BOZEMAN, Mont. - After one day of the Bobcat Invitational, the Nanooks Nordic ski team is in third-place in the overall standings. They posted 133 points with 42 from the women's team and 91 from the men's team.
Both sides raced in a 15k classic mass start on Friday, Jan. 13 and it was
Mike Ophoff taking the win in the men's race with a time of 41:17.2. With the win, Ophoff earned 40 team points for Alaska. Just behind him with an identical time of 41:17.2 was
Joe Davies of the Nanooks, earning 37 team points and joining his teammate on the podium in the 1-2 spots. The third and final Nanooks men's skier to cross the line on the day was
Josh Baurick. The freshman finished in 19th-place with a time of 46:15.9 and earned 14 points for the 'Nooks.
In the women's race, the Nanooks raced three in
Aila Berrigan,
Abigail Haas and
Sarah Olson. Berrigan was the top-finisher for the Nanooks, placing 17th in the 15k classic mass, finishing in 57:16.8 and earning 15 points for the Nanooks. Olson followed close behind in 19th-place with a time of 59:02.5 and 14 points and Haas rounded out the Nanooks finishers with a 20th-place finish behind a time of 1:01:35.6 and 13 points.
Head coach
Eliska Albrigtsen had this to say after the races today, "It was a stressful morning, with a very hard new 4 lap classic course with 3 crazy big hills each lap. Starting as a freezing day at -15C, the conditions quickly changed to positive degrees when the sun popped over the mountain into the ski tracks. The team just said "give us a good kick" so we worked on a good kick. Mike started a bit more conservative, hanging behind the leading group, but both Joe and Mike slowly worked their way up and sprinted together for the win, where Mike found his saved energy. Josh and Abigail, our freshmen, raced their first long race in altitude, so finishing the race and taking points for the 'Nooks was a great experience and accomplishment! With one sickness and five Nanooks at World University Games, our team took 3rd on the day one with only six students-athletes in the field. Tomorrow, we will be skating with individual start. 5km for women, 10km for men. Wish us luck!"
The Nanooks are back in action tomorrow morning. They'll be racing in a skate interval race with the women starting at 8:00 a.m. AKT with a 5k and the men starting at 9:00 a.m. in a 10k.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks Nordic ski team, follow @NanookSkiing on Instagram, @NanooksSki on Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.
