FAIRBANKS, Alaska - The Alaska Nanooks men's and women's cross country teams will take to the trails in the most tropical of settings this weekend, when they compete in the Hawaii-Hilo Invitational Saturday morning at the Naniloa Volcano Golf Course on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The women will go first, racing a five kilometer course at 8 a.m. Hawaiian Time (10 a.m. AKDT), followed by the men's four mile event at approximately 8:45 a.m. HT (10:45 a.m. AKDT).
Alaska's women, ranked 10th in the West Region for the second straight week by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, will get solid test of where they stand regionally as they are slated to run against the host University of Hawaii-Hilo, University of Hawaii Manoa (Division I), Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade University and No. 8 (regionally) BYU-Hawaii.
Representing the Nanooks on the women's side are
Raphaela Sieber,
Theresia Schnurr,
Heather Edic,
Crystal Pitney,
Jana Benedix and Kryston and
Alyson McPhetres.
"This event will be a real measuring-stick for the women," said head coach
Scott Jerome. "BYU-Hawaii is a good team and is ranked 8th in the region right now. If we run well and cannot beat BYU, we should not even talk about nationals. If we beat BYU, then the door is still open. This will be a real test for us."
On the men's side, the Blue and Gold will run against HPU, Chaminade and No. 9 (regionally) BYU-Hawaii.
Alaska's men include
Tyler Kornfield,
Erik Soderstrom,
Ludwig Schott, Jonas Loffler,
Andrew Arnold,
Tux Seims and Lars Arenson.
"The men are looking stronger each day in practice," Jerome said. "I am very excited to see Ludwig and Tux push each other; both looked exceptional in training this week. I think our men are poised to do well in two weeks at conference. Hilo will be a good warm-up for GNACs."
