Results

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. – Sophomore Anna Darnell and senior Seiji Takagi led the Alaska Nanooks women's and men's Nordic ski teams in the final day of competition of the Montana State University Invitational at the Rendezvous Trails in West Yellowstone, Montana on Sunday afternoon.

In the final day of competition, Alaska placed seventh in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association standings with 217 points. Since the University of Alaska Fairbanks does not sponsor Alpine skiing, the Nanooks will always trail their RMISA peers in the standings, since it considers both Alpine and Nordic.

In the Nordic skiing breakdown, Alaska ranks sixth amongst RMISA teams with 217 points while Colorado ranks first with 352 points. The Nanooks women's team sits in sixth place in the women's division with 97 points, while the men sit in fifth place with 120 points.

"We had our best race of the season as a program today, with two top-10 RMISA performances and seven addition top-20 results spread across our men's and women's teams," head coach Nick Crawford said on Sunday. "I'm really pleased with where we are right now, especially with our next set of races coming up in just four days."

Darnell led the Alaska Nanooks women's Nordic ski team on Sunday, posting a 10km freestyle time of 28:20.2 to place 11th amongst RMISA skiers. Darnell's time gave the Nooks 20 points on the day.

Senior Ann-Cathrin Uhl was the second-fastest Nanook to cross the finish line on Sunday, placing 15th overall with a time of 28:50.5 to place 15th amongst RMISA skiers for 17 points. Freshman Anja Maijala was the only other Alaska skier to score for the Nanooks, placing 19th overall with a time of 29:10.1 for 14 points.

"We had a small group of just three women racing today, as the others are resting up for our next series of races in a couple of days, but the three that competed all had great races," Crawford said of his women's team. "It was exciting to have Anna, Anni and Anja all inside the top-20 for RMISA skiers today. All three really pushed themselves throughout the race and kept moving up throughout the race. Their results were especially impressive, given that Anni got tangled up with another skier early on and Anja and Anna were both feeling under the weather today."

On the men's side, Takagi placed within the top-10 among RMISA skiers for the second-straight race, placing eighth with a 10km freestyle time of 24:10.2 to give Alaska 23 points on the day.

Junior Arnaud Guyon also placed within the top-20 among RMISA skiers, posting a time of 24:29.5 to place 11th in Saturday's race for 21 points.. Also scoring for the Nanooks was junior Max Donaldson, who crossed the finish line with a time of 24:29.5 to place 12th overall with 19 points.

"Today was an exciting day for our men with some excellent results from the guys and really smart skiing in the mass-start race," Crawford concluded. "The guys got out to a strong start and throughout the first half of the race, we had pretty much our full team of seven men inside the top-15 through 20 overall. Seiji had another great race, actually leading the field around the 6-8 km mark and then hanging on for another top-10 finish for his third top-10 RMISA finish of the season. Arnaud had his best race of the year so far and had a strong finish, out-sprinting a UAA skier. Max, Alex, Jan and Luk all looked great today as well, showing the great depth that we have on our men's side."

The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams will stay in West Yellowstone, Montana to compete in the Utah Invitation next Thursday, Jan. 18 and Friday, Jan. 19 at the Rendezvous Trails.

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.