Jan. 6, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Anchorage, AK - Strong skiing on the women's side has the Alaska Nanooks men and women's ski team sitting in a combined sixth place after day one of the 2009 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships in Anchorage.
The two-day delay did not seem to affect the women's ski team as they raced very well on Monday and are in third place in the women's College Cup standings. Anna Coulter was the first Nanook skier to cross the finish line in the 5K at 16:08.4 and in 26th place overall. Julia Pierson was just four spots behind her twin sister in 30th place with a time of 16:17.6.
Coulter and Pierson, along with Elisabeth Habermann (53rd, 16:52.3) and Theresia Schnurr (57th, 16:57.4) helped the Blue and Gold collect 131 points. They only trail UAA (152 points) and Dartmouth (142 points) heading into day two.
On the men's side, the Nanooks are sitting in 10th place out of 19 teams. Oyvind Watterdal was the first Nanook to cross the finish line with a 10K time of 27:52.1 and finished 58th overall.
The next three skiers for Alaska finished within seven second of each other. Alex Morris crossed in 74th place with a time of 28:21.5, closely followed by Einar Often (79th, 28:23.0) and John Parry (83rd, 28:28.3).
The men combined for 83 points and are looking up at nine teams, including Colorado who is leading after day one with 161 points.
Weather permitting, day two of the 2009 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships with get under way at 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
