For the third straight day of racing, a skier from UAA captured a spot on the podium in an NCAA race in Utah.
Astrid Stav claimed second place Tuesday in a women’s cross-country race at Soldier Hollow, the day after teammate Sigurd Roenning placed third in a men’s race.
On Friday, Rebecca Fiegl took third place in a slalom race at Park City.
UAA’s nordic skiers will race again Friday and Saturday at Soldier Hollow and then will join the alpine team back in Anchorage for their final preparations for the March 10-13 NCAA Championships in New Hampshire.
The Monday and Tuesday cross-country races were the second half of a Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association invitational meet that started earlier this month with alpine races. The Seawolves finished fifth among nine teams in in the team standings.
The cross-country races later this week, also set for Soldier Hollow, are the second half of the RMISA championship.
The RMISA championships started last week with the giant slalom and slalom races.
Fiegl’s third-place finish Friday in the slalom race was part of a solid day for the UAA women, who also got an 8th-place finish from Li Djurestaal and a 12th-place showing from Nicole Mah. In the men’s race, Michael Soetaert placed 17th and Didrik Nilsen 19th for UAA.
“Obviously the podium by Rebecca is huge going into the championships,” UAA coach Sparky Anderson said in a release from the school. “Li was able to dig deep and come up big with a result that punched her ticket to New Hampshire. It was also great to see Nicole dial up her career best slalom result.”
On the previous day, Djurestaal and Nilsen topped the Seawolves in the RMISA giant slalom championships by placing 16th and 20th, respectively.
In Monday’s classic cross-country races, third-place Roenning was joined in the top 15 of the men’s 10-kilometer race by teammates Espen Person (7th) and Magnus Noroey (15th). Anchorage’s Luke Jager turned in a sixth-place showing for the University of Utah.
In the women’s 5K classic, Stav led the Seawolves in seventh place, one spot behind sixth-place Mariel Pulles of UAF. Kendall Kramer of UAF finished 14th.
On Tuesday, Jager placed fifth in a 15K freestyle, with UAA again landing three men in the top 15 — Roenning (7th), Noroey (8th) and Person (12th).
Stav’s second-place finish in the women’s 10K was the only top-15 result for the Seawolves, but several other Alaska women cracked the top 15 — Kramer was 9th, Adrianna Proffitt of Montana State was 10th, Pulles was 12th and Aubrey Leclair of Montana State was 15th.
“Astrid‘s second place was great and Magnus finally cracked the top-10. We have been waiting for him to do that,” UAA cross-country coach Trond Flagstad said in a release from the school. “He has been so strong in Anchorage and to see him finally get paid here in Utah was fun. He has been struggling with the altitude.”