NCAA: DU's Reisshauer wins third national title

Denver’s Rene Reisshauer won the third individual NCAA title of his career Wednesday in the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle as the NCAA Championships began after a brief weather delay in frigid New Hampshire.

DENVER'S RENE REISSHAUER won the third individual NCAA title of his career Wednesday in the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle as the NCAA Championships began after a brief weather delay in frigid New Hampshire.
    Reisshauer, who won both the freestyle and classic national titles in 2005 to help lead the Pioneers to the national title, clocked an unofficial time of 24 minutes, 52.2 seconds on the Jackson Cross-Country Center course with the temperature hovering around zero Fahrenheit. The cold air forced organizers to push back the start times for both the men’s race and the women’s 5 km free one hour.
    “I had to pace myself differently here than I have the whole season," Reisshauer said. “It was not easy because the climb was pretty long to go up to 3K. I didn’t feel too great, but in the end I got really good splits, finished hard and it was a good race. This is a good first step toward our goal of winning the overall team title. The individual titles are nice, but in the end the team is what counts and that is what we are going for.”  
    Utah’s Snorri Einarrson finished second unofficially at 25:21.6, while Marius Korthauer of Alaska-Fairbanks was third in 25:43.5. Northern Michigan's Martin Banerud was fourth (25:44.2) and defending national classic champ John Stene of Denver finished fifth (25:51.7).
    Colorado’s Matt Gelso finished sixth, followed by Simeon Hamilton of Middlebury, Dartmouth’s Ben True, Andy Liebner of Alaska-Anchorage and Even Sletten of Utah in 10th.
    The Denver men compiled 97 points in the event to lead the field. The Pioneers sit in third place after the first day of competition with 146 points, trailing Northern Michigan (189) and Dartmouth (166). Utah is in fourth place with 143 points and defending national champ Colorado is fifth with 131.
    "It was a really solid day. For a full team effort, holding off CU was the goal and we did that and more," DU Nordic coach Wolf Wallendorf said. "We felt like we were going to be stronger in classical, so to come out of the freestyle in second place gives us even more confidence.
    "We are really happy about Rene's win today. We didn't expect that, but Rene had a great race, and he's now fired up for the classical on Friday."
    “We’ve been in this position before, we’re not losing sight on what we need to do,” Colorado head coach Richard Rokos said.  “Some of the teams in front of us are not equipped as well, or at all, for alpine. There’s no reason to overanalyze what happened today. Those things have happened before, and they’ll happen in the future; that is really the beauty of this sport.  So all we can do is go out and do better.”  
   
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