WINTER PARK / ASPEN, Colo. – Following the completion of
three events, the Alaska Anchorage ski team sits at No. 5 in the standings against
Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association members at the Denver
Invitational on Saturday.
The Seawolves used a combined 177 points in the classic and
149 in the slalom for their fifth-place standing. New Mexico jumps from third
to first on Day 2 with 648 total points, while Colorado (644) and host Denver
(644) are tied for second. Utah leads UAA in fourth with 642 points.
Posting UAA's highest finish of the day and his first
collegiate top-10 finish was rookie Erik Bjornsen in the men's 10K classic. The
Winthrop, Wash., native finished the race in seventh place with a time of 28
minutes, 23.4 seconds. The race was Bjornsen's first since Jan. 16 at the
Montana State Invite. Also scoring for UAA was freshmen Lukas Ebner (12th,
28:56.7) and Lasse Moelgaard-Nielsen (16th, 29:27.9).
In the women's 5K classic race, the Seawolves received a
ninth-place showing from junior Laura Rombach with a time of 16:24.5. Rombach,
who hails from Neukirch, Germany, has led the team in three races and has
posted three top-10 results this season. Classmates Steffi Hiemer (16:28.1) and
All-American Jaime Bronga (16:35.3) finished 10th and 12th,
respectively.
On the slopes at Winter Park, Colo., All-American Andreas Adde led UAA for the eighth time this season, posting a two-run time of one
minute, 20.89 seconds. Adde, the 2010 NCAA Slalom Champion, has recorded seven
top-10 results throughout the year. Sophomore Cameron Brewington (1:21.61) was
17th, as freshman Christopher Kollenborg (1:22.52) was 23rd.
The UAA women's Alpine team received top finishes from
sophomore Ida Berjka (1:36.85) in 16th and junior Sandra MacDonald
(1:45.18) in 23rd. Junior three-time All-American Alex Parker was
disqualified during the first run.
Both the men's and women's Nordic teams will compete in the
21K freestyle races on Sunday to wrap up the invite.
