Results

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams opened the Montana State University Invitational with the 5/10km classic race at the Rendezvous Trails in West Yellowstone, Montana. In the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association race, seniors Ann-Cathrin Uhl and Seiji Takagi were the highest-ranking Nanooks on the day, both posting top-20 finishes among collegiate skiers.

After day one of the MSU Invite, the Nanooks sit in eighth place in the overall standings with a combined 103 points among fellow RMISA schools. Unfortunately for the Nanooks, Alaska will never be able to win an RMISA Invitational because the University of Alaska Fairbanks does not sponsor alpine skiing, therefore cannot earn points in that column.

In the Nordic-specific standings, Alaska sits in sixth place with 103 points, while the men rank fifth (57 points) and the women rank sixth (46 points).

In the men's 10km classic, Takagi crossed the finish line with a time of 28:07.9 to place ninth in Saturday's race. The Anchorage, Alaska native's top-10 finish gave the Alaska Nanooks men's Nordic ski team 22 points, the highest among his teammates.

Junior Max Donaldson was the second Alaska skier to complete the 10km, totaling a time of 28:26.9 to finish 10th, right behind Takagi, to collect 21 points. Junior Arnaud Guyon was the only other Alaska skier to score for the Nanooks, posting a time of 29:25.0 to place 20th for 14 points.

Also skiing in Saturday's men's 10km classic race was senior Jan Cech (29:59.9), redshirt-freshman Lukash Platil (30:01.1) and senior Alexander Eckert (30:36.5).

"Our men had a great race today with both Seiji and Max landing inside the top-10 for RMISA standings and Arnaud also inside the top-20," head coach Nick Crawford said on Saturday. "Seiji and Max both have a top-10 RMISA result in both skating and classic so far this season, which goes a long way towards their goal of performing well at the NCAA Championships in March. Seiji was our top guy again today and its awesome to see his hard work in the off-season payoff with great results over the last two weeks."

On the women's side, Uhl paced her teammates with a 16th place finish, totaling a 5km classic time of 16:30.2 for 18 points. Junior Kati Roivas' time of 16:44.9 placed her 19th overall and gave the Alaska Nanooks women's Nordic ski team 15 additional points, while freshman Anja Maijala's time of 16:58.5 placed her 22nd overall for 13 points.

Also appearing in Saturday's race was sophomore Anna Darnell (17:12.0), senior Sarissa Lammers (17:24.0) and freshman Hannah Dueling (18:14.5).

"The conditions were a little tricky for the ladies today with the tracks transforming from colder, drier snow to fast, 'glazed' snow, as they had more skier traffic and the temperature warmed up to just under freezing," Crawford continued. "Some of the women ended up on good wax while others struggled to get a good mix of having both good kick and good glide. Anni had the best race of the day, finishing inside the top-20."

The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams will race in the 10/10km freestyle race at the Rendezvous Trails tomorrow (Sunday, Jan. 14) to close out the MSU Invite.

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.