Nordic Ski Club Hosts Fundraising Races This Weekend |  
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Feb. 8, 2007 -- The University of Wyoming Nordic Ski Club makes its home debut this weekend during the Cowboy Chase, a fundraising event to support the team.
The event, to be held at Tie City parking lot on Happy Jack Road east of Laramie, is open to the public with registration beginning Saturday, Feb. 10, at 8:30 a.m. for a 15 kilometer freestyle race. The competition begins at 10 a.m.
A 7.5 km classic pursuit is scheduled Sunday, Feb. 11, at 9:30 a.m., with registration starting at 8 a.m. The cost for the Cowboy Chase is $15 per race or $20 for the weekend.
Proceeds will help to send the UW Nordic ski team to Winter Park, Colo., for the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) championships scheduled later this semester.
The team also will have a benefit dinner and drawing Saturday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. at Laramie Junior High School. Cost is $6 per person. For more information about the races, online registration and dinner, visit the Web page at http://www.uwyo.edu/ski/cc07.htm.
This season the UW Nordic Club competes at four different levels with separate teams -- the non-racing, the recreational, the competitive and the elite. The recreational team races in competitions only in the Laramie area; the competitive team competes in USCSA qualifying races in Wyoming and Colorado; and the elite team competes in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) NCAA-sanctioned races. The elite team also competes in races that will qualify them for the USCSA championships.
This is the second year that the UW Nordic Ski Club has been an associate member of the RMISA, which allows members to compete in NCAA Division I races in Colorado, Montana, Utah and New Mexico, says UW Coach Christi Boggs, assistant lecturer in the UW College of Education.
"UW's elite team has competed in three RMISA meets this semester against teams comprised almost entirely of scholarship athletes and teams with full budgets," Boggs says. "Despite this strong field, UW Nordic athletes have made steady improvement and are beginning to make their mark on the field. Several athletes have been fast enough to score points for NCAA championship qualification, although they are not eligible to attend at this time."
Members of the men's UW Nordic elite team are freshman John Kirlin of Casper and senior Josh Peterson and junior Brian Sebade, both of Lander; and the women are represented by Gwynn Barrows, sophomore, Laramie; junior Kari Boroff, Daniel; Melissa Gangl, senior, Casper; sophomore Erin Hammer, Lander; and Katie Tuner, sophomore, Chugiak, Alaska.
Elite team members competed in their first USCSA qualifying races in Leadville and Frisco, Colo., last weekend. UW's top finishers were Hammer in 33rd place in the 5 km skate race and Kirlin 38th in the 15 km classic.
The competitive team also raced in Leadville and Frisco, with Liz Turner, Chugiak, Alaska, winning the 1 km sprint race. She was followed closely by freshman Kelsie Spicer, Casper and Mae Peterson of Pinedale as UW easily won the race. Peterson also won the 10 km skate race followed in second and third, respectively, by Liz Turner and Spicer.
The men also had a good showing on Saturday with Michael Fitzgerald, Laramie, in second place, and teammates Nicholai Smith, Chugiak, Alaska, and Collin McRann, Lander, in third and fourth place, respectively. The UW men topped the Air Force Academy by just one point in the team standings.
Only two eligible UW men finished Sunday's race -- McRann took second and Jacob Peterson, Lander, third, as the Cowboys placed second overall.
Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007
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