SUN VALLEY, Idaho - The Alaska Nanooks Nordic ski team finished the Montana State Invitational in second place, earning 281 total points, 157 from the women and 124 from the men.
On the final day of the Nordic races, the two teams raced in the classic technique. The men raced in a 15k and the women raced in a 10k. In the men's 10k, the Nanooks were led by freshman
Joe Davies. A day after he placed fifth, he returned and took sixth with a time of 38:05.1. This earned the Nanooks 27 points. The next men's racer to finish was
Mike Ophoff. Ophoff took home 15th-place, finishing the 15k in 39:18.1 for 18 points.
The third finisher and final scorer for the Nanooks men's team was
Christopher Kalev. He finished 19th and finished with a time of 39:54.6. He earned the Nanooks 16 points. Two more Nanooks finished in the men's race.
Lukash Platil took 29th with a time of 42:44.6 while
Patrick Marbacher finished 36th with a time of 45:13.4.
In the women's 10k races, the 'Nooks were led by
Mariel Pulles, who placed fourth-place with a time of 32:16.5, earning Alaska 31 points. She was followed closely by
Kendall Kramer who finished in sixth-place and a time of 32:32.2 for 27 points. The final scoring racer for the women's team was
Rosie Fordham. Fordham finished in 11th-place with a time of 33:41.6, earning the Nanooks 22 points.
Rya Berrigan was the final Nanooks racer to cross the finish-line. She finished 27th and posted a time of 36:57.9.
"We killed it today!" said head coach
Eliska Albrigtsen, "We got second overall. I am so impressed with everyone on this long trip. We went through it to get to Utah, we had the worst luck with weather and sickness there, then we continued our trip to Idaho into even higher elevation and the team just took it all and made diamonds out of it!"
The Nanooks will have next weekend off before hosting the next four RMISA races in the first week of February at Birch Hill.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks Nordic ski team, follow @NanookSkiing on Instagram, or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.
