FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's ski teams kicked off their season in stellar fashion, combining to take a 28-14 lead over Alaska Anchorage after the first of three days of races on Friday night at Birch Hill.
Alaska's women dominated the two-kilometer interval start classic event, taking the top seven spots and placing 10 skiers in the top 12! Only the top three finishers counted for each team and there was no displacement, giving the women a perfect score of 15 (6-5-4) points to UAA's six (3-2-1).
“Though one race in the big picture of the entire season means very little, we are quite pleased with the ways things went today and I am proud of the team,” said head coach
Scott Jerome. “Our skiers prepared well and executed when it counted.”
Senior
Rebecca Konieczny (Biological Sciences) led the Blue and Gold by posting her first collegiate win, 1.5 seconds over classmate
Marit Rjabov (Psychology). Also scoring for the Nanooks was sophomore
Alyson McPhetres (Geological Engineering) who took third, 7.8 seconds behind Koniecnzy.
The Nanook men also had a strong showing in their season debut. Led by sophomore
Logan Hanneman (Mechanical Engineering), the Nanooks scored 13 points (6-4-3) to UAA's eight (5-2-1) with four racers in the top five and seven in the top 10. Hanneman won the three-kilometer event by an impressive 14.9 seconds over UAA's top man, Lasse Moelgaard who took second overall. Senior
Tyler Kornfield (Mechanical Engineering) was third, while sophomore Jonas Löffler (Business) was fourth.
The women were right at the NCAA/USSA/FIS cutoff of at the start of their race, when the temperature on Birch Hill teetered at negative four degrees Fahrenheit, but the weather improved as it went on and was one degree above zero by the time the men's race ended.
Fairbanks area forecasts are calling for a high of -11F on Saturday; however, an inversion could create conditions warm enough for the second day of Nordic Cup races.
Saturday's races are scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. for the women and 12:45 p.m. for the men. Both events are classic technique mass starts and the women will race a five-kilometer course, followed by the men going 7.5km.
“We still have two races to go in the Nordic Cup and UAA is a good team,” Jerome said. “They are not going to roll over so we must be ready to go on Saturday and Sunday.”
Nordic Cup Day 1
Women's 2KM Classic Prologue
1.
Rebecca Konieczny, Alaska - 6:26.1
2.
Marit Rjabov, Alaska - 6:27.6
3.
Alyson McPhetres, Alaska - 6:33.9
4.
Raphaela Sieber, Alaska - 6:39.1
5.
Theresia Schnurr, Alaska - 6:39.3
6. Heidi Brook, Alaska - 6:43.5
7.
Heather Edic, Alaska - 6:43.8
8. Marine Dusser, UAA - 6:49.1
9.
Kryston McPhetres, Alaska - 6:51.1
10. Patricia Sprecher, UAA - 6:51.7
11.
Julia Ebner, Alaska - 6:52.3
12.
Crystal Pitney, Alaska - 6:53.5
13. Karina Smith, UAA - 6:57.1
14. Maya Radonich, UAA - 6:58.8
15. Cara McCulloch, UAA - 7:12.5
Men's 3KM Classic Prologue
1.
Logan Hanneman, UAF - 8:32.8
2. Lasse Moelgaard, UAA - 8:47.7
3.
Tyler Kornfield, UAF - 8:49.3
4. Jonas Loeffler, UAF - 8:49.7
5.
Max Olex, UAF - 8:50.4
6. Lukas Ebner, UAA - 8:53.5
7. Viktor Braennmark, UAA - 8:54.3
8.
Michael Fehrenbach, UAF - 8:57.3
9.
Ian Wilkinson, UAF - 8:59.0
10.
Lars Arneson, UAF - 9:07.2
11. Davis Dunlap, UAA - 9:08.7
12. Galen Johnston, UAA - 9:12.9
13.
Andrew Arnold, UAF - 9:18.7
14.
Stefan Hajdukovich, UAF - 9:19.0
15.
Kenneth Brewer, UAF - 9:19.3
16. John Glen, UAA - 9:37.6
17.
Wyatt Mayo, UAF - 9:44.1
