Both the men's and women's Sierra Nevada College ski teams got in their last race of the regular season last Saturday before a three-week break leading up to the United States Collegiate Skiing Association Regional race at Mammoth Mountain, Calif.

The teams raced Saturday at Northstar-at-Tahoe in the giant slalom. The race's second day and slalom event on Sunday was canceled due to inclement weather.

Familiar faces were atop the women's leaderboard, as SNC juniors Martina Hulten and Jessica Bouleau finished one-two in the race. Hulten notched a 2 minute, 4.02 second run and Bouleau took second with a 2:05.21 on a course coach Branko Zagar characterized as flat.

"We had a great week of training leading up to the race, but the course at Northstar was a little soft and the speed just wasn't there," Zagar said.

Freshman Malin Ericksson impressed Zagar with her fifth place finish. Ericksson recorded a 2:12.28 in only her second race with the team after transferring to SNC from her native Sweden.

The SNC men mirrored their counterpart's success by finishing two racers in the top two spots.

Sophomore Mickey Ross took first with a time of 1:57.92, and freshman Jonathan Cherry was second with a 1:58.18. Freshmen Gunnar Gottschalk and Kevin Sheehan finished fifth and sixth by racing to times of 2:01.25 and 2:01.83, respectively.

Zagar said he expected the two to step-up their performance with the absence of senior Tyson McGinty after he lost his season to an ACL injury last week.

"They raced really well and I'm confident still that they will pick it up," Zagar said.

Only half of each team made the trip to Northstar Saturday, as the other half of the team planned to race in Sunday's canceled slalom event.

"The training and conditions have been good at Diamond Peak so we haven't missed much," Zagar said. "The snow should be good this week and should firm up, which will help at nationals."

Zagar said a firm snowpack is beneficial to the team because the national race at Sunday River Mountain, Maine on Mar. 3 will probably feature firm snow.

"Out east the snow is always a lot harder and that is better to race on. This soft stuff is really hard and kind of dangerous to race through," he said.

To get to the national race the team must record a strong finish at Mammoth in the regionals on Feb. 23 and 24.