FAIRBANKS – Head coach
Scott Jerome announced the men's skiing program has signed its third recruit to a National Letter of Intent as
Jan Čech (pronounced YON Check) (Jilemnice, Czech Republic) will join the team next season.
"Jan is an accomplished skier both in the Czech Republic and in Central Europe," Jerome said. "He has FIS (International Ski Federation) points we are looking for, he's an extremely personable guy with a very good attitude and is also a good student, so he has the full package we are looking for here. He's going to bring an ability to train immediately with the top guys on the team and score points in his first season."
Čech joins the Nanooks after a long skiing career in his native country, the Czech Republic, which has spanned 16 years. He attended Gymnázium a SOŠ Jilemnice as a prep and was a dual-sport athlete competing in both skiing and cross country.
Most notably, he was the champion in both the 2x2-kilometer and 3x3-kilometer races in the Czech national championships. Čech's best performance this past season was an 89.76 point FIS race in the 10K classic at Horni Misecky in the Czech Republic. He also finished 44th at the 2012 World Mountain Running Championship, which was an 8.8K race in Temu-Ponte de Legno, Italy.
Čech intends to major in electrical engineering upon his enrollment in the fall. He joins Anchorage natives
Daniel Serventi and
Seiji Takagi on the list of incoming Nanooks for 2014-15.
