February 10, 2012 (Anchorage/Girdwood, AK) – Top-ranked Utah sits in familiar position atop the team standings after the first day of the Seawolf Invitational. But it was anything but a normal day on the hill for the RMISA schools here at Kincaid Park (Nordic) and Alyeska Ski Resort (alpine).

In a day where the Nordic and alpine teams competed a mere 40 miles from each other, the conditions could’ve have been more opposite. The Nordic freestyle races were held under ideal conditions while the giant slalom races were cancelled due to poor snow conditions.

Rain throughout the day Wednesday and mild temperatures overnight left about a six inch crust of hard snow at the Alyeska Ski Resort and conditions worsened throughout the day. The women completed one run and the men made it through about 20 skiers before race officials cancelled the remainder of the first run and both second runs.

Because the first run of the women’s race was completed, it will count as a race both for team scoring and NCAA qualification purposes. Because the men’s race was cancelled before the first run was complete, for the scoring of the Seawolf Invitational, Saturday’s slalom race will be doubled.

Utah’s Jamie Dupratt became the fifth different skier to win a GS race wih her first run time of 1:03.00. She beat out Alaska Anchorage’s Anais Urbain, who took second in a time of 1:03.44. Utah racked up 135 out of a possible 141 points by then finishing third and fourth as Julie Bordeau took third in 1:03.73 and Tii-Maria Romar fourth in 1:03.81. Colorado’s Erika Ghent rounded out the top five in a time of 1:03.87.

Utah’s 135 points topped host Alaska Anchorage’s total of 115 as the only two teams in triple digits. New Mexico (89), Colorado (86) and Denver (82) were all then within seven points while Montana State (73) edged out Westminster College (71) by two points.

Meanwhile in Anchorage, the women’s 5K interval start freestyle race started the days action and Colorado won the race impressively taking the top two spots individually. Eliska Hajkova won by 20 seconds over her teammate Joanne Reid with a time of 13:52.5 compared to Reid’s clocking of 14:12.8. Reid edged out UAA’s Jaime Bronga by six seconds as her time of 14:18.8 closed out the podium finishers. New Mexico’s Clara Chauvet (14:21.5) finished fourth while Utah’s Maria Graefnings rounded out the top five in a time of 14:30.6.

The Buffs tallied 120 points while Utah (105) and New Mexico (103) both hit triple digits and Alaska (98) just missed the mark. Montana State (90) and Denver (75) rounded out the team scoring.

On the men’s side in the 10K freestyle race, Montana State’s David Norris completed a successful double loop of the course in a time of 24:28.6, topping Colorado’s Rune Oedegaard by about 14 seconds (24:42.5). Oedegaard edged out Utah’s Miles Havlick, who closed out the podium in a time of 24:47.5. Denver’s Andrew Dougherty finished fourth in 25:12.9 with Montana State’s  earning fith place in a time of 25:19.1.

Montana State edged Utah in the team scoring for the race, 119-116, with Colorado (107) right on their heels. Denver (92), UAA (84) and New Mexico (73) rounded out the team scoring.

In a meeting of alpine coaches after the conclusion of the crazy day, it was decided that an extra qualifier race will take place in Montana ahead of the RMISA Championships. The men will get a make-up race while the women will earn a seventh race to help qualify for NCAA Championships.

The schedule in Montana will now begin on Wednesday, February 22, with slalom races that were originally scheduled for the following day. Those RMISA Qualifier races along with Thursday’s giant slalom make up races will both be FIS-U sanctioned. The RMISA Championships will then begin Friday with giant slalom races and conclude Saturday with slalom races. The RMISA Championships are not an FIS-U race but are sanctioned by the USSA.

Full results HERE.

February 02, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Holy cow, today’s been an absolutely huge day! With 4 races going on I have no idea how the coaches and wax techs kept up with it all! First we had the junior women’s 4×3.3km relay, in which we finished 7th. I’m so totally excited because we moved up a place from last year!

The relay went like this: Amy Glen scrambled (classic) and tagged off to Kinsey Loan, who then tagged of to me for the skate half of the relay. I tagged Joanne and she anchored us for a solid 7th place. I’m also extremely excited about finishing second for lap splits to Heidi Wang (Norway) by 5.4 seconds. It was definitely a successful day – and we definitely had some crazy fast skis (yeah Salomon!)

After the relay, we travel waxed our skis, packed out bags and set out for a long day of spectating! And we did some HARD CORE cheering. We had numerous US flags and signs, and I do believe we also had the loudest voices on the whole course.

The junior men’s 4x5km relay went second, and they ended up finishing 10th in a close sprint with Canada. Then a short while later, the women’s 15km pursuit race set off, and Sadie led the US with a 17th place finish.

The last race of the day was the men’s 30km pursuit, and it was so much fun to cheer as the sun came out and it was an absolutely gorgeous day!

Noah led the US men with a 22nd place finish, but the coolest part of the whole day was seeing Alex Harvey crush it today and WIN THE WHOLE DARN RACE!!!! It was totally inspiring to hear an anthem other than Norway being blasted in the stadium.

I’m giving a huge shout-out to all the coaches and wax techs for all their hard work and patience in dealing with US. And thanks also to NCCSEF for all the support. It wouldn’t have happened without you!

So now I’m headed over to Madona, Latvia, with the Scando Cup team… and pretty much the only thing I know about Latvia is that car-jacking is basically a sport. The next week should be very interesting!

January 30, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – The Norwegian duo of Heidi Weng and Martine Ek Hagen scored first and second on Sunday in a strong display of power in the Junior women’s 5+5km Pursuit at the FIS Junior World Championships in Estonia. Weng, a star performer who had not yet won a gold at the championships, pushed hard past Hagen in the home stretch to claim the title. Helene Jakob of Germany, who is one year younger then the both of the Norwegians, surprised many in taking the bronze medal.

The USA’s Jessie Diggins, a CXC skier who hails from Afton, Minnesota once again led the North Americans in 12th place in 31:50.2 despite a crash early in the competition. Fellow American Joanne Reid was a solid 24th. The top Canadian woman was Annika Hicks in 31st on fresh packed snow and in windy conditions.

“Today was a solid day for the US junior women,” Diggins told SkiTrax post-race. “We had a 12th (Diggins), 24th (Reid), 40th (Glen), and 50th Heather Mooney – with 78 girls racing, I’m proud to have all our girls in the top 50.

“I’m also super excited because the US women rocked the pit exchanges in the pursuit,” continued the rising US star. “We’ve been practicing and it’s exciting for me to finally have a good equipment switch under my belt because I haven’t had much luck in the past – it was a mental road block I had to get over. But after I crashed and broke a pole at the start of the race, I relaxed a lot more and decided to just try to have a technically good race and see how far I could pull myself back up. So I was thinking a lot more instead of being in the lead pack and letting adrenaline take over, which I think helped me ski smarter.”

Diggins was grateful as she was given a pole by a Canadian coach following her crash.

“I’m also extremely grateful to the Canadian team; I was given a pole a little farther down the trail by one of their coaches. North Americans have each other’s back!”

Other North American finishers included Canada’s Janelle Greer in 36th, Amy Glen (USA) in 40th, Heather Mehain (CAN) in 43rd, Heidi Widmer (CAN) 47th and Mooney in 50th.

Team USA’s Reid was pleased with her 24th place finish: “It went really great today, all the girls were especially happy with our exchanges, we all stayed pretty calm and did good work in the pits. It was really sweet to be skiing with Amy and Jessie and Heather. There was a point in the race that we were all skiing together before Jessie took off and got after it. I ended up right next to Amy for a while and we worked together but I lost her when we went through the exchange,” said Reid.

Weng and Hagen, who are neighbors in Norway, know each other well having been in the same class at school. Today it was their day in the pursuit. The starting field remained compact after two 2.5km classic laps. Following the ski exchange Weng lost a bit when Elena Soboleva and Anna Scherbinina pushed hard and created a gap.

Weng came charging back in the second uphill. Then Hagen moved in front and accelerated on the final lap. Weng seemed to have some difficulty to follow but hung in with Hagen and the Norwegian duo appeared together in the stadium. In the finishing straight Weng summoned what power she had remaining and sprinted ahead of Hagen to take the win.

Germany’s Jakob was sixth after the classic part and was in contact with the lead group. During the free technique leg she dropped the Russian girls in her group and posted the second fastest time skate time to take the bronze medal.

As for Weng, it marked her second championship medal after placing third in the 5km individual start competition. “Everything was fantastic today and went as I planned,” Weng said in a FIS Press interview. “During the last lap I got really tired and I was very close to let Martine go. I thought about the gold medal in this race but I didn’t believe I could win it.”

As for her long-time friend Hagen the event was great. “The race was fun. I had a very good feeling through the whole race and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t expect two Norwegians to be on the podium. I expected only Heidi to win but not me. She is in a very good shape.”

This marked the second to last day of the Junior Worlds in Otepaa.

Full results HERE.