Results

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. – On Friday, the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams awoke to six inches of fresh snow that continued throughout the day but that didn't hamper Alaska's results in the final day of the University of Utah Invitational, as the Nooks competed in the 15/20km mass-start freestyle race at the Rendezvous Trails in West Yellowstone.

Alaska concluded the Utah Invite ranking eighth in the overall standings (Alpine and Nordic) with 223 points. Of the nine teams that competed over the two-day Invite, Alaska is the only school that doesn't sponsor Alpine skiing, while fellow Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association teams Westminster and Colorado Mountain, do not sponsor Nordic skiing. Denver was named the all-around champion, collecting 650 points from a combined men's and women's Alpine and Nordic skiing efforts.

In the Nordic-only standings, Alaska ranked fifth with a combined total of 223 points. The Alaska men placed fourth with 121 points, while the women placed fifth in the Nordic standings with 102 team points.

"Racing 15 or 20 kilometers at altitude is always going to be difficult but today's soft fresh snow made for an extremely difficult race," head coach Nick Crawford said on Friday. "Many times these long, mass-start races begin at a more reasonable pace for the first 5-10km with most of the decisive moves in the last half. However, today's pace was fast right from the beginning with both the men's and women's fields being strung out behind the leaders in the first 5km lap. I'm proud of our athletes for grinding it out and finishing our three-week road trip with a good race as a team in difficult conditions."

Junior Arnaud Guyon led all Alaska skiers on Friday, being the highest-placing Nanook overall with a eighth place finish in the men's 20km freestyle race. Guyon's time of 55:58.8 gave the Nooks 23 points in the standings and his first top-10 RMISA finish of the season.

Alaska senior Seiji Takagi placed 11th overall with a time of 55:40.9, while junior Max Donaldson followed closely behind with a time of 56:58.5 to place 13th overall. The pair's finishes gave the Nooks 21 and 20 points, respectively.

Also skiing for the Alaska men's Nordic team today was sophomore Lukash Platil (57:07.3) and senior Nick Lovett (57:24.1), who placed 14th and 15th, respectively.

"Today was another excellent day for our men's team with all six men in the top-15 and all six men finishing ahead of our RMISA rivals UAA, MSU and New Mexico," Crawford continued. "Arnaud had a great race today, putting himself in a good position right from the start and maintaining that spot for a top-10 finish. The remaining five men were within sight of one another for most of the race. They all looked like they were suffering by the last lap but none of them fell off of the pace."

On the women's side, Alaska was led once again by senior Ann-Cathrin Uhl, who completed the women's 15km freestyle race with a time of 50:09.9 to place 14th overall. Uhl's finish gave the Nooks 18 points in the standings.

Also scoring for the Nanooks was sophomore Anna Darnell (50:14.6) and junior Kati Roivas (50:16.5), who placed 15th and 16th, respectively.

Rookies Anja Maijala (50:55.6) and Hannah Dueling (52:59.3) also appeared in Friday's race, collecting top-25 RMISA finishes.

"Our women had a good race with all of our ladies finishing 3-5 spots ahead of where they were in yesterday's classic race," Crawford concluded. "I was really pleased to have four women inside the top-20 in this race. Ann-Cathrin, Anna and Kati skied the majority of the race right together while Anja was just behind their group throughout its entirety. This was an especially good race for Anni and Kati, who consider themselves to be stronger classic skiers in general."

The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 10 and Sunday, Feb. 11, as they compete in the Denver University Invitational at the Maloit Park Trails in Minturn, Colorado.

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.