Besh Cup 2

I was too busy doing my heavy-breathing exercises to take any photos today, but here are the results from today's Besh Cup 2 race, at Chugiak High School.  (top 30 Women; top 50 men)

ConocoPhillips Besh Cup #2
Beach Lake Trails, Chugiak
Classic Interval Start
Hosted by Eagle River Nordic Ski Club
Womens J1+ 10k
Place	Bib		First Name		Last Name		Age		Affiliation		Total Time
1	202		Kate		Fitzgerald		Senior		APUNSC		31:10.5
2	198		Jaime		Bronga		Senior		UAA		31:33.1
3	197		Amy		Glen		Senior		AWS		31:49.6
4	204		Lauren		Fritz		Senior		APUNSC		32:24.4
5	191		Stephanie		Hiemer		Senior		UAA		32:27.1
6	194		Hannah		Boyer		OJ		FXC		32:27.7
7	188		Marion		Woods		J1		AWS		32:45.5
8	201		Chelsea		Holmes		Senior		Sun Valley SEF		32:52.4
9		182		Jessica		Yeaton		Senior		33:06.3
10	189		Sarah		Cresap		OJ		APUNSC		33:29.3
11	199		Kinsey		Loan		OJ		APUNSC		33:34.3
12	172		Kate		Backstrum		OJ		AWS		33:45.2
13	176		Mackenzie		Flynn		J1		APUNSC		33:46.9
14	200		Caitlin		Patterson		Senior		AWS		33:47.8
15		171		Marisa		Rorabaugh		Senior		33:51.8
16	175		Eliza		Rorabaugh		OJ		FXC		33:55.1
17	186		Teagan		Yutrzenka		J1		AWS		34:35.0
18	165		Elizabeth		Whisenhant		OJ		FXC		34:36.1
19	180		Celia		Haering		J1		APUNSC		34:38.6
20	187		Annie		Liotta		OJ		AWS		34:39.8
21	193		Tristan		Ramey		OJ		AWS		34:42.6
22	190		Stephanie		Kirk		J1		AWS		34:56.0
23	174		Crystal		Pitney		Senior		UAF		35:08.3
24	178		Rachelle		Kanady		Senior		AWS		35:08.5
25	181		Megan		Edic		OJ		FXC		35:20.6
26	196		Kailey		Mucha		Senior		ANR		35:30.0
27	157		Claire		Ferree		J1		FXC		35:31.1
28	168		Tsaina		Mahlen		J1		APUNSC		35:35.8
29	163		Maya		Radonich		Senior		APUNSC		35:37.5
30	164		Ema		Mayo		J1		FXC		35:39.2

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Mens J1+ 15k
Place	Bib	First Name	Last Name	Age	Affiliation	Total Time
1	328	David	Norris	Senior	NSCF	40:14.5
2	320	Reese	Hanneman	Senior	APUNSC	40:38.3
3	329	Eric	Packer	Senior	AWS	40:43.4
4	325	Tyson	Flaharty	Senior	Toko/Madshus	40:56.2
5	324	Erik	Soederstroem	Senior	UAF	41:49.1
6	327	Brent	Knight	Senior	APUNSC	41:49.6
7	319	Lukas	Ebner	Senior	UAA	42:08.9
8	309	Lasse	Moelgaard	Senior	UAA	42:22.0

9	305		Ian		Wilkinson		Senior		UAF		42:26.7
10	318		Dylan		Watts		Senior		APUNSC		42:30.4
11	321		Andrew		Dougherty		Senior		DU		42:45.6
12	317		Logan		Hanneman		OJ		FAST		42:52.1
13	322		Tyler		Kornfield		Senior		AWS		42:59.6
14	312		Isaac		Lammers		OJ		ANR		43:09.7
15	294		Stefan		Hajdukovich		OJ		FXC		43:21.6
16	303		Kyle		Hanson		J1		FXC		43:30.6
17	314		Jack		Novak		OJ		APUNSC		43:51.8
18	310		Erin		Phillips		Senior		APUNSC		44:08.2
19	308		Lars		Arneson		Senior		UAF		44:11.2
20	300		Galen		Johnston		Senior		UAA		44:17.5
21	316		Forrest		Mahlen		OJ		APUNSC		44:28.3
22	301		Cody		Priest		Senior		Purple Cobras		44:33.4
23	293		John		Glen		J1		AWS		44:33.5
24	313		Alex		Morris		Senior		UAF		44:45.1
25	304		Nevio		Zeni		Senior		UAA		44:46.6
26		307		Andrew		Arnold		Senior		44:46.8
27	323		Scott		Patterson		OJ		AWS		44:49.1
28	276		Adam		Verrier		M3		Atomic Team		44:58.8
29	278		Erich		Hoefler		J1		FAST		45:04.5
30	274		Jack		Parke		J1		AWS		45:08.7
31	279		David		Mcphetres		J1		ANR		45:22.8
32	292		Lutz		Klausmann		OJ		UAA		45:22.9
33	285		Alex		Loan		J1		ANR		45:25.5
34		291		Davis		Dunlap		OJ		45:33.6
35	290		Don		Haering		Senior		APUNSC		45:36.3
36	306		Carl		Smith		OJ		AWS		45:40.1
37	296		Patrick		Nugent		OJ		FXC		45:42.6
38	288		Riley		Troyer		J1		FXC		45:43.1
39	286		Peter		Brewer		OJ		ANR		45:47.5
40	266		Neill		Toelle		OJ		FXC		45:55.5
41	283		Schyler		Knopp		J1		ANR		46:10.7
42	302		Neil		Liotta		Senior		AWS		46:11.1
43	280		Eric		Backstrum		J1		AWS		46:18.8
44	269		Daniel		Serventi		J1		APUNSC		47:04.1
45		295		Brandon		Brewster		OJ		47:05.4
46	281		Abe		Meyerhofer		OJ		APUNSC		47:16.0
47		250		Leif		Johnson		Senior		47:19.6
48	311		Peter		Mamrol		OJ		NSAA		47:24.8
49	246		Patrick		Terhune		OJ		FXC		47:34.8
50	268		Jake		Prince		J1		AWS		47:47.8

So that's all for UAA ski racing until next year.  At this very moment, various members of the team are packing their bags to scatter to the far ends of the earth - to places like Copenhagen, the Black Forest, Oslo, Fairbanks... even Palmer!  The coaches are taking a short break, too, before the start of the NCAA season begins in earnest.  As for me, I'm headed to Mexico tonight for a little sun, surf and sand, so the chances of a blog update from me between now and January 2012 are slim at best.  Happy New Year!

...and the finalists are:

Lasse was focused today.  It was obvious.  As soon as he came across the finish line of each of his heats, he immediately took a few swigs of sport drink and a jogged a few laps around the stadium to stay loose between heats. And to anyone who watched his heats closely, it was clear that he had a strategy: get to the front early and control the race from there, using sharp accelleration in a few critical parts of the course that he'd memorized in advance.  He executed his plan with an expert touch, and worked his way through to the A-final, the last race of the day, as night was falling on Kincaid Park.  Once again, Lasse put himself into perfect position, in the lead, as the group came behind the scoreboard at the 500 meter mark.  All day, this was the part of the course where Lasse had relaxed to take a few deep breaths before a hard acceleration into the final, critical 400 meters.  But this time, he was getting pressure from Davis Norris, who had also been employing crafty race tactics all day.  To put it bluntly, six skiers tried to squeeze themselves onto a trail made for five, and Lasse saw his plans for victory unravel from a vantage point sprawled in the middle of the ski trail, about 350 meters from the finish.  But that's sprint racing: you take your chances, play to your strengths, keep your brain in gear, and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.  Lasse did everything to put himself in position to win today, but sometimes you just have to come away from the race satisfied that you took your chances and gave everything you had. And Lasse did that today.

 Lukas went all the way through to the final, too.  But it was the B-final.  There wasn't much "lucky" about Lukas' starts today.  Just as Lasse could be counted on to look back over his shoulder at the 100 meter mark at the beginning of each heat, wondering where everyone was, Lukas struggled to get out of the start quickly, and had to spend each heat fighting his way through the field in order to advance.  But he showed guts and resolve and he kept advancing all the way to the B-final. 

With 350 meters to go, coming downhill off the tunnel and into the strategically critical sweeping left turn under the bridge, Lucky hoped to get lucky with an inside move that could have launched him into a solid second place position coming into the finish sprint, but Scott Patterson was alert and closed the door on Lukas, taking the inside line for himself.  Smart skiing by both skiers. 

Today's results haven't been posted yet, but I bet they'll be available here before too long: http://www.crosscountryalaska.org/site/categoryblog/235-bc-1-a-2-info

Pic o' th' Day

We like to have our team meetings indoors, but we're not afraid to have 'em in the Kincaid Park parking lot every once in a while:

Anchorage Cup

Yesterday, the team raced 15km skating (mass start) at the first Anchorage Cup Series race.  163 skiers showed up at Chugiak High School to take a lap or two around a hilly, twisty 7.5 km course.  We had good, firm conditions on fast, old, warm snow.  If I'd raced with my camera, I could have taken a few photos for this blog.  For instance, I could have taken a photo or two of Jaime as she passed me at the halfway point of the race, during my futile struggle to hang on and make a race of it...

Here are the results (top skiers only):

Women 15 K
1) Jaime Bronga, 0:40:24.3;
2) Laura Rombach, 0:42:08.4;
3) Steffi Hiemer, 0:44:42.5;
4) Rachel Steer, 0:45:46.3;
5) Karina Smith, 0:46:33.4;
6) Maya Radonich, 0:46:33.9;
7) Laura Gardner, 0:47:26.7;
8) Sheryl Loan, 0:50:47.6;
9) Margaret Hillhouse, 0:51:30.1;
10) Jessica Vetsch, 0:51:57.6;
11) Karen Bronga, 0:52:43.5;
12) Cynthia Decker, 0:56:50.4;
13) Liz Brewster, 0:57:52.9;
14) Celia Rozen, 1:04:57.3;
15) Ellen Toll, 1:08:40.9;
16) Alyssa Hargis, 1:22:19.3;

Men 15 K
1) Mark Iverson, 0:36:00.0;
2) Dylan Watts, 0:36:05.0;
3) Lukas Ebner, 0:36:15.5;
4) Lasse Moelgaard-Nielsen, 0:38:17.7;
5) Peter Mamrol, 0:38:59.3;
6) Tor Christopherson, 0:39:02.2;
7) Erik Mundahl, 0:39:05.2;
8) Galen Johnston, 0:39:09.0;
9) Christopher Clark, 0:39:10.0;
10) Nevio Zeni, 0:39:14.7;
11) Brandon Brewster, 0:39:15.1;
12) Lutz Klaufmann, 0:39:38.6;
13) Leif Johnson, 0:40:23.6;
14) Seth Downs, 0:40:43.6;
15) Adam Verrier, 0:41:01.6;
16) Mark Brady, 0:41:05.4;
17) Davis Dunlap, 0:41:14.9;
18) Don Haering, 0:41:28.8;
19) Erik Gorman, 0:42:01.4;
20) Rich Suddock, 0:42:07.3;