FRISCO, Colo. – The Nanooks Nordic skiing team wrapped up the Denver Invitational on Sunday morning, skiing in the 7.5k freestyle interval start. Alaska would go on to finish in fifth place in the Nordic standings with 226 points over the weekend. The men accounted for 139 of those points, which was good for third, and the women collected 87 points to place sixth.

"Another strong showing for the men's team as they continue to build momentum toward Regionals," said interim head coach Ben Buck. "Today's race favored strong technical skiing as the course required constant effort without any long downhill rests. Gabo (Gabriele Rigaudo) put in a great performance to grab his second top-10 in as many days, while Philipp (Moosmayer) continued to display consistency for us on the results sheet. Maty Pavek rounded out our scoring three, showing the insane depth we have on our squad. There's a good energy around the men's team right now with every one of them knowing that they could contribute to the team score on any given day."

The 'Nooks had two top-10 finishes in the men's race, with Rigaudo and Philipp Moosmayer placing sixth and seventh, respectively, with times of 19:11.8 and 19:13.3, giving Alaska four top-10 results over the weekend. Matyas Pavek added a top-15 finish, placing 12th with a 19:28.0, while Cole Flowers (19:38.3) and Blake Hanley (19:43.2) followed in 16th and 17th. Josh Baurick crossed the line in 21:37.4 to finish his race in 26th place.

"For the women, it was another good day to build on," added Buck. "Freshmen Piper Sears and Viktorie Kahounova took the opportunity to experiment with their race tactics and pacing, learning a lot about what they can manage here at high altitude. It was outstanding to see Kolibri (Drobish) get on the top of the scoresheet in her first skate race since her season-ending injury last January! She skied with great composure, and her experience really showed. I'm excited to see them all in the 20k skate next weekend!"

Kolibri Drobish secured Alaska's highest finish in the women's race, skiing to a 19th-place result after recording a time of 23:48.8. Meanwhile, the other two Nanook skiers in the women's race, Sears and Kahounova, placed back-to-back, taking 24th and 25th in the freestyle, respectively, after finishing their races in 24:04.2 and 24:27.7.

The Nanooks remain in Colorado for another week, heading over to Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs for the Colorado Invitational on Feb. 13-14. The 'Nooks will participate in the 20K freestyle mass start and 7.5K classic interval start races over the two days of skiing. These will be the final races before the 'Nooks head to Bozeman, Mont., for the RMISA Championships.

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