Buffs Take Day 1 Lead At NCAAs; Mayerhofer Wins And Utah Second

Wednesday, March 11, 2015 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

LAKE PLACID, N.Y.—The RMISA teams dominated the first day of the NCAA Championships, as the men’s 10K and women’s 5K freestyle races were held here at Mount Von Hoevenberg. The RMISA swept the top 10 in the women’s race and had four of the top five finishers in the men’s race.

When the dust settled, Colorado led after Day 1 with 155 points, 24 ahead of second place Utah (131), who then has 25 points on both New Mexico and Vermont (106). Denver sits in fifth after the first day with 93 points, including a pair of runner up performances, and after Dartmouth’s 88 points, Montana State is seventh with 77 points and then after Northern Michigan’s total of 76, Alaska Anchorage’s 56 points and ninth place gives the RMISA six of the top nine spots in the standings.

Utah’s Veronika Mayerhofer, a freshman, won the women’s 5K freestyle race to claim the individual NCAA Championship in a time of 14:21.r, winning by an impressive 13.2 seconds. The three top women’s Nordic skiers from the RMISA all battled it out and earned podium appearances on the day. Mayerhoffer earned her fourth win of the season, her second freestyle race, also winning freestyle at the New Mexico Invitational. Her two classical races were at the UNM and CU Invitationals.

Denver’s Sylvia Nordskar took second in 14:34.6, narrowly holding off New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervarn (14:37.2) as the two rounded out the podium. Nordskar won three races to start the season, both at the Utah meet and the freestyle at the CU Invitational before falling ill and missing the rest of the regular season. Cedervarn had won four straight races, all four in Alaska at the Seawolf Invitational and RMISA Championships.

Montana State’s Cambria McDermott took fourth in 14:37.3, just one-tenth behind Cedervarn, and Utah’s Sloan Storey gave the Utes two in the top five in a time of 14:44.1. Those five all also earn first-team All-America honors from the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association.

Two Buffs, Maja Solbakken (14:44.3) and Petra Hyncicova (14:44.6) were less than a half-second out of the top five in a super tight race among the top 10. New Mexico’s Eva Sever Rus, the defending NCAA freestyle champion, finished eighth in 14:45.2 with Utah’s Anna-Lena Heynen (14:47.4) and Colorado’s Ane Johnsen (14:50.4) giving both those schools three in the top 10. Those five skiers all earn second-team All-America honors.

The Utes won the race with 91 points, followed by Colorado’s score of 73. New Mexico earned 60 points with Denver taking fourth with 53 points and Alaska Anchorage giving the RMISA the top five in the team standings with 43 points. Montana State’s 36 points was seventh, giving all six RMISA teams a spot in the top seven of the women’s race.

Opening the day with the men’s 10K freestyle race, Denver’s Moritz Madlener held the was the first one out of the shoot and led for 39 races, being edged out in the end by Dartmouth’s Patrick Caldwell. Caldwell’s time of 25:09.1 was 2.2 seconds ahead of Madlener, who edged out a pair of Buffs in Rune Oedegaard (25:35.1) and Mads Stroem (25:38.9). Montana State’s Forrest Mahlen took fifth in 26:09.8, giving the RMISA four of the top five finishers and all five earn first-team All-America honors.

Denver took a chance in both the men’s and women’s races with Madlener switching bibs with a teammate to go first. In a high risk-high reward situation, Madlener and Nordskar seemingly both took advantage of the move to bring home second place finishes and both pushed hard for individual NCAA Championships. It was a risk because had it snowed or conditions leading into the course been unfavorable, it likely would’ve cost both their podium appearances.

Vermont’s John Hegman finished sixth in the men’s race in a time of 26:16.5 with Northern Michigan’s Kyle Bradrud taking seventh in 26:22.3. Dartmouth’s Silas Talbot (26:24.2), and the Catamount’s Rogan Brown (26:26.5) along with Utah’s Niklas Persson (26:32.9) all earned second team All-America honors by finishing from sixth to 10th place.

Colorado led the race and thus led the entire day, racking up 82 points to start the day, 12 ahead of Dartmouth’s 70 points and 18 ahead of Vermont’s total of 64. New Mexico took fourth with 46 points and Northern Michigan rounded out the top five with 42 points. Montana State (41), Denver (40) and Utah (40) all finished within a point of each other in sixth through eighth places. Alaska Anchorage scored 13 points and was 11th in the race.

Thursday action shifts over to Whiteface Mountain for the running of the giant slalom races. Classic races will commence on Friday and the championships will end with the slalom races on Saturday.