Men's Overall Results | Women's Overall Results | Junior Women's Quarterfinals | Junior Women's Semifinals | RMISA Standings

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams were back in action on Friday morning, as the Nooks competed in the freestyle sprint races in the 2018 U.S. Cross Country Ski National Championships at Kincaid Park in Anchorage.

Ideal temperatures in the mid-teens provided quick and firm snow for all skiers on Friday, which was a welcome surprise after Wednesday's snowfall and warm weather.

Senior Ann-Cathrin Uhl was the fastest female from the Nanooks on Friday, as the German finished 47th overall in the women's qualifying race with a time of 3:40.64. Uhl's time also placed her 14th amongst fellow Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association skiers.

"Our women's team had a better day overall than Wednesday," head coach Nick Crawford said on Friday. "I was especially pleased to see this, as many of them don't consider themselves to be as good at sprinting as distance skiing but we fared well. I was happy to see Anni back as our top-female finisher in the preliminary round, finishing just 1.5 seconds out of the top-10 for the RMISA scoring."

Rookie Anja Maijala was the second Nanook to cross the finish line in Friday's freestyle sprint, posting a time of 3:40.92 to place 50th overall and 17th among her RMISA peers. Sophomore Anna Darnell registered a qualifying time of 3:43.69 to place 65th overall and 21st in RMISA standings.


Both Maijala and Darnell's qualifying times advanced them to the quarterfinals of the junior women's heats, where Maijala recorded a time of 3:36.03 to place third in heat four, while Darnell skied to a time of 3:34.13 to place third in heat five. Fortunately for the duo, they were selected as the 'Lucky Losers' following the completion of the quarterfinal heats and advanced to the semifinals.

In the semis, Darnell placed sixth in the first heat with a time of 3:48.10 while Maijala collected her best freestyle sprint time of the day with a 3:10.47 to place third in the second heat. Unfortunately, Maijala and Darnell did not qualify for the finals.

Also competing and rounding out the top-five Alaska skiers on the women's side was senior Sarissa Lammers (3:44.66) and junior Kati Roivas (3:44.71) to place 75th and 76th overall, respectively.

"Our two junior girls, Anna and Anja, had really good sprint races today, faring well in both the qualifier and in the junior women's heats," Crawford continued. "Both finished third in their quarterfinals but were the two athletes from the quarterfinals who advanced to the semis through a process called 'Lucky Loser.' Both raced confidently in the rounds and while they ended up being eliminated in the semifinals, they still had a very good day today."

On the men's side, senior Seiji Takagi crossed the finish line with a time of 3:20.03 to place 47th overall and 13th among RMISA skiers. Following Takagi was sophomore Lukash Platil, who placed 63rd overall and 17th RMISA with a time of 3:22.70.

"Seiji Takagi had another good day today, although, not as strong as his distance race on Wednesday," Crawford said of his men's team. "He ended up just two seconds out of the top-10 RMISA, which was a good showing. Luk also had a good race today, finishing as our second scorer for the first time in his collegiate skiing career and breaking into the top-20 RMISA for the second time this week."

Rounding out the top-five for the men was junior Arnaud Guyon (3:26.36) and junior Max Donaldson (3:28.72), who placed 90th and 106th overall, respectively.

"We're really proud of how our alums did today, as well," Crawford concluded. "Tyler Kornfield was back on the national championship podium for the second-straight year for the skate sprint after also making the podium in last year's national championship sprint races in Fairbanks. Logan Hanneman had an outstanding day, winning the qualifying round and moving onto the semifinal round where, unfortunately, he was tripped up on the big climb. For him though, winning the qualifier will likely give him a big boost toward making the Olympic team this year as the selection criteria looks more at qualifying speed then performance in the rounds."

The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams will be back in action on Sunday, Dec. 7, as they compete in the 5/10/20/30km mass-start, classic races at Kincaid Park.

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.