Denver in the lead heading into final day of NCAA Championships
After three days of racing at the NCAA Skiing Championship in Steamboat Springs, Colo., extremely tight competition has placed four schools in contention to bring home the overall title on Saturday. After the completion of Friday night’s slalom event at Howelsen Hill, University of Denver held the lead with a total of 405.5 points, ahead of second place Montana State University with 390 points. University of Utah and host University of Colorado stand in third and fourth places respectively with 362 and 340.5 points.
Denver’s Erik Read took the individual NCAA men’s slalom title, only 0.02 seconds ahead of Colorado’s Henrik Gunnarsson.
“It’s amazing to win a National Championship, especially with a crowd like this at the night slalom. It doesn’t get much cooler,” Read said under the bright lights of the Howelsen Hill slalom course.
The DU sophomore had 0.30 seconds to make up on the first-run leader Gunnarsson, yet the Buffalo knew he would be chased in the second run.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” Gunnarsson said, “And it was just .02 seconds, so that feels a bit hard.”
But Gunnarson’s view from a team standpoint was rather optimistic, noting that “Second is second. It helps the team out.”
Brian McLaughlin of Dartmouth (and the National University Team), Dom Garand of Vermont, and Max Luukko of Colorado rounded out the top five. Garand had the fastest second-run time to move up from 11th position after the first run. Montana State also placed all three skiers inside the top 10. Morten Bakke and Garret Driller tied for seventh place with teammate David Neuhauser finishing in sixth.
In the women’s race, Julie Mohagen of the University of Utah finished the first run with at 1.10-second lead on the field. The mighty margin allowed her to hold onto the lead despite flaws in her second run.
Photo from University of Utah Athletics
“I went on my back a little bit in the middle there, and I for sure thought that I lost it,” Mohagen said. “I came into the finish and heard that UVM was cheering, and it was a little heartbreaking.”
The crowd was cheering for Vermont because the race announcers had mistakenly broadcast that Mohagen had lost the race to Catamount Laurence St. Germain. However, Mohagen’s Ute teammates were quick to explain the error to the women’s champion. St. Germain took second place and Denver’s Monica Huebner finished third. Mardi Haskell of Colby College catapulted from 10th place after the first run to finish in fourth, her second year in a row finishing the NCAA Championship slalom in the top five.
“I had no idea I did that well when I came through the finish,” Haskell explained. “I was very pleasantly surprised.”
Nora Christensen of Colorado posted the fastest second-run time to move from 18th place into fifth, earning First-Team All-American honors.
Denver’s men and women combined for 142.5 points ahead of Dartmouth’s 131 and Colorado’s 126.
“It’s awesome to have all six skiers finish two solid runs and get the points,” Read said. “That is what matters. Hopefully tomorrow, our Nordic skiers take some confidence from tonight and lead us to a championship. “
The NCAA Skiing Championship will conclude with the Nordic 15k/20k classical mass start on Saturday. Denver will have to hold off a very strong Utah Nordic squad in order to win the championship.
Complete results from Day 3 of the championships are available here.
About the Author: Dustin Satloff
