UAA ski team, track team head to nationals; women’s basketball team opens postseason play

It’s crunch time for the Seawolves.

Two UAA teams are headed to NCAA national championships this week, and the vaunted women’s basketball team is at the conference championships for the start of what it hopes will be a deep postseason run.

The women’s basketball team gets a first-round bye in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships, which begin Thursday in Bellingham, Washington.

Coach Ryan McCarthy and the Seawolves last week clinched their fifth straight regular-season GNAC title while pushing their overall record to 27-1. On Friday, they’ll meet the winner of a Thursday game between Central Washington and Concordia.

Meanwhile, 10 skiers and nine track and field athletes will compete in NCAA championships this week. The skiers will compete four straight days at the NCAA Championships beginning Wednesday in Burlington, Vermont, and the track team will compete Friday and Saturday in the Division II championships in Pittsburg, Kansas.

“We are bringing a strong group of student-athletes to the championships, and I am excited to see what this group can do against the best in the nation,” UAA track coach Michael Friess said in a press release from the school.

The ski team has two athletes and the track team has one who have already recently garnered postseason awards.

Caroline Kurgat, a three-time national champion distance runner, was named the West Region female athlete of the year for indoor track — the third time in her career she has won a West Region athlete of the year award. She was the 2017 cross country athlete of the year and the 2018 outdoor track athlete of the year.

She’s got the fastest times in Division II history in two events — the 5,000 (15:28.46) and the 3,000 (9:07.05). She’s also a member of UAA’s distance medley relay, which enters the championships with the top time of the season. Dani McCormick, the defending 800-meter national champ, is also on the relay team, as are Vanessa Aniteye and Ruth Cvancara.

For the ski team, senior Casey Wright and freshman Sigurd Roenning both collected honors recently. Both are cross-country skiers.

Wright, an 2018 Olympian for Australia last winter, earned the Elite 90 award for skiing at a banquet Tuesday in Burlington.

She’s the first UAA athlete to win an Elite 90 award, given to the athlete with the highest grade-point average at each NCAA national championship event. Wright holds a 4.0 GPA in physical education.

Roenning, who is from Norway, earned all-conference honors in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association for a strong season that included podium finishes in the five races and top-10 finishes in seven.

Though the UAA men’s basketball team is done for the season, the Seawolves landed their leading scorer on the all-conference team announced this week.

Tyler Brimhall, a 6-foot-5 junior forward who joined the Seawolves this season after two years at North Idaho Junior College, was the only UAA player to make the team.

Brimhall averaged 18.7 points and 6.5 rebounds a game for the 14-14 Seawolves, who didn’t qualify for the GNAC championships. He scored 30 or more points in four games and was in double figures in 24 of 28 games.

Brimhall was one of six players to gain first-team honors, a group led by GNAC Player of the Years Adonis Arms of Northwest Nazarene.

Skiers at NCAA championships — Toomas Kollo, Casey Wright, Sigurd Roenning, JC Schoonmaker, Georgia Burgess, Anna Darnell, Michaela Keller-Miller, Li Djurestaal, Sky Kelsey, Liam Wallace.

Track and field athletes at NCAA championships — Caroline Kurgat, Dani McCormick, Vanessa Aniteye, Ruth Cvancara, Nancy Jeptoo, Nathanial Brunett, Drew Johnson, Felix Kemboi, Eduardo Orozco.