Anchorage skiers Anna Darnell and Luke Jager grabbed third-place finishes Saturday in NCAA cross-country competition in the Colorado Invitational at Steamboat Springs.
Darnell, a UAA senior from South High, prevented a men’s and women’s podium sweep by Utah, which went 1-2-3 in the men’s race and 1-2 in the women’s race.
Jager, a West High grad who is a freshman at Utah, was part of the men’s sweep. He finished the 10-kilometer freestyle race in 27 minutes, 59.3 seconds to finish behind teammates Samuel Hendry (27:29.3) and Maximilian Bie (27:46.4).
Darnell clocked 15:33 in the women’s 5K freestyle, trailing Utah skiers Guro Jordheim (15:14.2) and Mariah Bredal (15:25.7).
UAA placed three women and three men in the top 11 of both races.
In the women’s race, Darnell was joined by sixth-place Natalie Hines and 11th-place Hannah Rudd. Eighth place went to Anchorage’s Emma Tarbath, who skis for Montana State, and 10th place went to UAF’s Mariel Pulles.
In the men’s race, Espen Persen led the Seawolves in sixth place. Sigurd Roenning was 10th and Magnus Noroey 11th.
“It's been a while since we had so many top 10’s in one race,” UAA coach Marine Dusser Bjornsen. “Anna was fifth last year, only a couple seconds from the podium and she really wanted that podium today. We are so glad she did it.”
Skiers will compete in classic-technique races on Sunday.