Women's relay finishes second on day two at CCSA Championships
February 4, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
Ishpeming, Mich. - Alaska's three-person team raced their way to a second place finish in the women's three lap by five kilometer relay race on Sunday at the Al Quaal Cross Country Trails.
Alaska scored 69 points on the day, only eight behind first-place Northern Michigan's 78. Michigan Tech trailed the Nanooks by nine points with 60, followed by College of Saint Scholastica with 51, St. Olaf with 42, Gustavus Adolfus with 33 and Wisconsin Green Bay with 24.
NMU's relay team of Rosie Frankowski, Jordyn Ross and Mary Kate Cirelli was tops with a combined time of 39:27.7. Alaska was less than 30 seconds behind as senior Marit Rjabov (Voru, Estonia/Psychology), sophomore Heidi O'Connor-Brook (Whitehorse, Yukon Territory/Music) and freshman Julia Ebner (Furtwangen, Germany/General Studies) completed the race in 39:53.1.
The silver finish gave the Blue and Gold a two-day, CCSA Championships opening weekend total of 129 points, second only to NMU who finished with 145.
"We're only 16 points down heading into the final two races in two weeks," Alaska head coach Scott Jerome said. "I am very proud of how this team performed this weekend."
The rest of the Nanooks will be back in action for the second week of the CCSA Championships Feb. 16-17 in Coleraine, Minn. at Mt. Itasca. The women open the weekend with a 5K interval start classic technique squad and close out the four-event series with a 15K mass start freestyle race.