinals to proceed to the semifinals, where Ward was third (3:37.34) in the first semifinal and Cope-Schaeffer was sixth (3:34.99) in the second.

Cope-Schaeffer and Hastings also raced in Sunday's 10K U18/20/Senior Freestyle Mass Start events, with Cope-Schaeffer taking fifth (28:28.7) in the women's race and Hastings placing 48th (26:48.3) in the men's.

St. Olaf will head to Duluth for the College of St. Scholastica Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) Invite on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 1-2.