Women's 5K Results Men's 10K Results
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The Alaska Nanooks' women's skiers landed three of the top four collegiate spots to take the lead in the team standings on the first day of races at the Mayor's Challenge/Wirth SuperTour event on Saturday afternoon at the Theodore Wirth Chalet.
Alaska's women were three points better than their rivals Northern Michigan, edging the Wildcats 75-72 in the team standings. Michigan Tech rounded out the top three teams with 57 points. NMU's men sit in first place after the first day of racing with 74 points, while the Nanooks trail by five points with 69 and MTU is third with 57.
The Blue and Gold are just two points shy of the overall leader NMU (146 points) with 144 and have a 26 point advantage over the Huskies (118).
Junior
Marit Rjabov continued to impress by leading the women's squad by finishing second among college racers and seventh overall, while freshman
Logan Hanneman was equally impressive as the men's top finisher, taking second in the college ranks and ninth overall.
Rjabov finished the five-kilometer classic course in 18 minutes and 32.4 seconds, crossing two spots after NMU's Monica Markvardsen, who was the collegiate champion (fifth overall) in 17:59.6. Alaska sophomore
Raphaela Sieber was second for the Nanooks and third for collegians (10th overall) in 18:36.2, while junior
Crystal Pitney rounded out the scoring skiers in 18:36.2: good for fourth (college) and 13th (overall), respectively.
Other Nanooks included
Heather Edic, who placed 26th in 19:16,
Alyson McPhetres, who was 34th in 19:31,
Rebecca Konieczny, who was 37th in 19:35, and Heidi Brook, 38th in 19:36.
In the men's 10k, Hanneman was just seven seconds behind the top college racer and NMU's Kjell-Christian Markset, who finished eighth overall in 23 minutes and 4.1 seconds. The Fairbanks rookie also landed a top-ten spot with a ninth place finish in 23:11.4.
Senior
Erik Soderstrom was second for Alaska and fourth among his peers (19th overall) in 23:41 and junior
Tyler Kornfield, who despite being ill raced anyway and took third for the Nanooks, was 10th among college skiers (27th overall) in 24:02.
Other Nanooks included freshman
Ludwig Schott (29th in 24:06) and seniors
Ian Wilkinson (35th in 24:33) and
Alex Morris (36th in 24:34).
Alaska will look to repeat last weekend's feat by closing the gap on the second day of racing to take the title from the 'Cats on Sunday.
