This was the final NCAA Division I race we compete in this season. It was the University of New Mexico Invitational and was held near Red River, New Mexico at Enchanted Forest Nordic Center. We have never done this race before and decided to add it to our schedule due to the fact that in the past we start to ski faster about the time we stop doing the really competitive races. We changed our home race so we could do this one and it really paid off. Almost every athlete that raced had their best percentage points for the season!
The first race was a 10km classic for the men and a 5km classic for the women.
The women had their best classic race of the season with three of them reaching the qualification mark of sub-30%, Gwynn Barrows, 24%, Liz Turner, 25% and Marie Cartwright, 27%. For Liz and Marie it was their first time in the top 30% for a classic race this season! Erin Hammer also improved her % back to 30% and Katie Turner finished with 31%. Gwynn, Liz and Marie also had their best placing of the season with 30, 32 and 33 respectively. The women beat Western State College by 2 points!
The men had a solid day lead by Brian Sebade who had an amazing day, bettering his % by 6 points, from 24% to 18%! Not to be outdone Jacob Peterson also skied a sub-20% race finishing just 15 seconds behind Brian and hitting 19% for the day. Nicholai Smith also had a great day just breaking the qualifying mark at 29%. The men are really starting to look strong and ski like we know they can. The improvements this week are what we were hoping for!
Saturday was a 5km skate race for everyone with the men starting the day. John Kirlin who was unable to race on Friday came back on Saturday to lead the Cowboys with a 18% race placing hime 34th. Jacob Peterson once again finished second for the team with 22% and Brian Sebade had his best skate race of the season with 24% and Nicholai Smith finished with 35%. This was the strongest showing of the season in a skate race by the men and is encouraging with Nationals only 3 weeks away!
The women competed next and continued their run of good skate races for the season. Gwynn tied her best place of the year with another 30th and got her best % of the year at 22%. Just 20 seconds behind her in 32nd place, 24% Marie Cartwright just edged Liz Turner in 33rd, 24% by 2 seconds! This is the type of pack skiing that really helps team placing at USCSA Nationals so it was exciting to see them that close. Erin Hammer, who had her tonsils out the first week in January, is finally starting to recover, placing a season best of 35th with 27%. It was a good finish since this was her last chance to qualify for USCSA Nationals by placing in the top 30%. Katie Turner, who qualified last week wasn’t feeling well but still managed a season best 32% in the skate race.
As difficult as these races are the UW athletes have been amazing, they get out there and competed and skied well! They are now looking forward to moving on to Division II competition at our home race this weekend and USCSA Nationals the first week in March.
Saturday and Sunday will be the home race for the UW Nordic and Saturday night is the dinner/raffle for the team. Information is on the website at: http://www.uwyo.edu/ski
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