ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams open the 2017-18 season this Saturday, Nov. 18 and Sunday, Nov. 19 by facing-off against in-state rival Alaska Anchorage in the 14th annual Nordic Cup Invitational in Anchorage. Please note, due to weather conditions, all races, times and locations are subject to change.

"We're looking forward to racing this weekend against UAA in Anchorage in our annual Nordic Cup series," third-year head coach Nick Crawford said on Wednesday. "With all the fresh snow we've had great training conditions the last couple of weeks. We had our first snow intervals at race pace last week and I was really impressed with how the team looked."
 

Opponent	University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves
Location	Independence Mine Trails | Hatchers Pass, Alaska
Dates & Times	Saturday, Nov. 18: Men at 10am AKST | Women at 11:15am AKST Sunday, Nov. 19: Mixed Relay at 10am AKST
Distances/Races	Saturday, Nov. 18 Individual-Start, Classic Race: 10km Men | 7.5km Women Sunday, Nov. 19 Mixed Gender 4x5km Freestyle Relay
Social Media	Twitter | Facebook

Ski Fest Wrap-Up
"We were really pleased with how Ski Fest went this past weekend and want to thank everyone who came out to ski with us and for the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks for co-hosting the event," Crawford continued. "We had some of our highest numbers ever for adult lessons and kids games. We want to give a special thanks to all of our booster club donors and all of our sponsors for Ski Fest including Interior Women's Health, Beaver Sports, REI, Goldstream Sports, Great Harvest Bread Company, Lulu's Bread and Bagels, the Cookie Jar, Swix and Boulder Nordic Sport."

All-Time Series
The 2017-18 match-up between the Nanooks and the Seawolves will count as the 14th annual Nordic Cup Invitational. The Nanooks will hope to keep the cup after this year's races, as they have captured the coveted title for the past two seasons. Entering this weekend, Alaska holds a 9-3-1 overall record over their Anchorage rival.

Nordic Cup Facts

• The Nordic Cup flip-flops location between Anchorage and Fairbanks every year, last season the race was held at the Birch Hill Recreational Trails in Fairbanks
• Does not count toward the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association or NCAA rankings
• Saturday's races will be an individual-start classic race, while Sunday's mixed gender relay will consist of two males and two females on each relay team
• Scoring for the winner of the Nordic Cup goes as follows:
  • Whichever school has the lowest total time from both days of competition
  • Will include top-three individual men and top-three individual women's times from each school in Saturday's classic races
  • Will also include the top-two relay team times from each school

Women's Team Outlook
Alaska only returns four members to this year's women's Nordic ski team from last season, including sophomore Anna Darnell, senior Aasne Hoveid, senior Sarissa Lammers and senior Ann-Cathrin Uhl. Of the eight-person roster, the Nanooks welcome freshmen Hannah Dueling, Anja Maijala, Sage Robine and junior transfer Kati Roivas. The Nanooks will look to 2017 All-American Lammers to lead the fairly new squad but are expecting Darnell and Uhl to consistently score throughout the season.

Men's Team Outlook
On the other hand, the Alaska Nanooks men's Nordic ski team is mostly a veteran squad with only three newcomers on the 10-man roster. Alaska welcomes freshmen Josiah Alverts and Logan Mowry and junior transfer Arnaud Guyon. Coming back from last year's roster is senior Jan Cech, junior Max Donaldson, senior Alexander Eckert, redshirt-senior Nick Lovett, redshirt-freshman Lukash Platil, redshirt-junior Daniel Serventi and senior Seiji Takagi.

Coaches Corner
"These races are always very early in the season and both teams have their primary goals centered around the races at the end of the season but it's always a good check-in to see where we are with our early season fitness. We've done very well against UAA in recent years and we hope to keep the Nordic Cup here in Fairbanks for another year." – Crawford concluded.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams, follow @AlaskaNanooksXC on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.