In a reversal of past years’ performances, the Nanook men’s cross-country team outperformed the women, taking fifth place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships last weekend in Nampa, Idaho.
The men were led by Jani Tulppo, an exchange student from Finland, who took 15th overall, and outsprinted two University of Alaska Anchorage runners in the end, including last year’s conference champion, David Kiplagat. “That was especially sweet,” said running coach Scott Jerome, “[Jani had] been running well all year, but this was his best race.”
Just 30 seconds behind Tulppo was senior Marius Korthauer, in 27th place. Korthauer set a personal record and had his highest finish in the conference, according to Jerome.
All five of Alaska’s scoring runners finished in the top half; freshman Zach McGill came in 32nd and seniors Chris Eversman and Vahur Teppan rounded out the team score with 38th and 41st place, respectively. Eversman was on exchange last year, but was a member of the team two years ago, when the men’s team finished last in the conference. “So this is a pretty big jump for us,” he said, “It’s pretty exciting.”
Eversman lauded his teammates, and said that in his memory, Tulppo’s 15th-place finish is the highest a man from UAF has placed before. “It’s probably one of the best teams that we’ve ever had here,” he said, “We’re strong through and through.” All five of the Nanook’s scorers placed higher than last year’s top runner, Allan Spangler, who finished 49th. Spangler has since transferred to UAA.
Jerome said that the men’s goal was to finish seventh in the conference. Last year they placed eighth of nine teams, and with the addition of Montana State-Billings, their fifth place finish jumped them straight into the top half of the field.
The women’s team didn’t have such a spectacular showing. After a fifth place last year, the Nanooks finished ninth of ten teams.
The Coulter twins, Anna and Julia had their usual strong showings for the Nanooks. Sophomore Anna topped the list for the Nanooks as she has for every race this season with a 15th place finish. Junior Julia finished in 20th place.
Anna Coulter said that going into the race, she wasn’t sure what to expect. “Coming into this race, we’ve only raced against one team that was down here, and I didn’t really know where I would place,” she said, “I knew I wanted to be in the top 20.”
“They had an off day,” Jerome said of the rest of the women’s team, “We didn’t have our typical 3 and 4 runners up there.” Freshman Nikkol Sipes and graduate student Beth Zirbes are usually the third and fourth runners for the Nanooks. Riikka Kemppainen, 49th, Elisabeth Habermann, 55th, and Amber Drumm, 59th, instead rounded out the scoring field for the Nanooks. “That happens, that’s the nature of running,” Jerome said.
For Alaska’s next race, they will return to Nampa, but not to the same course. The NCAA West Regional championships will be held there Nov. 3. With Fairbanks’ recent accumulation of snow, some of the runners who are primarily skiers may forego the meet to focus on ski training.
