March 7, 2007

By Matias Saari
Staff Writer
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published March 7, 2007

The Alaska Nanooks have sent six skiers to the NCAA Skiing Championships, and with that full squad comes heightened hopes.

"The team set a goal for themselves to be in the top three in cross country points," said Alaska coach Scott Jerome in Fairbanks last week, before his team traveled to Jackson, N.H., for the freestyle and classic races. "That's lofty, but if our team puts it together there's certainly a possibility for that."

In 2006 in Steamboat Springs, Colo., the Nanooks sent five skiers and, boosted by four All-American performances, placed 10th overall and fifth in the Nordic competition. The Nanooks, like many schools competing, field no Alpine team and thus have no chance of winning an NCAA skiing title.

Junior Marius Korthauer of Bonndorf, Germany, is the only returning NCAA skier for the Nanooks, but he finished second last year in the 10-kilometer classic and seventh in the 20K freestyle. He'll be joined by Estonians Vahur Teppan (a junior, and the Central Region classic champion) and freshman Henri Soom.

On the women's side, Marius' sophomore sister, Aurelia, joins the Coulter twins, sophomore Julia and freshman Anna, as the Nanooks feature a pair of siblings. Julia attended NCAA's as an alternate last season, but did not ski, while Anna redshirted in 2005-06.

The championships, hosted by the University of New Hampshire, set off this morning with interval start freestyle races of 5K for women and 10K for the men. Friday morning will feature challenging mass-start classic races of 15K for women and 20K for men.

"We would need a finish like last week, two guys in the top five in one race, one woman in the top ten in both races," said Jerome of a necessary result that could boost the Nanooks into the top echelon of Nordic squads.

Colorado is the defending champion and will be strong again, as they are sending three women and three men, including defending freestyle champ Kit Richmond. Utah and Dartmouth will also be formidable, along with Denver, which features German Rene Reisshauer and defending 10K classic champ John Stene of Norway.

And watch out for Central Region rival Northern Michigan University, which easily bested the Nanooks at the region championships two weeks ago.

"NMU, they could win it all (in Nordic) from what I saw at regions," said Jerome.

The courses at Jackson are not extremely technical, said Jerome, who raced there in college. There's a climb of about 2.5K followed by a descent of the same distance.

"Basically it's a big climb, then down," said Jerome. "It's gonna favor fitness over technique."