Nanook Skiers Second at CCSA Championships, Four to NCAAs
HOUGHTON, MI-Four skiers qualified for the NCAA Championships, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks' cross country ski team finished second in their region as the two-day, Central Collegiate Ski Association championships concluded Sunday afternoon at Michigan Tech.
The Nanooks finished second in the men's 15k freestyle race Sunday, while the UAF women were fourth in the 10k freestyle event. That left Alaska Fairbanks in second place overall in the combined scoring with 275 points, 65 points behind CCSA champ Northern Michigan. Wisconsin-Green Bay was third with 269 points, host MTU fourth with 249, Gustavus Adolphus fifth with 216, St. Olaf sixth with 186, St. John's seventh with 86, St. Benedict eighth with 64, St. Cloud State ninth with 43, and Finlandia 10th with 42.
The men ranked second in freestyle, which, combined with their second place finish in Saturday's classical race, placed them second among men's team, with 155 points. The women were third in the classical race, tied for fourth in freestyle and fourth in women's scoring with 120 points.
Sophomore Johanna Turunen (Joensuu, Finland) was ill and was unable to race Sunday. Freshman Kasandra Rice (Anchorage, AK) led the Nanook women, finishing 10th overall in 34:45, and 3:27 behind the winner, Lindsey Williams of Northern Michigan. Graduate student Heidi Rader (Fairbanks, AK) was 15th in 35:07, and freshman
Tamra Kornfield (Anchorage, AK) was 33rd in 38:07.
"It was unfortunate that Johanna woke up sick, and couldn't race," said UAF Head Coach
Scott Jerome. "Johanna still qualified for the NCAAs, based on her earlier strong showing. Kasandra tied with Tanya Cook and Johanna Winters of Wisconsin-Green Bay for the last two spots in the NCAAs, and, based on the tie-breaker, Kasandra was bumped out and will be the first alternate."
For the men, junior Jed Kallen-Brown (Fairbanks, AK) was seventh in 42:02, 1:37 behind the winner, Chris Cook of the United States Ski Team. Freshman
Marius Korthauer (Bonndorff, Germany) was eighth in 42:29, sophomore Jonas Tetlie (Kabelvaag, Norway) was 13th in 42:49, and freshman
Tyson Flaharty (Fairbanks, AK) was 28th in 44:35.
Kallen-Brown qualified for the NCAAs, along with junior Thomas Oyberg (Skjak, Norway) and junior Erik Wickstrom (Boras, Sweden), who qualified on the basis of their strong showings earlier, but were unable to make the trip due to illness.
"On the guys' side, Northern Michigan got even for what we did to them at Telemark," said Jerome. "They did a fantastic job, Jed and Marius had good races and Jonas had an OK race. Tyson, who was our number two racer yesterday, had his back seize up on him after seven kilometers, and it hampered him and forced him to drop back. On the women's side, it hurt us not having Johanna today, and Kasandra has been sick for a few weeks and is still recovering."
Jerome said that overall, his team had acquitted themselves well. "Finishing second in the region was a good result for us, considering that we didn't have our top two men's skiers, our top women's skier was out Sunday and Tyson was hurt," said Jerome. "It shows that we're one of the best teams in the region, and now we hope to show that we're one of the best teams in the nation. We have to go home, rest and get healthy."
Oyberg, Wickstrom, Kallen-Brown and Turunen will represent the Nanooks at the NCAA Championships in Stowe, VT March 10th and 12th.
-UAF SKIING-
