Löffler turns in top CCSA performance in men's 20K
January 22, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
Sophomore Jonas Löffler (Saint Märgen, Germany/Business) earned his first ever Central Collegiate Skiing Association win on Sunday at the Tour de Twin Cities SuperTour men's 20K classic mass start event at Wirth Park.
The German native completed the course with a time of 48:06.7, good for eighth-place overall.
“This was a huge race for Jonas,” Jerome said. “It will be a really big boost for him. He was actually having a really good race at U.S. Nationals in the 30K before he broke a pole, so it was good to see him get his first CCSA win today.”
Alaska's second scoring skier was freshman Michael Fehrehbach (Saint Märgen, Germany/Mechanical Engineering), who just missed out on his first CCSA podium spot, coming in fourth just three-tenths of a second behind Northern Michigan's Chris Bowler, who rounded out the CCSA podium and was 18th overall (40:30.8).
“Michael actually had a hard fall today that cost him a lot of positions,” Jerome said. “He could have easily had a top-ten finish today as well.”
Nanooks senior Tyler Kornfield (Anchorage, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering) completed a strong weekend showing with a fifth-place collegiate finish and 22nd overall.
A pair of Nanooks, Lex Treinen (33rd overall, (Anchorage, Alaska/Northern Studies) and Max Olex (36th overall, Aalen, Germany/Northern Studies) were next across the line for the CCSA in eighth and ninth, meaning Alaska earned five of the region's top-ten spots on Sunday.
Alaska's men took home multiple titles, outscoring their CCSA rivals NMU 74-68 on Day Two and 146-141 on the weekend. When combined with the women's points, the Nanooks handily took the top team honor for the weekend, besting the Wildcats 301-274.
“It was a good weekend for us,” Jerome said, “and having a good final race makes the flight home a lot easier.”
The Nanooks return to Fairbanks to train for the CCSA Championships, which are spread over two weekends in February. They open in Marquette, Mich., at Al Quaal where they will race a 1.5K freestyle sprint on Feb. 2 and a 3-by-10K classic relay. The head to Minnesota two weeks later for a 10K classic interval start (Feb. 16) and a 20K freestyle mass start (Feb. 17) at Mt. Itasca.