MIDWAY, Utah - After one day at the U.S. Nationals and Utah Invitational, the Nanooks Nordic ski team is in fourth place after the women picked up 79 total points while the men picked up 54 for a team total of 133.
On the women's side, they were led by
Mariel Pulles. Pulles raced to an opening-day second place finish in the women's freestyle sprints earning the Nanooks 37 points. She posted a QTime of 3:45.37, a QFTime of 3:48.27, a SFTime of 3:45.15 before posting an FTime of 4:41.02. Behind her was freshman
Rosie Fordham, who in her first race of 2022, opened with a ninth place finish earning Alaska 22 points. The final scoring racer for Alaska was
Kendall Kramer. She finished in 11th, getting Alaska 20 points.
Sarah Olson,
Rya Berrigan and
Aila Berrigan rounded out the racers on day one for the Nanooks as Olson finished in 16th with a QTime of 4:15.58 while the Berrigan sisters raced to a 17th and 24th-place finish, respectively with QTimes of 4:17.04 and 4:35.59.
After the first day, the Nanooks finished second in the women's team scoring as Utah posted 101 points while Alaska came in second with 79 and Colorado took third with 74.
Over on the men's side, the Nanooks were led by
Christopher Kalev who raced to an eighth-place finish for 23 points in the men's freestyle sprints. He posted a QTime of 3:19.91 and QFTime of 3:35.50. Next for the Nanooks was
Mike Ophoff in 13th place with a QTime of 3:22.66. He earned 19 points for Alaska.
Lukash Platil was the final scoring racer for the Nanooks men's team as he finished 28th with a QTime of 3:31.21 and earned 12 points.
Patrick Marbacher and
Max Beiergrohslein rounded out the Nanooks men's racers with finishes of 29th and 32nd with times of 3:33.49 and 3:43.42, respectivley.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks Nordic ski team, follow @NanookSkiing on Instagram, or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.