Results (PDF)

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - The Alaska Nanooks Nordic ski team finished the NCAA Ski Championships with another great showing, this time in the 20k classic for both the men and women's teams. 

With three more All-American finishes, one in the women's race and two in the men's race, the Nanooks finished the 2023 NCAA Skiing Championships in seventh-place, tying the best finish ever in program history. They also took third in the NCAA Nordic ski team standings, finishing behind only Utah (316 points) and Colorado (275 points). The women's team started the day with their 20k classic at Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. Mariel Pulles skied to another All-American honor with a fourth-place finish in the women's race. She led the 'Nooks to 31 team points and crossed the line in 1:01:20.9, trailing the winner, Novie McCabe of Utah, by about 1:15. McCabe won the 20k classic race in 1:00:04.3.

The second Nanook to cross the line was Kendall Kramer. The sophomore from Fairbanks posted a 15th-place finish in the 20k with a time of 1:03:52.9, earning the blue and gold 16 team points. Rosie Fordham was the final Nanook racer in the women's 20k and took home a 31st-place finish with a time of 1:07:50.1. 

The Alaska women's team finished with 47 points on day two of the NCAA Championships, good for sixth on the day. Over the span of the two days, the women's team finished third with 113 total points, following only Utah (191) and Colorado (164). They also ended the Championships with three All-American honors. Pulles earned a pair and Kendall Kramer earned one in the freestyle run on Thursday. 

In the men's race, the Nanooks were led, once again, by Joe Davies and Mike Ophoff. Remi Drolet of Harvard took the win in the men's 20k classic, posting a winning time of 54:54.6.

Davies pushed through to a sixth-place finish, just missing out on another First Team All-American honor by two seconds. His sixth-place finish in 55:48.3 earned him Second Team honors, his second All-American honor of the week after winning the freestyle championship on Thursday to grab First Team honors. This finish also earned the Nanooks 27 team points. Ophoff followed right behind Davies, placing seventh with a finishing time of 56:13.7 and also earning Second Team All-American honors alongside 25 team points. This is also Ophoff's second honor this week after earning a fifth-place finish in the 10k freestyle on Thursday, good for a First Team All-American honor. 

Christopher Kalev rounded out the scoring for Alaska with a 12th-place finish and 19 team points. Kalev just missed out on the top-10 finish with his finishing time of 57:42.9. With 71 team points on day two, the Nanooks scored the second-most points for the classic race, trailing only Dartmouth's 77 points. They edged out Utah in third with 65 points. 

The men's team proved to be the best in the nation this week, finishing the two-day championships with the most points at 155. Dartmouth followed with 135 and Denver came in third with 128. Four All-American honors were awarded to men's racers with Davies and Ophoff claiming a pair each. Both earned First Team honors on Thursday in the freestyle and both earned Second Team honors this morning in the classic race. 

Assistant coach Ben Buck spoke with FasterSkier following Saturday's race and was proud of what transpired this weekend and is excited to build for the future, "we come away from these championships both proud of what we accomplished, and also hungry for more. This is the second-consecutive year these six athletes have qualified for NCAAs for us, which is a massive accomplishment in and of itself. Then, add seven individual All-American performances, an individual national title, a men's team win in the 10k, the top mens team score on the weekend, the highest team points total in the freestyle discipline, and the third best Nordic points total overall. We came closer to winning the overall Nordic competition than I think anyone expected, and to go from leading after the first day to finishing third leaves us with all the more incentive to go and win it next year."

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.