McPhetres leads Nanooks, tops CCSA podium at wirth
January 22, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
Junior Alyson McPhetres (Chugiak, Alaska/Spanish & Geological Engineering) earned her first collegiate win in the women's five kilometer skate race to lead the Alaska Nanooks on the first day at the Tour de Twin Cities SuperTour stop at Wirth Park on Saturday morning.
Alaska's women had an impressive demonstration of their depth with five finishers among the top 10 collegiate skiers, and also within the top 20 of the 160-woman field.
“I think we really needed this mentally more than anything else,” Alaska head coach Scott Jerome said. “We needed to have a good day today, and we are pleased with how things went today. It's a good first step, but tomorrow's classic races are important as well, so we need to continue this momentum.”
McPhetres completed the 5K manmade loop in 12:50.8 almost five seconds faster than the next finisher to take ninth overall.
“Aly has really worked on her skate technique, and right now she's skating as well as anyone on the team,” Jerome said.
Senior Crystal Pitney (Fairbanks, Alaska/Business Administration) crossed next in tenth overall and second for CCSA compeitors in 12:55.7, while Northern Michigan's Jordyn Ross rounded out the conference podium and was 15th overall.
Three more Alaska women followed as seniors Rebecca Konieczny (West Yellowstone, Mont./Biological Sciences) and Theresia Schnurr (Buhlertal, Germany/Biochemistry), and junior Raphaela Sieber (Vöhrenbach, Germany/Business Administration) finished finished 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively after all crossing the line within three-tenths of a second of one another.
“You see it a lot: when people train together, they feed off one another,” Jerome said of the consistency of his group. “It's fun to see it all work out as it did today.”
Rounding out the top-20 finishers for Alaska was senior Marit Rjabov (Voru, Estonia/Psychology) who finished eighth in the CCSA in 13:09.7, while junior Hether Edic (Fairbanks, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering) was 34th overall in 13:31.7.
Alaska won the team title for the day, edging second-place NMU 77-66. Michgan Tech was third overall with 54 points.
The team returns to the Wirth Park trails on Sunday morning for the women's 15K mass start classic race at 11:15 a.m. CST (8:15 a.m. AKST).