Feb. 7, 2009
Besh Cup Results Day 1 
Fairbanks, AK - Birch Hill was the site for the Besh Cup's fifth event on Saturday afternoon in which skiers of all levels were vying to make the junior national team, and for Alaska's Rebecca Konieczny, she took one step closer.
Konieczny's 13th places finish in the classic 5K-stagger start has her in sixth place for the overall Cup standings with tomorrow's race at Birch Hill being the final qualifier. The top 15 skiers in the standings make the junior national team.
"We are confident she will make the top 15," Head Coach Scott Jerome stated after the race. "We are going to hold her out of tomorrow's race so she can get some rest for next weekend's NCAA qualifier."
Konieczny is the only UAF skier races for junior nationals.
Red shirt senior Aurelia Korthauer won Saturday's race with a time of 16:14.90. She was the fastest skier by 19 seconds, which Jerome jokingly said was the curse of the red shirt. "I believe she will come back even stronger though, next year."
The rest of the Nanooks that participated used today's race as more practice. On the men's side, Erik Soderstrom finished in 5th position overall. His time of 30:15.20 in the 10K was just six seconds behind UAF's National Champion of a year ago, Marius Korthauer.
"Erik has been getting stronger in each race and that's an encouraging thing to see," Jerome said.
The Besh Cup concludes tomorrow at Birch Hill with the juniors set to start at 11:00 a.m. The races will be a freestyle technique.
Besh Cup Results Day 2
The second day of the Besh Cup was a quiet one for Alaska skiers as only two competed on the men's side, and one on the women's side.
It was red-shirt senior Aurelia Korthauer that raced in the women's 10K freestyle mass start on Sunday. Korthauer, racing as an independant, finished in second place overall. Korthauer's time of 34:42.00 was 20 seconds behind first place Kate Fitzgerald.
The men raced Cody Priest and Will Coleman on Sunday. Priest finished the 10K in 22nd and Coleman in 24th. Older Brother of Aurelia Korthauer, and recent graduate, Marius Korthauer, won the race by 25 seconds with a time of 28:33.90.
Alaska coach Scott Jerome decided to hold his skiers out of the races at Birch Hill this weekend to prepare for next weekends NCAA qualifier in Minnesota. This will be NCAA qualifier No.4 out of five for the Nanooks which Jerome referred to it as "Extremely important."
