Results

STOWE, Vt. – Four Alaska Nanooks kicked-off the 2019 NCAA Skiing National Championships on Wednesday morning, competing in the 10/5km individual-start, freestyle race at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont.

"The first day of the NCAA Championships was as cold as an Alaskan winter," assistant coach Eliska Albrigtsen said on Wednesday. "Our athletes had luck on our side and their skis worked very well in these cold conditions. The course is not very hilly and the downhills are quite fast, that being said, the racers are stacked in very close time intervals in the final results. This phenomenon causes every little mistake of the racer to become a several-place difference in the final rankings, and that's what we saw today."

The Alaska women did exceptionally well on Wednesday morning, with both sophomore Anja Maijala and senior Kati Roivas placing within the top-20 overall.

In her NCAA Championship debut, Maijala posted a career-best time of 14:08.5 in the 5km freestyle race, placing her 16th overall.

"Anja started like fire and admitted in the finish that she was looking forward to the final climb, as well. That helped her to speed up from an already fast tempo and she finished strong only 10 seconds from an elite top-10 and only 20 seconds from the podium," Albrigtsen said. 

Roivas followed closely behind placing 19th overall, also with a career-best 5km freestyle time of 14:19.0.

Among the fellow West Region and Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association competitors, Maijala ranked seventh, while Roivas placed 11th.

"Kati had a slightly slower start of the race but ended up speeding up as she was advancing through the course, however, this course has no space for errors, which placed Kati within the top-20 but only just 50 seconds behind a podium finish," Albrigtsen continued. "I believe the close time difference would have put her in the top-five at a more challenging course."

The University of Utah's Julia Richter placed first overall in the women's race with a time of 13:28.3.

In the men's 10km freestyle race, redshirt-senior Seiji Takagi registered a season-best time of 25:37.3 to rank 26th overall. Among fellow conference skiers, Takagi ranked 13th.

Senior Max Donaldson closed-out the men's race with a 35th place ranking after registering a season-best time of 26:06.9. Donaldson finished 16th among RMISA competitors.

"Max was experiencing the same challenge with his race, where a slower first lap cost him a place within the top-30," Albrightsen said. "Seiji was chasing the top-20, finishing just 26 seconds behind the top-10. And his performance today was diminished by sub-to-optimal body temperature from the start of the race when a strong gust came through."

The University of Colorado at Boulder's Erik Olsvik Denegerud won the men's championship title in the 10km freestyle, posting a time of 24:25.5.

"Overall, the results from today were a decent representation of our general season but we are hungry for better results for Friday," Albrigtsen concluded.

The Alaska Nanooks will break tomorrow before closing-out the 2019 NCAA Skiing National Championships with the 20/15km mass-start, classic race on Friday, Mar. 8 at the Trapp Family Lodge.

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.