Results

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – On Saturday, both the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams placed sixth in the Rocky Mountain Intercollege Ski Association Conference Championships and NCAA West Regionals, as they competed in the 5/10km individual-start classic race at Howelson Hill. The women collected 48 points, while the men finished with 46 points.

As a combined men's and women's front, the Nanooks rank sixth in the team Nordic points with 94 points.

"Today was a pretty good day for the team and a good preview for the NCAA Championships being held on the same course in two weeks," head coach Nick Crawford said on Saturday. "I was pleased to see the team ski considerably better than our last trip to Colorado two weeks ago, where the travel schedule and high altitude skiing meant for underwhelming results team-wide. We made some adjustments for this trip and I was pleased to see its off to a good start."

In the women's 5km classic race, senior Ann-Cathrin Uhl was the first Nook to cross the finish line with a time of 19:09.5 for 17 points. Uhl ranked 14th overall, while Utah's Guro Jordheim placed first overall with a time of 17:46.8.

Behind Uhl, junior Kati Roivas was the second Alaska skier to complete the 5km in the fastest time, placing 19th overall with a time of 19:29.5 for 16 points. Following right behind her was sophomore Anna Darnell, who placed 20th overall with a time of 19:49.0 for 15 points.

Freshmen Hannah Dueling (20:25.8) and Anja Maijala (20:26.4) also competed in the race, placing 26th and 27th, respectively.

"Our women had a good race today with three women in the top-20 led by Anni Uhl's 14th place finish," Crawford continued. "This matches Anni's previous best result of the season and shows that she is in good form for the Championships this time of the season. On my unofficial split timing, I had her sixth overall at about 1.5km into the race. She lost some time on the second half, but that sort of aggressive skiing is exactly what it will take for her to have a good race on this course for the NCAA Championships in two weeks."

In the men's 10km race, senior Seiji Takagi was the highest-placing Alaska skier on the day, completing the race with a time of 34:03.9 to place 14th overall. Takagi's finish gave the Alaska men 18 points.

Redshirt-senior Nick Lovett was the second Nook to cross the finish line with a time of 34:46.8 to place 15th overall for 15 points, while junior Max Donaldson rounded-out the top-three scorers with a 24th place finish (35:08.7) for 13 points.

Senior Jan Cech (35:27.3) and sophomore Luk Platil (37:53.4) placed 25th and 33rd overall, respectively, to close out the remaining Nanooks.

"Seiji and Nick led the team today, which didn't surprise me, as both have been skiing well at the end of this season and they had the benefit of skiing three of the four laps together," Crawford concluded. "Most people who have outstanding performances in individual start races do so by actually skiing with someone else for drafting and gauging effort off. It just so happened that Seiji lapped through on his second lap just as Nick was starting his first. The two worked together and were skiing just outside the top-10 according to my unofficial split timing just losing a little bit on the last lap."

The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams will compete once more in the RMISA Conference Championships/NCAA West Regionals, as they are set to race in the 15/20km mass-start, freestyle tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 25) at the Howelson Hill trails in Steamboat Springs, 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.