STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO - Alaska Nanooks senior
Aurelia Korthauer (Bonndorf, Germany) was the top racer for the Blue and Gold as she finished 11th in the women's five kilometer classic race Thursday at the NCAA Skiing Championships. She crossed the finish line in a time of 17 minutes and 30.3 seconds, just missing a spot in the top 10 and All-American honors by 4.7 seconds.
Sophomore
Theresia Schnurr (Buhlertal, Germany) had a solid race, finishing 15th in 17:42.5. With just two of a maximum three skiers, the women managed to finish 7th on the day out of 19 Nordic women's teams and even bested their arch-rivals Northern Michigan by two points.
On the men's side junior
John Parry (Whitehorse, Yukon) had what his coaches considered an impressive race, finishing 22nd in 30 minutes and 52.7 seconds in the men's 10km classic race. Despite qualifying for the eight and final spot among the Central Region's NCAA qualifiers, Parry was second among his regional representatives in the field of 39 racers, that saw just 14.8 seconds separate 12th through 22nd place.
Rookie
Tyler Kornfield (Anchorage, AK) got his feet wet at his first NCAA Championships experience by taking 25th (31:00.0), Alaska's men were 11th (Nordic) out of 19 teams and just three points behind NMU.
"I am, of course, very proud of our student-athletes," said head coach
Scott Jerome. "They did a very good job today despite stressful weather conditions. Not only did they race well, but they handled themselves professionally and showed a lot of class before, during, and after the races."
Changes in the weather conditions called for a change in wax as the team had been testing and skiing on klister wax all week. Snow coupled with temperatures just below freezing combined to cover the tracks that were groomed in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, which forced the coaching staff to have to change their waxing strategy.
"It was a little tricky with the wax," said Jerome. "We ended up on warm hard wax over a hard wax binder -- nothing like the wax we tested yesterday. We wanted to get enough "kick" without compromising glide, but it it was a fine, fine line between the two."
"Assistant coach Matt Dunlap, former assistant coach Ingrid Olson, and senior captain
Einar Often did an excellent job dialing in both the kick and glide waxes today. I can't thank them enough."
The men's and women's scores combined to put Alaska in 13th place out of 22 teams overall (Alpine and Nordic) and 10th among just the Nordic squads.
All four skiers will compete in the second day of Nordic events on Saturday morning. The men's 20k freestyle will start at 9 a.m. mountain time, followed by the women's 15k version at 11 a.m. MT.
