Alaska Pacific University skiers set the fastest overall pace and Colorado topped the college teams Wednesday in a mixed-gender relay race in Girdwood.
The race was the final event in the Seawolf Invitational ski meet, which began with two alpine races in January and concluded with two cross-country races this week.
APU's Reese Hanneman, Rosie Frankowski, Logan Hanneman and Becca Rorabaugh had the fastest time in the 4×5-kilometer classic race. They finished in 57 minutes, 33 seconds to beat Colorado by more than 25 seconds.
The Buffaloes finished in 57:59 to win the college division, which included a strong field of teams from the West Region. The team included Mads Ek Stroem, Jesse Knori, Petter Reistad and Christina Rolandsen.
Utah's Martin Bergstroem, Guro Jordheim, Kevin Bolger and Merete Myrseth placed third overall and second among college teams in 58:59.1.
UAA's Toomas Kollo, Casey Wright, Zackarius Toresson and Hailey Swirbul claimed sixth place overall in 1:00:12.4, beating UAF by about five seconds.
The Seawolves got a boost from Wright, who had the third-fastest second leg of the day (15:57), trailing Knori (15:13) and Frankowski (15:28).
Utah boasted two of the fastest legs — Bergstroem skied the fastest first leg (13:44) and Myrseth recorded the fastest anchor leg (15:22).
APU's Logan Hanneman skied the fastest third leg (12:57) and each of his teammates clocked the second-fastest times in their respective legs.
Utah, which went 1-2 in the women's freestyle sprint Tuesday at Kincaid Park, claimed the Seawolf Invitational team title with 665 points.
The Utes beat second-place Denver by nearly 100 points. UAA finished sixth.
Cross-country skiers will return to action Saturday and Sunday at Kincaid Park for the final two events of the UAA Invitational. Like the Seawolf Invitational, the UAA Invitational held its alpine races in January.
Team standings
1) Utah 665, 2) Denver 569, 3) Colorado 549, 4) Montana State 479, 5) New Mexico 464, 6) UAA 435, 7) UAF 216, 8) Colorado Mountain College 56, 9) Westminster College 29.
4x5K mixed-gender classic relay
1) APU (R. Hanneman, Frankowski, L. Hanneman, Rorabaugh) 57:33.7; 2) Colorado (Stroem, Knori, Reistad, Rolandsen) 57:59.3; 3) Utah (Bergstroem, Jordheim, Bolger, Myrseth) 58:36.3; 4) Denver (Trolleboe, Eriksen, Madlener, Joensuu) 58:59.1; 5) New Mexico (Vaherkoski, Roivas, Praznik, Niiranen) 1:00:08.8; 6) UAA (Kollo, Wright, Toresson, Swirbul) 1:00:12.4; 7) UAF (Cech, Lammers, Fehrenbach, Uhl) 1:00:17.2; 8) Utah (Mikkelsen, Mueller, Engstroem, Lange) 1:01:13.6; 9) Montana State (Maun, Miller, Andersen, O'Connell) 1:02:05.6; 10) UAA (Deuling, Rudd, Moscni, Hynes) 1:02:46.0; 11) Denver (Kvaale, Starkey, Shanley, Nordskar) 1:03:04.3; 12) MSU/UAF (Tarbath, Fake, Floyd 1:03:15.3); 13) New Mexico (Guyon, Egan, Rombock, Ensrud) 1:03:28.9; 14) Colorado (Boucher, Lervik, Scrimgeour, Newman) 1:06:13.2; 15) Utah/UAA (Diekmann, Keller-Miller, Ivars, Nilsson) 1:03:14.8; 16) UAF/UAF (Takagi, Markset, Donaldson, Fox) 1:03:40.3; 17) Colorado (Potyk, Brautaset, Hill, Brautaset) 1:04:57.0; 18) UAF (Lovett, Rowland, Eckert, Darnell) 1:05:50.7.