Men's Skiing | 3/28/2017 12:17:00 PM

Junior Results | Skiathlon Results

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams had a strong showing in the opening day of the 2017 SuperTour Finals and US Distance National Championships at the Birch Hill Recreational Areal Trails on Monday, led by freshman Anna Darnell.

"Today was a really fun day of racing at Birch Hill and also a good day for our team," head coach Nick Crawford said on Monday evening. "The skiathlon event is an extremely uncommon race in the United states despite being quite common in Europe, so we didn't exactly know what to expect going into it. This was also a different field than we race against throughout the majority of the year with only a few college teams making the trip to Fairbanks, but a very strong field of professional skiers."

The skiathlon was a mass-start race that featured both classic and freestyle skiing, with athletes changing their skis in the stadium halfway through the race. The Nanook women raced 7.5km classic and 7.5 freestyle, while the Alaska men skied 11.25km classic and 11.25km freestyle. The junior races started simultaneously with the senior racers, but only featured a 7.5km classic race for the women and a 11.25km classic race for the men, with no freestyle skiing.

Crawford continued, "One good indication of our success today was almost our entire team moved up from where they were seeded going into the race. Seeding and start positioning in mass-start races like today's are based on previous best results in distance races, so to have almost our full team finish ahead of their seed position is a good showing."

Only two Nooks competed in the junior race, with Darnell placing the highest of all Alaska skiers on the day, finishing fifth overall in the women's 7.5km classic. Darnell, an Anchorage product, completed the race in 25:34.6, only 1:34.0 behind first place overall Hannah Halvorsen (24:00.6). Darnell placed second amongst collegiate skiers, finishing behind Northern Michigan's Nichole Schneider (24:31.5).

In the men's junior 11.25 classic race, sophomore Conner Truskowski placed eighth overall, crossing the finish line with a time of 36:40.1. The Anchorage native placed third among collegiate skiers and 4:55.2 behind first place overall's Hunter Wonders (31:44.9).

Only one Nook competed in the women's 7.5km + 7.5km skiathlon, with senior Hannah Rowland placing 28th overall with a time of 52:14.3. The Eagle River native completed the 7.5km classic race with a time of 26:17.6 and the 7.5km freestyle race in 25:16.3 adding a ski exchange time of 00:40.5.

Stratton Mountain School's Jessica Diggins placed first overall in the women's skiathlon, finishing the course in 42:17.1.

"Unfortunately, a few of our top women didn't compete due to illness, but our two women who did participate today had solid races," Crawford said of his female competitors. "Anna had a good showing in the 7.5km classic-only junior race and Hannah was our top-finisher in the 15km skiathlon."

A handful of Nooks competed in the men's 11.25km + 11.25km skiathlon following the women's races on Monday, with redshirt-senior Michael Fehrenbach leading the charge placing 17th overall with a time of 1:03:39. Fehrenbach posted a team-best 11.25km classic time of 32:00.1 before registering a 11.25km freestyle time 31:10.5 with a team-best ski exchange time of 00:29.0. Fehrenbach finished only 4:21.9 behind first place overall's Scott Patterson, who crossed the finish line at 59:17.6. Furthermore, Fehrenbach was ranked second amongst collegiate skiers, following behind Northern Michigan's Adam Martin (1:00.06).

Sophomore Max Donaldson followed closely behind, finishing 22nd overall with a time of 1:04.29. The Fairbanks native posted a classic time of 32:48.9, an exchange time of 00:34.5 and a team-best freestyle time of 31:05.6.

Juniors Jan Cech (1:05.07) and Alexander Eckert (1:05.41) were the only other Alaska skiers to finish in the top-30, placing 26th and 29th, respectively.

Also racing for the Nanooks in the men's skiathlon was junior Seiji Takagi (1:06.49), sophomore Tristian Sayre (1:07.11), redshirt-junior Nick Lovett (1:10.55.2) and redshirt-sophomore Daniel Serventi (1:10.55.5).

"Our top-three guys again today were Michael, Max and Jan, who finished in the same order as they did in the 20km mass-start race at the NCAA Championships two weeks ago," Crawford concluded. "All three had very solid races at the NCAA Championships and also had good results today. Alex Eckert really impressed us today with his best race of the season so far to finish as our fourth guy. Michael also gets a kind of fun honor recording the fastest time of the day changing from the classic to skating technique, tying with another local Fairbanks skier David Norris. Gaining a few second in the exchange zone in a race that lasts an hour has little bearing on the outcome of the race as a whole, but its fun nonetheless to have this bragging right!"

Additionally, former Alaska Nanooks skiers David Norris (APU) and Logan Hanneman (APU), posted top-15 overall performances with Norris finishing sixth (1:00.12) and Hanneman placing 13th overall (1:02.27).

The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams will continue to compete in the 2017 SuperTour Finals and US Distance National Championships on Wednesday, Mar. 29 with the freestyle sprint events starting at 4pm AKT, with the finals heats taking place at 6pm AKT.

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.