Alaska Nanooks senior Tyler Kornfield (Anchorage, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering) showed signs of regaining his top form by racing to a ninth-place overall finish and earn his first Central Collegiate Ski Association victory of the season in the men's 10-kilometer skate race on Saturday morning at Wirth Park.

Kornfield completed the two 5k laps on manmade snow in 21:45.1, also 10 seconds faster than his closest college competitor.

“This was a critical race for Tyler,” Jerome said. “He struggled a little bit at altitude earlier this season, including at U.S. Nationals. “So we are really pleased to see him do as well as he did today. I think it will be good for him mentally. ”

Two Northern Michigan skiers joined Kornfield on the podium, as George Cartwright placed 15^thoverall (21:55.9) and Erik Soderman was 18^th overall (22:00.3).

Alaska's senior Lex Treinen (Anchorage, Alaska/Northern Studies) earned fourth in the region and 22^ndoverall with his time of 22:11.6, followed closely by St. Scholastica's Jeremy Hecker, who took 23^rd overall. Northern Michigan's third finisher, Chris Bowler, earned sixth in the region with his 26^th-place overall finish, while a pair of Alaska newcomers, Michael Fehrehbach (Saint Märgen, Germany/Mechanical Engineering) and Max Olex (Aalen, Germany/Northern Studies), placed 28^th (22:29.2) and 33^rd (22:39.2) overall, respectively.

Three more Nanooks represented the Blue and Gold in Saturday's 179-skier field as senior Ian Wilkinson (Fairbanks, Alaska/Art) was 55^th in 23:26.9, sophomore Jonas Löffler (Saint Märgen, Germany/Business) was 59^th in 23:43.7 and rookie Stefan Hajdukovich (Fairbanks, Alaska/Biological Sciences) was 90^th in 24:56.7.The skiers return to Wirth Park tomorrow morning for the men's 20K mass start classic event at 10 a.m. CST (7 a.m. AKST).