Skiers finish 14th at NCAA Championships
March 12, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
The Alaska Nanooks wrapped up competition at the 2013 NCAA Skiing Champions following the mass start freestyle technique races at the Rikert Nordic Center on Saturday afternoon, finishing 14th in the team standings.
Alaska combined to score 103.5 points (men's and women's scores) through the two Nordic events in finishing 14th out of 21 teams. The Nanooks ranked second among Central Collegiate Skiing Association teams as Northern Michigan finished 11th overall with 278 points.
Propelled by strong performances on the final day of racing, the University of Colorado overcame Utah (2nd) and defending champion Vermont (3rd) to take the national crown with 708.0 points.
Utah's Miles Havlick was the gold finisher on the day, beating Colorado's Rune Oedegaard at the line by six-tenths of a second, in 50 minutes and 13.4 seconds.
Sophomore Logan Hanneman (Fairbanks, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering) was the Nanooks top finisher on the day in 25th overall, completing the men's 20-kilometer course in 51 minutes and 30.8 seconds.
Nanook freshman Michael Fehrenbach (Saint Märgen, Germany/Mechanical Engineering) was next to cross for the Blue and Gold in 52:32.9 (29th) and sophomore Jonas Löffler (Saint Märgen, Germany/Business Administration) had a course time of 57:15.0 (40th).
The pair were caught in a crash early in the race that led to a broken pole for each of them and proved detrimental to their success as the main pack got away from them. Fehrenbach managed to claw his way back to 29th after being in 37th right after the crash. Unfortunately for Löffler, damage to the base of his skis made it impossible to make up any ground.
"Each of these five - Aly, Crystal (Alaska's two women's team members), Logan, Michael and Jonas - represented UAF extremely well at the National Championships," said head coach Scott Jerome. "We certainly did not perform the way we wanted, but that's a part of sports and life."