The UAA ski team had a weekend to remember at Utah’s Soldier Hollow.
The Seawolves captured the men’s victory in a freestyle race on Friday, went 2-3-4 in the men’s mass-start classic race on Saturday and got top-10 finishes from Natalie Hynes in both of the women’s races at the Utah Invitational.
“I believe we haven't gotten these kind of results for many, many years. It makes me really proud of my athletes, and the hard work we have done this year,” UAA cross-country coach Marine Dusser Bjornsen said in a release from the school.
Sigurd Roenning, a sophomore from Norway, won Friday’s 10K freestyle and was second in Saturday’s 10K classic.
On Saturday, he was joined on the podium by Espen Persen, who finished third. JC Schoonmaker finished fourth, missing the podium by three seconds.
“Sigurd is leading once again the pack of Seawolves, but I can see the rest are following very closely and are hungry for more. It is so encouraging to see that,” Dusser Bjornsen said.
Roenning won Friday’s race by 10 seconds in 20:23, with Persen fifth, Schoonmaker 11th and Everett Cason 11th. On Saturday, Roenning placed less than a second behind winner Maximillan Bie of Utah, who clocked 23:27. Persen followed in 23:31 and Schoonmaker in 23:34.
Hynes, a senior from Whitehorse, grabbed fifth place in Friday’s 5K and seventh place in Saturday’s 10K. The fifth-place finish was her career-best in an NCAA race.
“Natalie is having an amazing weekend with the two best races of her college career,” Dusser Bjornsen said.
Hannah Rudd was 11th and Anna Darnell 12th on Friday, and Michaela Keller-Miller was 19th and Rudd 20th on Saturday.
The meet also produced top-10 finishes from three Alaskans who race for Lower 48 colleges. Luke Jager, who skis for Utah, was fourth on Friday and fifth Saturday; Zanden McMullen of Montana State was 10th in the men’s race on Friday and Emma Tarbath of Montana State was 10th in the women’s race on Friday.
UAA is in second place in the nine-team meet heading into the alpine portion of the Utah Invitational, which is next weekend at Park City.