February 8, 2008 (Aspen, Colorado) – Sweden’s Kristina Strandberg won the women’s 5-kilometre freestyle USSA SuperTour race Thursday to open the Owl Creek Chase Race Weekend and Aspen Nordic Festival. Andrey Golovko of Kazakhstan was the men’s 10km winner.

Strandberg, who skis for the Factory Team covered the 5km loop, in 16:49.5 with Nicole De Yong of Team Fischer-Craft runner-up in 17:37.1. Third place in the field of 45 went to Czech Martina Stursova of Team Rossignol (17:40.4).

Completing the top five were ex-Dartmouth athlete Kristina Trygstad-Saari in fourth with Swiss racer Karin Camenisch of Team Rossignol fifth.

In the men’s two-lap race, Golovko, another Factory Team racer, finished with a time of 29:09.8. Zach Violett was second (29:26.3) and local favorite Noah Hoffman finished third (29:33.5). Olympian James Southam from Team Rossi and the Alaska Pacific U. Nordic program was fourth while Brayton Osgood, another ex-Dartmouth skier, finished fifth in the pack of 41.

The highlight of the weekend comes Saturday with the 25 km Owl Creek Chase, which starts at the Snowmass Cross Country Centre and concludes on the Aspen XC Centre.

Full results here.