STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO - Senior
Johanna Turunen (Joensuu, Finland) capped her University of Alaska Fairbanks career with a second place finish in the women's 15km freestyle competition at the 2006 NCAA Ski Championships on the trails of Howelsen Hill on Saturday.
While Turunen picked up her third career All-America honors, sophomore
Marius Korthauer (Bonndorf, Germany) turned in his second All-American performance of this year's championships by finishing seventh in the men's 20km freestyle and junior
Bart Dengel (Valdez, AK) earned All-American honors for the first time in his career by finishing eighth.
In the women's race, skiers completed three laps around the 5km course. Turunen, Colorado's Jana Rehemaa and Middlebury's Evelyn Dong pulled away from the field turning it into a three-person race. In a sprint to the finish, Rehemaa pulled away for a 10-second victory (46:27.4) over Turunen (46:37.4) and Dong (46:38.6).
Senior
Pavla Havlova (Jince, Czech Republic), the only other Nanook woman competitor, finished 24th (50:12.0).
In the four-lap men's race, Korthauer followed up his second place performance in Thursday's 10km classic race by finishing eighth in a time of 56:11.7. Dengel crossed the line seven seconds later in 56:18.9.
Senior
Erik Wickstrom (Boras, Sweden), also competing in his final race for the Nanooks, finished 17th in a time of 57:38.4 as the men's team had all three racers finish in the top-20 at the championships.
For the championships, UAF finished 10th overall with 271 points and finished fifth in the Nordic competition, edging the University of Alaska Anchorage by one point (271-270). Since 1977, this is the third time the Nanooks have finished 10th in the overall standings, the last coming in 2004.
Turunen finished sixth in the 2004 5km free and eighth in last year's 15km free for her previous All-American honors.
Championship host Colorado had a dominating performance to win the national championship with 654 points. New Mexico finished second with 556 points, followed by Dartmouth in third with 537.5 points. Defending national champion Denver finished fourth, 522.5.
- UAF SKIING -
