RENO, NEV. – Dylan Timm finished 14th to lead University of Alaska Anchorage in the giant slalom races at the Nevada Invite Tuesday.
Timm finished in a time of 1:58.85.
Tommaso Olcese finished 16th (1:58.88).
Giorgio Baldo finished 25th (2:00.71), and Carlo Cordone was 26th (2:00.77).
"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug," said head coach Sparky Anderson. "This week our guts are on the glass. The reality of this year is that our team is small, leaving no margin for error when it comes to attrition. I told the team when we started the NCAA season, that our main focus was qualifying athletes for NCAA Championships and not team results at invitationals and qualifiers. When you're in a position like the one we find ourselves in, our athletes have to risk more every run to punch into the top-seven, which is what you need to make a play for a result that would be good enough to climb the selection board and qualify for finals. It's extremely difficult. We're competing against World Cup and Europa Cup athletes at major D1 schools. From a qualification standpoint, the boys posted some slalom results that, if we can match them again in the second half of our season, will help us down the road. The ladies have a bigger hill to climb if we're going to fill a championship roster. We'll stay focused and keep trying to find that excellence in consistency and execution. The skill set is there across the board, just need to capitalize on opportunities. Back to the lab tomorrow."
Filip Wahlqvist of Colorado won the race in 1:56.55.
UAA finished eighth of eight teams with 115.5 points.
Alaska Anchorage will compete in the Nordic races at the DU Invite Feb. 7-8.
