Utah Leads After Crazy GS Day Even Things Up Atop Standings

Thursday, March 12, 2015 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

LAKE PLACID, N.Y.—On a day where nearly every team had something screwy happen to them, when the dust settled the teams from the wild, wild west are closer than ever atop the standing at the halfway point of the 2015 NCAA Championships with GS races here at Whiteface Mountain Thursday.

Utah leads by just four points, the third-smallest leading margin through the halfway point since skiing went coed in 1983. Additionally, there is just nine points between the top three teams while New Mexico and the east’s Vermont are all still in the mix.

The Utes now have 241 points, four ahead of Colorado’s total of 237 while Denver is third with 232 points. New Mexico sits fourth with 204 points while Vermont rounds out the top five with 192. After Dartmouth (159) in sixth, Montana State is seventh with 149 points and then after Middlebury (121), Alaska Anchorage in ninth rounds out the RMISA teams with 115 points.

The Lobos Mateja Robnik won the individual National Championship in the women’s GS race, winning the race by nearly a second in a time of 2:22.56 . She beat out a pair of Pioneers on the podium with Monica Huebner taking second in 2:23.45 and Kristine Haugen, the two-time defending champion in the events, taking third in 2:24.42. It was then two Utes rounding out the top five with Kristiina Rove in fourth in 2:24.90 and Chloe Fausa in fifth in 2:25.07.

But when every skier counts, it was more the skiers who didn’t finish, and nearly every team had at least one. Just 24 skiers finished the race and the Pioneers and Utes both had just two skiers finish the race, while Vermont and Dartmouth from the east had two skiers ski out.

Denver, even with just two finishers, won the race with 71 points followed by Utah’s pair earning 60 points. New Mexico was third with 57 points and Montana State scored 52.

The RMISA swept the first-team All-Americans, or top five in the race, and had six of the 10 All-America awards given out in the race. In two women’s races, one Nordic and one alpine, the RMISA has all 10 first-team All-Americans and 16 of 20 overall.

The second-team All-Americans were Montana State’s Benedicte Lyche alongside four eastern skiers, two from Colby College, Sierra Leavitt and Mardene Haskell, with New Hampshire’s Lisa Wedsjoe and Dartmouth’s Lizzie Kistler also earning the honor from the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association.

Middlebury’s Robert Cone took home the individual championship in the men’s GS race in a two-run time of 2:16.79. He edged out Denver’s Sebastain Brigovic (2:17.22), and then those two swapped the next two places, as well, with the Panthers’ Chris McKenna rounding out the podium in 2:17.96 and the Pioneer’s Trevor Philp taking fourth in 2:18.01. Vermont’s Dominique Garand took fifth in a time of 2:18.42.

Much like the women’s race, just 24 more skiers finished the men’s race and very few teams had a full allotment of skiers scoring. Middlebury and Denver each had a skier not finish so not surprisingly, it was those two teams atop the team standing with Middlebury scoring 74 points to Denver’s 68 while Vermont was just back with 67 points, having all three skiers finish.

The second-team All-Americans included Utah’s Endre Bjertness and Andy Trow and Colorado’s Henrik Gunnarsson for the west and Vermont’s William St. Germaine and Dartmouth’s Dylan Brooks from the east.

The battle of the conferences looks even with both conferences each having won two individual national championships in the four races to date, but a little deeper look sees the RMISA owning 16 of the 20 first-team All-America honors and of the 40 overall All-America citations given out to date, the RMISA has 25, the EISA 14 and the CCSA from the central region has one.

Action in the championships continues Friday with the men’s 20k and women’s 15k freestyle races at Mount Von Hovenberg before concluding Saturday with the slalom races at Whiteface Mountain.