Results
Webstream – Saturday
Official NCAA Championships Webpage
MIDWAY, Utah – There were no rookie jitters for freshman
Nichole Bathe (Madison, Wis./Elementary Education) even though she was the first skier on the course in her NCAA Skiing Championships debut.
Having no other splits to go off of, the Central Region champion in the women's 5-kilometer classic race put on another show, finishing in fourth place in the same race Thursday morning at Soldier Hollow.
"It was a pretty exciting race," head coach
Scott Jerome said. "They put the best 11 skiers out first and had a random drawing among those 11. She drew bib one and I thought that was actually good because the tracks have been breaking down a bit due to temperatures and number of skiers on the course. It was a good position to be in, although she wouldn't get any information.
Bathe was named a First Team All-American after completing the course in 14 minutes, 7.7 seconds, which was 29.3 seconds back of the national champion,
Anja Gruber of Vermont (13:38.4). Bathe was the top American finisher and one of three freshmen to place in the top four of the event.
"She didn't worry about the splits," Jerome said. "She went as hard as she could and it paid off."
"I knew I wasn't going to get any splits, but Scott and Christina [Turman] told me to go hard from the start and keep going," Bathe said. "It was a really cool atmosphere out here and everyone was helpful and motivational."
Denver's
Sylvia Thorson Nordskar was second (13:47.7), while New Mexico's
Eva Severrus rounded out the podium in third place (14:01.0).
Bathe was once again the top region finisher as Northern Michigan's
Rosie Frankowski took sixth to earn Second Team All-America accolades in 14:23.5 while Frankowski's teammate,
Mary Kate Cirelli, joined her on the All-America list in 10th place (14:30.1).
"She's been racing well in the classic race," Jerome said. "She had a good feeling about this race going in. The region has a lot of good women right now. We're really happy the region is skiing well. It's really important to us and our division, so that's exciting to see as well."
"This is definitely not what I expected," Bathe said. "Coming in to my first year, I wanted to make NCAAs, so I achieved that. It's pretty cool that I can say I'm an All-American because I didn't expect it at all. I'm still in a bit of shock about it but I'm excited to wrap up the season [on Saturday]."
In the men's 10K classic race, Alaska's three skiers all finished inside the top 21 out of the 40 competing student-athletes for a solid team finish. Junior
Logan Hanneman (Fairbanks, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering) was the first Nanook to cross the finish line as he completed the event in 25:49.9 to finish in 11th place.
"It was a good day for our men," Jerome said. "Logan had his best finish ever at NCAAs and was about three seconds out of the top 10, which is the goal for skiers. He was very close and had a solid race and I was pleased."
He finished only 2.7 seconds outside the top 10, which was claimed by another region skier in
Fredrik Schwencke of Northern Michigan (25:47.2), who took the final All-America accolade in the event.
Kyle Bratrud, who won the classic title at the region race, was the region's top finisher in sixth place (25:24.4).
Sophomore
Michael Fehrenbach (Saint Märgen, Germany/Mechanical Engineering) battled through sickness for his second straight trip to Utah and still managed to finish in 16th place with a time of 26:11.8.
Rounding out Alaska's day on the trails was senior
Max Olex (Aalen, Germany/Business Administration) and he completed the trek in 26:44.0 to place 21st. According to Jerome, it was one of the most impressive races for the team as Olex was able to rally back after taking a fall in the first lap and was only 1.2 seconds out of the top 20.
Colorado's
Rune Malo Oedegaard won the national title in the men's classic race with a time of 24:34.5.
As a team, Alaska currently sits in 10th place at the NCAA Championships with 76 points. In Nordic alone, the Nanooks were eighth as a squad Thursday and the men were fifth in the 10K.
"I thought it was a good day," Jerome said. "Team-wise, we did really well and you can sense it. Everybody on the team was excited about everybody else's race. It such a positive feeling right now with everyone supporting each other and I'm so proud of these four for racing the way they did."
The alpine portion of the NCAA Championships continues Friday and the Nanooks will return to the trails Saturday to compete in the free skate mass start. The men's 20K begins at 8:30 a.m. MST with the women's 15K following at 10 a.m.
