NCAA Skiing Championships - Day 1 Complete Results
BOZEMAN, Mont. - In spite of near-perfect conditions, Wednesday proved a tough day on the Bohart Ranch trails for the five men's and women's skiers representing the Alaska Nanooks, who were unable to crack the top-20 finishers on the first day of races at the 2012 NCAA Skiing Championships.
"It was a pretty bad day for the Nanooks," said head coach Scott Jerome. "We got thumped pretty hard in today's five and 10-kilometer individual start free technique races."
Alaska's top performer on the day was first-year skier Logan Hanneman, who finished 22nd overall in 27 minutes and 1.8 seconds on the men's 10k course. Junior Tyler Kornfield, who was the Nanooks' other competitor in the field of 39 men's racers, crossed in 28:26.3 for 27th place.
"The bright spot was freshman Logan Hanneman's 22nd place finish," Jerome said. "It's very respectable for a first-year skier."
Northern Michigan's Erik Soderman was crowned the individual race champion with a course time of 25:20.2.
On the women's side Raphaela Sieber was 33rd (16:22.7), Marit Rjabov was 34th (16:31.4), and Crystal Pitney 39th (17:14.8). Utah's Maria Graefnings was the ladies' individual champion crossing the tape in 14:05.9.
After Day One, the Nanooks are in 13th place out of 20 competing at the national championship event with 34 points. Dartmouth leads the team standings with 214 points, while Vermont is second (183), Utah is in third (179), host Montana State is in fourth (176) and Colorado and Northern Michigan are tied for fifth with 154 points.
The Nordic skiers will get a day off, while the first day of the Alpine events kicks off on Thursday, before heading into Friday's mass start classic technique events. The men will take to the starting line for their 20k race at 9 a.m. MST (7 a.m. AKST), followed by the women's 15k at 11 a.m. MST (9 a.m. AKST).
"We are all licking our wounds a bit, but we are going to set this one aside and prepare for Friday's 15 and 20 km mass start classical events."
Friday's event will be webstreamed live on NCAA.com, while start lists and results are being posted on BartTiming.com and MSU's online NCAA Skiing Championship Headquarters.
