Men's Skiing | 2/25/2017 6:57:00 PM
Results
MINTURN, Colo. – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams opened up the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Conference Championships on Saturday afternoon with two top-10 finishes in the 10/5km classic races at the Maloit Park Trails from junior Sarissa Lammers and redshirt-sophomore Nick Lovett.
"What was exciting about today was that our top-three finishers all had the best classic races of their college careers today to lead the team," head coach Nick Crawford said on Saturday. "Sarissa and Nick's finishes, along with Max's 11th place finish were all exceptional performances for classic races. They have achieved this level of results before in skate races but today shows that they have exceptional fitness."
Lovett was the highest placing Nanook on the men's side, finishing the 10km race ninth overall with a time of 30:00.8. Lovett collected 23 points for the Nanooks with his finish and was only 2:07.3 minutes behind Denver's Moritz Madlener who placed first overall with a time of 28:23.5.
Sophomore Max Donaldson barely missed the top-20 overall, crossing the finish line at 30:24.8 to place 11th overall. Junior Seiji Takagi was the only other Nook on the men's side to finish within the top-20, placing 19th with a time of 31:29.3.
"The men had a good day today. Nick started 30 seconds behind Max and while they never skied together, this was a good motivator for one another," Crawford said of his men's team. "Seiji also had a good race today after borrowing a pair of classic skis from a teammate that seemed to help out his classic skiing."
Lammers placed eighth overall, marking her second race this season where she was the highest placing Nanook from both the men's and women's team. Lammers completed the women's 5km classic race in 17:24.0, only 1:01.1 behind Utah's Merete Myrseth, who placed first overall with a time of 16:25.9.
Junior Ann-Cathrin Uhl was the only other Nook to finish within the top-20, placing 18th overall with a time of 18:02.6 for 16 points.
"Sarissa started the race conservatively and was way down in 23rd place by our split timing calculations early in the race but she had an exceptional second to last lap to finish eighth overall," Crawford concluded. "Anna also was having a great race before a crash that broke her pole and put her out of contention."
The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams will return to Maliot Park again tomorrow (Sunday), Feb. 26 for the final day of the RMISA Conference Championships/NCAA West Regionals, competing in the 15km/10km freestyle race.
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.
