FAIRBANKS – In day two of the Nordic Cup, the Alaska Nanook ski team earned a first place finish in the men's sprint relay and a second-place finish on the women's side, but were unable to retain the Nordic Cup as Alaska Anchorage bested the Nanooks over the two day period.
For the men, Hallvard Evjestad earned his second first-place finish in as many days as he followed up his freestyle win yesterday with a relay win today, along with partner Logan Hanneman. The two combined for a race best 18:31.24, ahead of a pair of Anchorage relays who took second and third.
"It was a very good day of racing by both teams today," said head coach Scott Jerome. "Our team gave it our best shot and had a relay win today which was great. I'm really proud of our effort."
Issac Lammers and Nick Lovett took fourth for the men, with a time of 18:57.26 while Eckert Alexander and Stefan Hajdukovich took fifth place in a time of 19:19.93.
On the women's side, Anne-Tine Markset and Nichole Bathe combined to finish in 21:55.64 earning a second-place finish for the Nanooks. Markset also finished second in yesterday's freestyle event.
Sarissa Lammers and Alyson McPhetres took the fourth spot in a time of 23:03.77. The partnerships of Kryston McPhetres and Ann-Cathrin Uhl (fifth) as well as Martina Himma and Hannah Stevens (sixth) finished next for Alaska with respective times of 23:29.29 and 24:10.77.
All-in-all, Alaska Anchorage won the Nordic Cup back from the Nanooks as they raced 39 total seconds faster than Alaska over the two day period. The Seawolves' total race time was 3:05:36.6 compared to the Nanooks' 3:06:15.6.
The Nanooks are now idle until January 4 when they travel to Houghton, Mich. To compete at the U.S. Nationals, hosted by Michigan Tech.
