Fehrenbach leads Men's Harriers on short course

September 5, 2012

Freshman runner Michael Fehrenbach led the way for the Alaska Nanooks in his first collegiate race, finishing third overall in the Alaska Cross Country Invitational men's short course event on Saturday morning at UAF's West Ridge Trails.

He finished the four-kilometer event in 12 minutes and 56 seconds.

"It was his first four-K but I expected Michael to have a good day and was very pleased with his performance," said associate head coach Matt Dunlap.

Black Hills State edged Seattle Pacific 36-41 for the team title and the Nanooks finished with 52 points.

Black Hills State's Mitch Kraft was the top men's finisher in 12:44.2. AJ Baker of Seattle Pacific was second in 12:50.3. SPU had four guys in the top-nine finishers, but their fifth runner was 22nd, while BHS placed five in the top-11 spots.

Senior Tyler Kornfield had a good showing for Alaska, finishing fifth on the day and second for the Blue and Gold in 13:03.

"Tyler ran about what he did last year on the course and that's a good place to be at this time of year, especially after the rigorous preseason we've had," said Dunlap.

Junior Tux Seims cut more than 10 seconds of his 2011 course time to finish 13th ovearll in 13:26.7.

"He ran a smart race and picked off guys in the second half of the race," Dunlap said. "I'm pleased with the way he's run in these early meets."

Rounding out Alaska's scoring runners were redshirt freshman Ross MacDougall, who led the Nanooks in the long course on Thursday. He took 16th (13:31.5), while sophomoreJonas Loffler was 17th (13:35.4).

Also crossing the line for the Blue and Gold were Stefan Hajdukovich (18th, 13:46.5), Logan Hanneman (19th, 13:48.6), Kenny Brewer (20th, 13:51.4), Andrew Arnold (21st, 14:12.6) and Wyatt Mayo (23rd, 14:29.5).

"We divided and conquered this week," said Dunlap. "We were thinking about the long season with running and skiing so we wanted some of the runners to do both races and others to just run one event. On either day if we'd had everybody running together we would have done better."