General | 1/18/2020 11:23:00 AM
STEAMBOAT, Colo. – The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams competed in the Interval Freestyle on day one of the Colorado Invite on Saturday, Jan. 18. The men were led by
Mike Ophoff and the women were led by
Mariel Pulles.
Alaska was one of nine teams competing in the Colorado Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational this weekend, and one of two teams to only compete in the Nordic portion of the races. Alongside Wyoming, the 'Nooks found success on the track, grabbing a top 10 finish in the women's 5km race and a top 15 finish in the men's 10km race.
On the men's side, Ophoff was the first to cross the line in the 10km race for the Nanooks, pushing across with a time of 29:11.0, giving him a 15th place finish. Just behind him by only three seconds was
Logan Mowry. Mowry grabbed a 17th place finish with a time of 29:14.8. These two 'Nooks commanded the course and held some separation from the rest of the pack as the 19th place finisher was Tristan Sayre, finishing 10 seconds behind Mowry with a 29:24.7 time.
The final three Alaska racers to cross the line were
Christopher Kalev,
Lukash Platil and
Karl Danielson. Kalev finished in 29th place with a time of 30:25.4. Platil followed closely, finishing 30th with a time of 30:33.1 and Danielson crossed in 37th place with a time of 31:20.7.
On the women's side of the race,
Mariel Pulles led the pack crossing the finish line in 10th place. Pulles, coming off of her fifth place finish at the U.S. National Ski Championships put up another impressive run, clocking her 5km race run at 16:12.7. Just behind her was
Anja Maijala who finished in 15th with a time of 16:31.5.
Hannah Deuling and
Sarah Olson finished in 24th and 41st for the 'Nooks with times of 16:57.9 and 18:03.7 and
Catherine Reed-Metayer and
Maggie Meeds rolled out the final two spots for Alaska with 42nd and 45th place finishes. Reed-Metayer finished with a time of 18:08.2 while Meeds grabbed an 18:20.0 finish.
The men's team had all racers finish in the top 37 in a race with 88 participants while the women were all in the top 45 in a 95 participant race. "We grabbed our first top ten of the season for women and top fifteen for men. Now I'm stoked for the classic mass start tomorrow!" Head coach Eliska Albrigsten was excited with her teams start to the weekend.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks Nordic ski team, follow @AlaskaNanooksXC on Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.
