FAIRBANKS — Alaska Nanooks teammates Ray Sabo and Raphaela Sieber were the top collegiate finishers in MInneapolis in their respective races Saturday during a U.S. Ski Association Super Tour Event Nordic ski race that also served as an NCAA Central Collegiate Ski Association qualifying event.

The Nanooks women won overall in the points standings, edging Northern Michigan University 68-66. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay finished third among the nine teams with 50 points.

The Nanooks men finished second for total team points with 67, 10 behind winner Northern Michigan. Michigan Tech compiled 58 points for third place among the nine squads.

Sabo, a senior from Whitehorse, Yukon, led the collegiate men and placed ninth overall in 24 minutes, 45.5 seconds in a 10-kilometer skating race.

Sabo started quickly and was in sixth place at the 4K point of the race conducted in zero-degree weather.

“Though it was a challenging course, Ray kept his tempo high,” Nanooks head coach Scott Jerome said in an e-mail. “He was poised yet aggressive. He just flew through the course.”

Andy Liebner of Northern Michigan finished seven seconds behind for the runner-up spot, but the Nanooks placed four more skiers among the top nine collegians.

Junior Erik Soderstrom had his best finish on U.S. soil with a 25:31.9 effort that placed him sixth among collegians and 17th overall. Fellow junior Ålex Morris took seventh among collegiate racers and 18th overall at 25:38.0; senior John Parry followed him in 25:40.6 for eighth in the college division and 19th overall, and senior Cody Priest placed ninth among college competitors and 20th overall in 25:46.0.

Sophomore Lars Arneson clocked in at 26:23.3 for 17th among college entries and 28th overall.

Sieber, a sophomore from Voehrenbach, Germany, blazed through a 5-K skating course in 14:09.5 for the fastest college women’s time and third place overall.

“Ela had been working with the coaches on her skate technique all week and it seems to have paid off,” Jerome wrote.

It was Sieber’s third CCSA victory of the season and her second straight top-two showing in a 5-K skating event after she was runner-up on Jan. 15 in a conference meet in Duluth, Minn.

Nanooks junior Theresia Schnurr, who’s more of a classical technique specialist, was the fourth-fastest collegiate woman and sixth overall in 14:41.4. Another strong Alaska classical racer, sophomore Marit Riabov, finished in 15:13.0 to take s12th in the college category and 16th overall.

Sophomore Heather Edic placed 14th among collegiate women and 18th overall. Her time was not reported, but the former Lathrop High School standout rallied from a 27th-place standing after 2K into the race.

“It was one of the most impressive comebacks I have seen this season,” Jerome said.

Nanooks junior Rebecca Konieczny finished in 16:02.4 for 24th place among collegians and 39th overall, and fellow junior Crystal Pitney crossed the finish line in 16:19.9 for 28th among collegians and 45th overall.

Mass start classical races, 10K for women and 15K for men, are scheduled today.

Contact the Daily News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.