Math Time

The alpine team completed both of their races at the University of Denver series last weekend, leaving the cross-country team to race this weekend and finish out the series.  At the conclusion of the alpine races, UAA was in 5th place.  On Friday, the UAA women went 4th/5th/6th to win their race by a lot, while Lasse picked up a lot of points with his fourth place finish.  The combined result of these efforts brought us past the University of New Mexico, into 4th place overall (alpine and nordic), and seventeen points behind University of Denver.  Today were the final races of the series:  15km mass start skating for the men and 10K mass start skating for the women.  Once again, the UAA women destroyed the field, with Jaime winning the race, Laura in third, and Steffi in fifth.  In the men's race, Lucky was tenth, Nevio was 12th and Lasse was 16th.  (The non-college skiers are taken out of the college scoring.) Today's results moved UAA past University of Denver and into third place!
I haven't talked to anyone about the race; I'm only looking at the results - but I notice something interesting and encouraging when I look at the women's results:  In the race for first, Jaime beat Eliska Hajkova by about six seconds, suggesting that they may have been skiing together until Jaime made a strong push at the end to win the race.  A little less than a half-minute back, Laura won her battle for third against Clara Chauvet by about six seconds.  And about a half minute further back, Steffi won her battle for fifth with a three second win over Kate Dolan.  Having not skied at Devil's Thumb Ranch myself since 1992, I don't know how the course comes into the finish, and it's dangerous to speculate about a race you didn't see, but the results would suggest tough skiing by our skiers near the finish, and that's the kind of thing that wins points in these college races.  Every point counts. A few years ago, when we were fourth at NCAA's, just a few more points would have gotten us second place!  I'm really encouraged by UAA's willingness and eagerness to dig deep to get the win in the tough finish line battles!  Congratulations to UAA on another successful weekend in the tracks. We are working toward the ultimate goal of great performances at the NCAA Championships in Montana in early March, and this weekend does nothing to dampen my optimism going into the second half of the season.

A sweep of Faceboook pages doesn't yield any photos from Devil's Thumb Ranch, so I guess the team was too busy waxing skis to take pictures.  You'll have to settle for the results (below):

Class: M - Men 15 km
Place	Bib	Name	Class	Division	Affiliation	Time	Time Back
1	90	OEDEGAARD, Rune Malo	M		University of Colorado	48:14.5	0
2	82	SMITH, Didrik	M		University of Utah	48:18.6	+4.1
3	92	HAVLICK, Miles	M		University of Utah	48:19.2	+4.7
4	73	REINKING, Tyler	M		Montana State University	48:27.8	+13.3
5	84	KJOELHAMAR, Vegard	M		University of Colorado	48:48.0	+33.5
6	74	PLETCHER, Reid	M		University of Colorado	49:01.7	+47.2
7	85	SCHALLINGER, Michael	M		Montana State University	49:16.7	+1:02.2
8	78	SMITH, Tom	M		University of Utah	49:34.0	+1:19.5
9	88	DOUGHERTY, Andrew	M		University of Denver	49:37.9	+1:23.4
10	87	EBNER, Lukas	M		University of Alaska Anchorage	49:43.5	+1:29.0
11	96	SCRIMGEOUR, Maxfield	M		Steamboat Springs WSC	50:05.1	+1:50.6
12	95	LOOMIS, Adam	M		Steamboat Springs WSC	50:08.7	+1:54.2
13	60	HOYE, Andreas	M		University of Colorado	50:09.3	+1:54.8
14	69	ZENI, Nevio	M		University of Alaska Anchorage	50:10.0	+1:55.5
15	68	BYE BREVIK, Joergen	M		University of Denver	50:10.4	+1:55.9
16	89	PRESTSAETER, Sjur	M		University of New Mexico	50:11.3	+1:56.8
17	77	WALLACE, Conor	M		University of Denver	50:12.0	+1:57.5
18	79	MOELGAARD, Lasse	M		University of Alaska Anchorage	50:39.5	+2:25.0
19	61	MALLAMS, Ian	M		University of Colorado	50:42.4	+2:27.9
20	66	KESSELHEM, Sawyer	M		Montana State University	50:46.4	+2:31.9
21	81	OTTO, Christian	M		University of New Mexico	50:57.8	+2:43.3
22	75	JOHNSTON, Galen	M		University of Alaska Anchorage	50:58.6	+2:44.1
23	64	MADDEN, Patrick	M		Montana State University	51:00.1	+2:45.6
24	70	FIGI, Rolf	M		University of Utah	51:00.8	+2:46.3
25	71	DU PASQUIER, Arnaud	M		University of Colorado	51:28.8	+3:14.3
26	58	TREINEN, Max	M		University of Alaska Anchorage	51:31.2	+3:16.7
27	54	BROMLEY, Luke	M		Independent	51:42.9	+3:28.4
28	80	MARKSET, Trygve	M		University of Denver	52:02.3	+3:47.8
29	97	VON THADEN, Charlie	M		Steamboat Springs WSC	52:26.1	+4:11.6
30	56	LIOTTA, Neil	M		Montana State University	52:37.3	+4:22.8
31	98	WARD, Michael	M		Steamboat Springs WSC	53:22.2	+5:07.7
32	99	WEINMAN, Evan	M		Steamboat Springs WSC	53:44.0	+5:29.5
33	59	NYGREN, Hans	M		Montana State University	54:10.6	+5:56.1
34	76	NIESS, Pierre	M		University of New Mexico	54:39.2	+6:24.7
35	53	SMITH, Carl	M		Independent	55:07.9	+6:53.4
36	67	LOONEY, Adam	M		University of Wyoming	55:09.6	+6:55.1
37	72	SOLBERG, Eivind	M		University of New Mexico	55:18.5	+7:04.0
38	51	ZAVISLAN, Stefan	M		US Air Force Academy	55:38.9	+7:24.4
39	94	HOUGH, Nathan	M		University of Wyoming	56:11.8	+7:57.3
40	83	BOCHANSKI, Kyle	M		University of Wyoming	56:12.8	+7:58.3
41	63	RODGERS, Patrick	M		University of Wyoming	56:53.4	+8:38.9
42	93	FIELD, Cliff	M		Steamboat Springs WSC	59:22.0	+11:07.5
43	55	ODERWALD, Devin	M		University of Wyoming	1:00:47.5	+12:33.0

Class: F - Women 10 km
Place	Bib	Name	Class	Division	Affiliation	Time	Time Back
1	32	BRONGA, Jaime	F		University of Alaska Anchorage	36:59.5	0
2	36	HAJKOVA, Eliska	F		University of Colorado	37:05.1	+5.6
3	21	ROMBACH, Laura	F		University of Alaska Anchorage	37:23.6	+24.1
4	29	CHAUVET, Clara	F		University of New Mexico	37:32.4	+32.9
5	28	HIEMER, Steffi	F		University of Alaska Anchorage	37:53.9	+54.4
6	34	DOLAN, Kate	F		University of Denver	37:58.4	+58.9
7	33	KEMP, Rose	F		University of Utah	38:01.4	+1:01.9
8	20	CAPPEL, Makayla	F		University of Denver	38:04.9	+1:05.4
9	23	KUTZ, Casey	F		Montana State University	38:06.2	+1:06.7
10	37	KLAESSON, Linn	F		University of New Mexico	38:19.0	+1:19.5
11	31	CARLSON, Ase	F		Montana State University	38:20.1	+1:20.6
12	22	NORD, Anni	F		University of New Mexico	38:41.0	+1:41.5
13	9	JORTBERG, Jessica	F		University of Denver	38:45.3	+1:45.8
14	38	ELDEN, Mari	F		University of Denver	39:16.3	+2:16.8
15	30	TYLER, Parker	F		University of Utah	39:18.6	+2:19.1
16	27	ROSE, Mary	F		University of Colorado	39:19.8	+2:20.3
17	18	MCDERMOTT, Cambria	F		Montana State University	39:25.7	+2:26.2
18	39	PISKE, Haley	F		Steamboat Springs WSC	39:30.8	+2:31.3
19	19	WILSGAARD, Silje	F		University of Denver	39:39.0	+2:39.5
20	25	NOYES, Mali	F		University of Utah	39:43.9	+2:44.4
21	26	GILL, Katie	F		University of Denver	39:59.5	+3:00.0
22	4	HEAGNEY, Carrie	F		Independent	40:03.5	+3:04.0
23	6	BACKSTRUM, Kate	F		Montana State University	40:04.4	+3:04.9
24	12	BREED, Elena	F		University of Denver	40:05.1	+3:05.6
25	10	KANADY, Rachelle	F		Montana State University	40:21.5	+3:22.0
26	3	JONES, Mackenzie	F		Independent	41:00.1	+4:00.6
27	2	LIOTTA, Annie	F		Independent	41:10.3	+4:10.8
28	15	STEGE, Katie	F		University of Colorado	41:28.6	+4:29.1
29	8	BRATLIE, Solveig	F		Montana State University	41:56.9	+4:57.4
30	14	SMITH, Karina	F		University of Alaska Anchorage	43:11.2	+6:11.7
31	16	WEINER, Bridget	F		University of Wyoming	43:28.2	+6:28.7
32	11	JECH, Sierra	F		University of Wyoming	43:51.4	+6:51.9
33	24	MADSEN, Marianne	F		University of Colorado	44:00.2	+7:00.7
34	7	DIXSON, Sarah D	F		University of Wyoming	47:10.4	+10:10.9
35	1	VONASEK, Taylor	F		US Air Force Academy	54:32.6	+17:33.1