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Nordic Cup Day 1 Results]
ANCHORAGE, AK - The Alaska Nanook ski teams took to the trails for the first day of the Alaska Nordic Cup series, edging the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves 21.5-20.5 Saturday afternoon at Kincaid Park.
Senior
Anna Coulter (Traverse City, MI) was the women's champion as the Blue and Gold outscored their hosts 13.5-7.5. In the men's race sophomore
Alex Morris (Anchorage, AK) paced Alaska finishing third as UAA bested the Nanooks 13-8.
Led by Coulter's 10k course time of 24:34, the Blue and Gold captured four of the top five spots in the women's event. Second place was declared a tie between Coulter's twin sister
Julia Pierson (Traverse City, MI) and UAA's Laura Rombach (24:38) because a moose on the trail during the race caused Pierson a substantial delay that allowed several of her teammates to catch her in waiting. Senior
Elisabeth Angeles (Soldotna, AK), who was the first skier to encounter the cow on the trail finished fourth (25:13) and her classmate
Aurelia Korthauer (Bonndorf, Germany) took fifth in 25:28.
Alaska's other racers included sophomore
Theresia Schnurr (Buhlertal, Germany) (25:28) and rookie
Marit Rjabov (Voru, Estonia) (26:06).
In the men's 15k interval start freestyle race, Morris finished behind the Seawolves' top-two men in third and just two seconds faster (33:24) than his teammate
Ray Sabo (Whitehorse, Yukon) (4th), who was clocked at 33:24. Rounding out the scoring racers was sophomore
Henri Soom (Tartu, Estonia) in 6th place (33:49).
Freshman
Tyler Kornfield (Anchorage, AK) (33:50), junior
Einar Often (Tynset, Norway) (33:56) and sophomore Eric Soderstrom
Erik Soderstrom (As, Sweden) (35:02) also crossed the finish line for the Nanooks.
The Nanooks lead the Nordic Cup series, 3-1-1 after claiming the title in the last two years. They will look to defend the title and capture their third consecutive Nordic Cup tomorrow morning, when the teams conclude the series at Hilltop. The women's 3-by-5k classical-classical-skate relay begins at 10 a.m., followed by the men's 3-by-10k relay race (same format) at 11:45 a.m.
