Buffs Take Top Spot in Mixed Gender Relay

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Colorado's Nordic teams came together and had the fastest mixed gender relay team Wednesday at the Girdwood Nordic Race Trails to conclude the Seawolf Invitational.

Running in the first mixed gender relay in roughly 30 years, CU put together its top Nordic racers and came away with the win in the 4x5K event that was new to the student-athletes.

"I was hoping we could do that, but you never know. It was nice to pull that one off," head Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said, noting that the team won by an eyeball guess of 30 seconds (official times were not immediately available).

"It was a fun course, really tough course with good conditions and they enjoyed it," he added. "Being the top college team was nice, too."

Mads Stroem opened up the first leg, was followed by Jesse Knori and then Petter Reistad and Christina Rolandsen closed it out for the Buffs ahead of Utah's top team that finished second behind them.

"Jesse skied awesome," Cranmer said. "She had a killer race today. Everybody skied well, but Jesse for sure. She definitely took us from being a little bit behind to having a good lead and Petter and Christina held on to it."

CU's second scoring team – only two team scores counted towards the winning overall total – placed 13th. That team consisted of Ian Boucher, Anne Siri Lervik, Max Scrimgeour and Lucy Newman.

In Wednesday's field, Colorado's two teams combined for 144 points and came in second overall behind Utah, whose two teams finished second and seventh to edge the Buffs with 155 points.

Colorado concludes the Seawolf Invite in third place with 549 points. Denver was second with 569 and the Utes won it with 665 points.

The Buffs will stay in Anchorage to race in the 5/10K classical on Saturday and the 15/20K freestyle event on Sunday. Those two are the last races in the UAA Invite. The CU Nordic teams enter the weekend standing in fifth place after the alpine teams scored 250 points back on Jan. 27-28 when the meet began.

"Those are sort of NCAA distances so that will be good to have and help a little bit towards picking teams, seeing how people do at sea level," Cranmer said. "The only other race after that is at regionals, which is pretty high altitude up by Minturn (Colo.). I think the courses here are probably going to be closer to what we will see in the east (at the NCAA Championships) than what we will see at Minturn."

The weekend races will be the last collegiate action for the Buffs before the RMISA Championships, Feb. 24-26, at Minturn and Beaver Creek, Colo.

"We'll just train," Cranmer said of the team's plans up in Anchorage until they race again Saturday. "Everyone's psyched to be here, we've had great weather and really good ski conditions so we'll just take advantage of good close-by skiing at sea level, too. That's nice for us to be able to train at a lower elevation because you can train a little bit harder without getting so tired."

Quotable

Cranmer on the return of Mads Stroem following surgery on Jan. 7:
"I think Mads will just keep getting better. I think he has a lot more expectations of where he should be because he's like 'well I'm not sick.' He feels alright, but just the fact that he was down and out after basically major surgery, to be back where he is in less than a month is just great."

"I think he felt pretty good (after today), he's started to train quite a bit. He skied for a couple hours (Tuesday afternoon), and nobody else skied at all yesterday afternoon, so I think he is looking more long term than anything."

Cranmer on getting work in at sea level in Alaska ahead of the 2017 NCAA Championships, which are being held March 8-11 in New Hampshire at sea level.
"It will definitely help us being at sea level because you kind of get a sense of tempo and speed. I think it will be advantageous for all the western schools really, and obviously for us too to be able to train a fair amount at sea level."

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Players Mentioned

Ian Boucher

Jesse Knori

Anne Siri Lervik

Lucy Newman

Petter Reistad

Christina Rolandsen

Max Scrimgeour

Mads Stroem