Hanneman tops junior podium on day three at U.S. Nationals
January 7, 2013
Jamie Foland
474-6807
Sophomore Logan Hanneman (Fairbanks, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering) earned the top podium spot in the junior men's 10 kilometer classic mass start event and his rookie teammate Michael Fehrenbach (Saint Märgen, Germany/Mechanical Engineering) was the top Central Region finisher (13th overall) on the men's 30 kilometer course as the pair led the Alaska Nanooks at the U.S. Cross Country Championships on Sunday afternoon at Soldier Hollow.
Hanneman won the junior event in 27 minutes and 57.9 seconds and in doing so accomplished two feats at once. The first one was successfully securing his spot on the U.S. Junior Ski Team roster for the World Junior Championships being held later this month in the Czech Republic. The second was pre-qualifying for the 2013 NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Championships being held Mar. 6-9 in Middlebury, Vermont. Friday's seventh place in-region result in the 15km skate race coupled with his Sunday victory earned Hanneman his second straight trip to NCAA's.
“Today was a good day for our skiers and certainly Logan winning was the high point,” said head coach Scott Jerome. “
Fehrenbach captured his first Central Collegiate Ski Association victory, completing the men's senior event in 1:26:50.9, to lead the Nanooks in a sweep of the conference podium.
“For Michael to do that as a freshman in his first big race was impressive,” said Jerome. “He was up with the leaders the whole race and was in the mix and even leading at one point on the fourth lap.”
Senior Lex Treinen (Anchorage, Alaska/Northern Studies) and sophomore Jonas Löffler (Saint Märgen, Germany/Business) took 20th (1:28:37.2) and 21st overall (1:28:47.3) and second and third among CCSA skiers, respectively.
“It was a solid day for Lex; Jonas broke a pole and it took several k(ilometers) for him to get a replacement and he really had to fight from somewhere back in the 30s to take 21st so while I was disappointed for him, that's part of skiing and I'm really proud of how he continued to race through adversity and still finished strong.”
Alaska's four other skiers finished in the top-11 in the region with senior Tyler Kornfield (Anchorage, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering) taking 31st overall (7th CCSA, 1:29:50.7), junior Max Olex (Aalen Germany/Northern Studies) taking 45th (8th, 1:32:14.4), sophomore Andrew Arnold (Anchorage, Alaska/Chemistry) taking 53rd (9th, 1:34:01.1) and freshman Kenneth Brewer (Chugiak, Alaska/Biological Sciences) taking 56th (11th, 1:34:35.6).
Along with Hanneman, first-year skier and Fairbanks native Stefan Hajdukovich (Fairbanks, Alaska/Biological Sciences) was also among the field of junior racers, taking 31stoverall in 29:58.3.
The results for the 2013 U.S. Collegiate Cup were also announced following Sunday's race and the Nanooks edged their CCSA rival Northern Michigan by 3.5 points to place fourth out of the 22 participating schools.
“We're encouraged by the direction we're going in based on our results (thus far),” Jerome said. “It's a good indicator of where we are in our region with respect to our training and we are training through this to peak at Nationals; it shows us we are headed in the right direction.”
The men will race their final event in Midway on Tuesday, when the skiers compete in the freestyle sprint races. The qualification begins at 10 a.m. MST (8 a.m. AKST) followed by the quarterfinal, semifinal and final heats beginning at 12:30 p.m. MST (10:30 a.m. AKST).