Denver Continues To Lead, Colorado Moves From Sixth To Second

Thursday, March 11, 2010 – by Curtis Snyder, RMISASkiing.com

Results Available On Schedule/Results Page

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Denver continues to lead at the mid-way point of the 2010 NCAA Championships, but the University of Colorado moved from sixth to second and cut the Pioneer lead from 94 to 69 points here at the Hawelsen Hill cross country course.

Denver continues to lead with 420 points after winning the women’s 5K classical race with 121 points. The Buffs used a men’s 10K classical win to finish the day with 351 points. New Mexico, on the strength of its men’s classical squad, are third with 391 points. Utah is fourth with 300.5 while Vermont (287.5), Dartmouth (275) and Alaska-Anchorage (233) comprise the top seven.

Both Denver and Colorado earned individual championships, as the Pioneer’s Antje Maempel won her third individual NCAA championship after sweeping the titles last year. Colorado’s Matt Gelso won his first NCAA championship and his CU record-tying fifth straight Nordic race.

Maempel won in convincing fashion by 46.7 seconds over second place Rosie Brennan from Denver. DU’s Mari Elden finished third to help DU win the race with a convincing 121 points.

“I just had a great day,” Maempel said. “We had really good skies today. I feel like this was harder than last year, because nobody expected it last year and it was just great to win. This year I just wanted to win again.”

Gelso also won convincingly, taking the race by 24.2 seconds over Vermont’s Franz Bernstein, who had won four straight classical races on the east coast. Nevada’s Charlie Smith took the podium with 29:54.0, just a half second ahead of Colorado’s Vegard Kjoelhamar in fourth place.

“I was super nervous before the race about wax, because I warmed up essentially what we raced on and it was sketchy,” Gelso said. “I told Bruce (Cranmer) that, but we tested a bunch of other things but nothing was doing it for me, so I was a little nervous going out, but I figured if I just relax and made them kick, everybody else would have the same issues.”

Colorado won the race with 111 points, but did pick up 51 points on Denver, who held a 120 point lead headed into the race.

On the women’s side, Denver led the way with two first-team All-America selections with Maempel and Elden. Brennan, Colorado’s Joanne Reid and Montana State’s Kaelin Kiesel earned first-team selection, as well. Second team All-American’s were New Mexico’s Polina Ermoshina, Colorado’s Eliska Hajkova, Northern Michigan’s Laura DeWitt, Vermont’s Caitlin Patterson and Nevada’s Maria Graefnings.

Men’s first-team All-American’s were Gelso, Bernstein, Smith along with Colorado’s Vegard Kjoelhamar and New Mexico’s Martin Kaas. Second team honors were awarded to Montana State’s Bernhard Roenning, New Mexico’s Pierre Niess, Utah’s Miles Havlick, Alaska Anchorage’s Michael Schallinger and New Hampshire’s Dylan McGuffin.

Action is now on hold for about 30 hours as Friday’s action won’t begin until 6:15 p.m. with slalom action at the famous Hawelsen Hill. The men’s first run will start then, followed by the women’s first run at 7:30 p.m.