Jan. 30, 2007

By Matias Saari
Staff Writer
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published January 29, 2007

For the third SuperTour race in two weeks, a Nanook skier took third place.

This time he didn't have to share it.

Vahur Teppan, a junior from Tartu, Estonia, placed third Sunday in a FIS Supertour 15-kilometer classic at Telemark Resort in Cable, Wisc., striding six loops of the course in 38 minutes, 33.7 seconds.

"His technique was just incredible on the uphills," said Alaska coach Scott Jerome Sunday night from Duluth, Minn. "He just is very efficient. He doesn't have any wasted energy on the uphills. He's very fluid."

Last weekend in a freestyle SuperTour race at Mount Itasca, Teppan tied teammate Marius Korthauer for third. And in Saturday's 10K freestyle at Telemark, Korthauer deadlocked with Bryan Cook of Team CXC.

Lars Flora of Anchorage and the Subaru Factory Team convincingly won his fourth straight SuperTour distance event in two weekends, finishing in 37:45.

Korthauer took fifth in the interval start race Sunday, while Estonian Henri Soom was 24th for the Nanooks and Fairbanksan Anders Gillis took 27th.

Estonia factored into the day another way: video of Americans Torin Koos and Andy Newell historically winning bronze and silver, respectively, at a World Cup sprint in Estonia was shown on the large scoreboard at Telemark, inspiring the hundreds of junior and senior racers.

In the women's race, two-time Olympian Lindsey Weier of Northern Michigan University won the 10K in 27:44 while Aurelia Korthauer (29:00) was the third collegian and seventh overall.

Also for the Nanooks, Paula Daabach took 15th, Julia Coulter was 16th, Anna Coulter placed 20th and Krynn Finstad notched 28th.

The race was Finstad's best for the Nanooks.

"I'm really proud of her," said Jerome. "She gets overshadowed a little. She's come a long way in two years."

Two inches of fresh snow on top of a man-made base, plus the congestion caused by skiers leaving every 15 seconds and skiing multiple loops, made for an interesting race, said Jerome.

"Everybody was in it today. That was very satisfying," said Jerome of his team, which finished second again to a stacked NMU squad in a tally of Central Collegiate Ski Association teams.

Strong recent results mean the Nanooks have secured five of a maximum six slots for the NCAA Championships in March -- two men and three women.

"Henri is on the bubble," said Jerome.

The final NCAA qualifier for the Nanooks will be at the Central Region Championships Feb. 17-18 in Marquette, Mich.

The Nanooks return home today after a rare month-long road trip that began shortly after Christmas and included three major sets of races in the Midwest.

"Everybody's happy to be getting home," said Jerome. "Can't wait."