February 14, 2016 (Presque Isle, ME) – The US Biathlon men’s team pulled out all the stops to claim a season-best 5th in the 4×7.5km Men’s Relay on the final day of competition at BMW IBU World Cup 8 held at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle, Maine. Norway was unstoppable using seven spare rounds to win by 30s over France with two spares followed by Germany at 42.6s using 11 spare rounds.

Lowell Bailey started out fast for the U.S. men quickly moving up to third at the first time check. An extra round in prone bumped him back to sixth and two more additional rounds in standing knocked Bailey all the way down to 12th. He made the first exchange with Leif Nordgren in 11th place at 39 seconds behind Germany that took over the lead from Switzerland.

With clean shooting in prone Nordgren jumped up to seventh, and with just one extra round in standing he had the team back in the thick of things in fourth place at 33 seconds back. Although he was passed by several other teams, Nordgren tagged off to Tim Burke for the third leg in seventh place, now at 55.8 seconds behind the leaders, but only 16 seconds from the medals.

Needing an extra round in both prone and standing, Burke made up time as he came in for the final exchange with Sean Doherty as the team now sitting in fifth place at 37.8 seconds back of Norway, the new race leaders, and 24.4 out of a podium spot held by France. Behind was Germany’s Benedict Doll who is know for his fast skis.

Doherty used one extra round in prone to put the team in fourth, but two extra rounds in standing bumped them back to fifth. France took over second from Russia as Doll passed Doherty and the hunt was on for Russia. Germany’s Doll could not be stopped and overtook Russia for the third as a hard-charging Doherty tried to reel in the fading Russian team.

As Maxim Tsvetkov rounded the final corner Doherty was on his ski tails and the final lunge at the line yielded a photo finish that awarded fourth place to Russia with seven spares and fifth to the Americans with nine spare rounds. It was the best finish for the U.S. men this season after a pair of sixth-place showings.

“Today’s race was a great result for me individually and for the team as a whole,” said Doherty. “I felt strong on the skis and the finish was so close. I think we are all feeling optimistic for the upcoming worlds in Norway.”

The Canadian team of Scott Perras, Carsen Campbell, Matthew Neumann and Matthew Hudec were lapped.

Results here.