Anchorage Daily News

A couple of hometown athletes helped UAA to its best finish in history Saturday at the NCAA Ski Championships in Maine.

Brothers Max and Lex Treinen of Anchorage joined Raphael Wunderle of Germany in the top five of the men's 20-kilometer mass-start skate race, a show of force that vaulted UAA into fourth place in the team standings, up two spots from Friday.

Though the Seawolves have produced numerous All-Americans over the years at the national championships, until this year they could do no better than fifth place.

The dominant performance in Saturday's skate races -- the women placed three skiers in the top 20, including a pair who finished 11th and 12th -- gave UAA 584 team points and left the Seawolves less than 20 points out of second place. Denver won the team title with 659 points, Colorado was second with 602.5 and New Mexico third with 602.

Wunderle and the Treinens grabbed All-America status by placing in the top 10, giving UAA seven All-American performances from five athletes.

Two of those athletes earned All-America honors twice. Wunderle also had a top-10 finish in the classical race, while alpine skier Alex Parker finished in the top 10 in both the giant slalom and slalom races.

Colorado's Vegard Kjoelhamar won the men's 20-K in 44 minutes, 7.9 seconds, about 20 seconds ahead of a mad dash for second place.

Lex Treinen, a freshmen, prevailed in the sprint finish that had four skiers finishing within 2.5 seconds of each other. He nipped Wunderle by half a second to claim second place in 44:27.4 seconds. Wunderle was right behind in 44:27.9, and Max Treinen, a sophomore, was fifth in 44:29.9.

Anchorage skier Mike Hinkley of Denver placed sixth in 44:39.

In the women's 15-race, Denver's Antje Maempel beat Colorado's Alexa Turzian by half a second to win in 38:35.0.

Anchorage's Caitlin Patterson, who skis for Vermont, was seventh in 39:10.9 to became an All-American for the second time at the championships. She was sixth in the classical race.

UAA's Laura Romback and Jaime Bronga just missed the top 10. Romback was 11th in 39:51.5 and Bronga 12th in 39:52.4. Trailing them in 19th place was Sadie Bjornsen in 40:27.5.

Bjornsen, a freshman, she joined Wunderle, Parker and the Treinens as an All-American for UAA, thanks to her third-place finish in Friday's classical race.

NCAA Ski Championships

Black Mountain, Maine

Saturday's results

Team scores (top 5) -- 1) Denver 659, 2) Colorado 602.5, 3) New Mexico 602, 4) UAA 584, 5) Vermont 573.

Men's 20-K -- 1) Vegard Kjoelhamar, Colorado, 44:07.9. UAA finishers -- 2) Lex Treinen 44:27.4; 3) Raphael Wunderle 44:27.9; 5) Max Treinen 44:29.0. Other Alaska finishers -- 6) Mike Hinkley, Denver, 44:39; 15) Patrick Johnson, Middlebury, 45:17.3; 24) Daniel Clark, Denver, 46:10.5; 38) Justin Singleton, New Mexico, 49:042.

Women's 15-K -- 1) Antje Maempel, Denver, 38:35. UAA finishers -- 11) Laura Rombach 39:51.1; 12) Jaime Bronga 39:52.4; 19) Sadie Bjornsen, 40:27.5. Other Alaska finishers -- 7) Caitlin Patterson, Vermont, 39:10.9; 16) Chelsea Holmes, Nevada, 40:13.5; 38) Elizabeth Quinley, Michigan Tech, 43:47.8.

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