ISHPEMING, Mich. - Sophomore Raphela Sieber and junior
Tyler Kornfield paced the women's and men's ski teams with fifth and sixth place finishes, respectively, on the first day of the NCAA Central Region Championships on Friday afternoon at the Al Quaal Ski Trails.
Combined, the Nanooks sit in third place with 138 points behind the leader Northern Michigan (170 points) and second-place Michigan Tech (144). College of St. Scholastica is in fourth overall with 128 points collectively.
The Nanooks are third on the women's side with 71 points, trailing the 'Cats by 14 points (85) and the Huskies by just four (75). For the men, they sit in fourth with 67 points, with NMU (85), CSS (73) and MTU (69) holding down the top three rankings.
Sieber had one of the best races of the season, finishing the five-kilometer interval start event in 15 minutes and 36.2 seconds. NMU's Marie Soderman beat out 52 others for gold in 15:14.0, while MTU's Alice Flanders crossed second in 15:30.1, edging out NMU's second finisher Monica Marvardsen by three-tenths of a second (15:30.4).
Juniors
Marit Rjabov and
Crystal Pitney crossed eighth and ninth to round out Alaska's top-three and scoring finishers, in 15:50.2 and 15:55.3, respectively. Both racers are on the bubble
Sophomore
Heather Edic was 12th (16:00.3),
Heidi O'Connor-Brook was 15th (16:16.3) and rookie
Alyson McPhetres was 18th (16:21.5).
In the men's race, Kornfield was the only top-ten fishers, while Erik Soederstroem was 15
th in 26:25.5 and
Ian Wilkinson was 16
th in 26:30.9 as Alaska's scoring skiers. NMU's Erik Soderman was the men's champion, completing the 10k course in 24 minutes and 30.5 seconds.
Rookie
Ludwig Schott was the next Alaska finisher in 17
th (26:47.7), who was followed by freshman Jonas Loeffler (24
th, 27:04.7) and senior
Alex Morris (25
th, 27:07.3) to round out the Nanook racers in the field of 52 racers.
The teams return to the trails on Saturday morning for the final day of races. The men's 15-kilometer mass start classic technique event begins at 10 a.m. EST with the women following in a 10k mass start race at 12:30 p.m. EST.
