Results
MIDWAY, Utah – Senior
Max Olex (Aalen, Germany/Business Administration) didn't let a tumble he took in Thursday's classic race deter him from achieving collegiate excellence.
After he rallied to finish 21st in his NCAA Skiing Championships debut two days ago, Olex came back Saturday morning and became a First Team All-American in his final race as an Alaska skier as he made the podium as the national runner-up in the men's 20-kilometer free skate mass start event at Soldier Hollow.
"It's overwhelming," Olex said following his second-place finish. "As a team, we had a good approach, not focusing too much on results but focusing on the process and having good races. Coming to the venue today, the snow was hard and it was the best conditions of the week by far. I knew this fit the team well and me well and that I would have a good race. I wasn't thinking All-American but second is incredible, it's amazing."
"Never count anyone out," head coach
Scott Jerome said. "Max made NCAAs basically on the last day of the regular season, peaked at the right time and made it to the podium at the championships. I'm extremely proud and happy for him."
Olex, sat just outside the top-10 entering the final 5K before making his move and having knowledge of the course from January's United States Nationals, he was able to make a charge on the final climb to complete the race in 43 minutes,56.3 second to grab the silver medal to cap his career.
"It's a great finish of a college career," Olex said. "I came here two years ago and the goal was to improve and compete with better skiers. I don't know if I'm done skiing yet [post-collegiately] but it's as good as it could be if I finish here. I'm happy to be a part of this team."
"He started in the back where he was ranked and slowly worked his way up," Jerome said. "With about 5K to go, he was about 15th and had a shot at top 10 and All-American. He found another gear, another level to go to and I was so thrilled for him because he did it. He found the inner strength on the last day of his collegiate career and I'm thrilled and happy for him. As a coach, there's no better feeling in the world to see student-athletes excel at something they've put so much time in to."
He was only 7.3 seconds back of Colorado's
Mads Ek Stroem, who won the national title with a time of 43:49.0.
In the women's race, All-American classic skier
Nichole Bathe (Madison, Wis./Elementary Education) completed her rookie season with a 13th-place showing in the women's 15K mass start event, which was comprised of 36 skiers.
Bathe was the fourth Central Region skier to cross the finish line as she covered the three-lap course in 42:08.7. New Mexico's
Eva Severrus won the mass start crown in 40:15.1.
Switching back to the men's 20K, sophomore
Michael Fehrenbach (Saint Märgen, Germany/Mechanical Engineering) took 23rd with a time of 44:40.7. Junior
Logan Hanneman (Fairbanks, Alaska/Mechanical Engineering), who was coming off his career-best NCAA finish Thursday with an 11th-place finish in the classic, turned in a time of 44:56.4, good for 26th in the 40-man field.
Jerome had much praise for a couple of individuals for their excellent work in preparing the foursome to race in assistant coach
Christina Turman and sophomore
Kenneth Brewer (Chugiak, Alaska/Biological Sciences), who assisted the staff with waxing skis all week. He added that they couldn't have done it without their hard work.
As a team, Alaska rounded out the top 10 with a combined score of 144 points, finishing with the second-highest score from the region, next to Northern Michigan's 239 points for sixth place.
In the mass start race, the men's trio placed fifth out of the 14 scoring teams with 50 points while Bathe alone took 12th in the women's team race out of 16 scoring programs.
"This was a good week for the Nanooks," Jerome said. "It was certainly our best in several years and we needed that. I'm extremely proud of the team. We talked last spring about refocusing on a few things and changing a few things and we made hard decisions and some of it wasn't easy but the team responded."
