Antje Maempel won her second individual NCAA Nordic skiing title in three days, propelling the University of Denver to its second straight NCAA Skiing Championship team title, and 20th overall, as the NCAA Skiing Championships, hosted by Bates College, came to a close on Saturday at Black Mountain.

Denver, which trailed the University of Vermont by two points going into the final day of the championships, surged with 74 points from its three Nordic skiing men and 103 points from its three Nordic women to win the team title with 659 points. For the second straight year, the Pioneers claimed the team title after not leading going into the final day, a feat that hadn't been accomplished in the 11 years prior to 2008.

The University of Colorado got a boost from sophomore Vegard Kjoelhamar, who won the men's 20K Freestyle race in dominating fashion, to vault from fifth place to second with 602.5 points, only half a point ahead of third-place New Mexico (602). It's the 13th time in the 56-year history of the NCAA Skiing Championships that DU and CU have claimed the top two places. The University of Alaska-Anchorage took second and third place in the men's 20K, moving from sixth place to fourth with 584 points, and Vermont finished fifth with 573.

"It was an improbable and unlikely win for the team this year," said DU Nordic skiing coach David Stewart. "We had a solid team, but I don't think anybody looked at us in the beginning of the year and said, 'They're the team to beat.' A couple other teams are really strong. But the team came here and just performed extremely well, to be honest.

"A lot of our athletes are taking their final exams right now, proctored here at the championship. This is a team that has the best GPA of any sports team at our university. It's just a great group of individuals, and they just could not have performed any better here."

Maempel, a sophomore from Stuelzerbach, Germany, overtook Colorado's Alexia Turzian in the final 50 meters to win the 15K Free Technique Mass Start race on Saturday, two days after claiming first in the 5K Classical Technique race. Maempel timed in at 38:35.0, just half a second ahead of Turzian. Rosie Brennan of Dartmouth came in third, followed by Annelise Bailly of Denver and Sophie Caldwell of Dartmouth.

"I was lucky because I wasn't sick or anything all season, so I could continue to practice and race all year, and it kind of worked out for a great season," Maempel said prior to the men's race. "We were motivated to win the team title. We want to win, for sure."

Maempel is the first athlete to win both women's Nordic races at the NCAA Championships since Colorado's Jana Rehemaa in 2006. Rehemaa also pulled off the feat in the same format: a 5K classical race and a 15K freestyle race.

"She's obviously an outstanding skier, and she just peaked at the right time for the championships," said Stewart. "We design our training to be at our best for the NCAA Championships, so it's not surprising that she's racing at her best here, and to have her win was just the icing on the cake."

While Maempel's victory was the closest of the entire championships, Kjoelhamar's in the men's 20K was the most dominant. The 6-foot-3 transfer from Oslo, Norway, led virtually from start to finish, timing in at 44:07.9, 19.5 seconds ahead of runner-up Lex Treinen, a freshman from Alaska-Anchorage.

"I felt OK after warmup, but not that good," said Kjoelhamar, who finished sixth in Thursday's 10K classical race. "But as soon as the race started I just felt awesome. The first time up the hill I got a little gap, but then the second time we had more, me and another dude. Then he couldn't follow me, so I was alone. It wasn't really a big attack from me. It was just my race pace, and the others couldn't follow. That was really nice."

Lex Treinen and his teammate Raphael Wunderle finished 2-3 in 44:27.4 and 44:27.9, respectively. A tightly packed top five was rounded out by Martin Kaas of New Mexico (44:28.4) and Max Treinen (44:29.9), Lex Treinen's sophomore brother.

Alpine Top 5: New Mexico 354, New Hampshire 353, Vermont 328, Utah 319, Denver 284
Nordic Top 5: Alaska-Anchorage 383, Denver 375, Colorado 347, Dartmouth 343, Utah 249
Men’s Top 5: Colorado 347.5, Denver 337, Alaska-Anchorage 311, Vermont 289, Utah 276
Women’s Top 5: Dartmouth 339, Denver 322, New Mexico 320, Utah 292, Vermont 284

Friday's NCAA Alpine Recap

University of Colorado freshman Gabriel Rivas won the men's slalom title on Friday at the NCAA Skiing Championships at Sunday River, while New Mexico's Malin Hemmingsson and Estelle Pecherand-Carmet went 1-2 in the women's slalom, leading the Lobos to surge from sixth place to three points out of first place in the team standings, with one day remaining in the championships.

Vermont took a slight lead among a tightly packed top three in the team standings. The Catamounts, looking for their first team title since 1994, have 484 points. Defending champion University of Denver has 482 points and New Mexico has 481. Utah (444) and Colorado (439.5) round out the top five teams.

It’s only the third time in the last 13 seasons the lead has been in single digits at the three-quarter point; in 1997, Utah led CU by seven and went on to win by 39.5 points; and in 2006, Colorado led Denver by five before posting a 98-point win.

Rivas, a native of St. Jean de Maurienne, France, had the fastest run of the day in his first run, at 47.77 seconds, and claimed his first NCAA title with a combined time of 1:36.69, a day after finishing 18th in the giant slalom.

"Since I've been in the U.S., I've thought about this race, and it's very special because it's only a one-day race, not a ranking," said Rivas. "It's really an achievement to do that. I won, but everyone won at CU; it's teamwork."

Rivas was 0.81 seconds ahead of runner-up Petter Brenner of New Mexico. Rounding out the top five individuals were Leif Haugen of Denver, Joshua Kernan of Colby and Sean McNamara of New Hampshire.

Rivas is Colorado's first NCAA champion in men's slalom since Andy Leroy in 2000.

New Mexico continued its powerhouse day in the women's slalom. Hemmingsson won her second NCAA slalom title, with a two-run combined time of 1:42.36, after also taking first in 2007 as a freshman. She was followed by her sophomore teammate, Estelle Pecherand-Carmet, at 1:43.58. Vermont duo Jilyne McDonald and Megan Ryley were fourth and fifth, respectively, and New Hampshire's Aileen Farrell rounded out the top five.

"It feels great -- I did it two years ago [when New Hampshire hosted the NCAAs], so I guess I like the ice," said Hemmingsson. "We were skiing on mogul courses all year, and then we come here and we can actually push, so it's pretty cool. This year we still have a chance of winning [the team title] if we do good in Nordic tomorrow, and we are."

The alpine competition at the NCAA Championships closes out with New Mexico scoring the most points in alpine, with 354 points, just a point ahead of New Hampshire (353).

The NCAA Skiing Championships conclude tomorrow with the Nordic freestyle races at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine. The women's 15K Freestyle race starts at 10 a.m., followed by the men's 20K Freestyle at 12 p.m.

The three-point difference between the top three teams is the closest heading into the final two events in the NCAA Championships since the sport went coed in 1983; the previous tightest margin among the top three through six events came in 1997, when Utah (533), Colorado (526) and Vermont (524.5) were separated by eight-and-a-half points.

The closest margin in the final standings since 1983 came in 1998, when Colorado edged Utah by 2.5 points; the final spread has been 10 points or lower just four times (1986, 1989, 1995 and 1998).

Denver takes first-day lead at NCAA Skiing Championships

St. Lawrence, Vermont skiers win giant slalom events; Denver, Vermont skiers take Nordic classical titles

EDITORS and SIDs: Please credit Lincoln Benedict if you use any of the attached alpine photos. Nordic photos will be sent out later tonight.

BETHEL and RUMFORD, Maine -- Powered in large part by Antje Maempel and the University of Denver women's Nordic ski team, the DU Pioneers grabbed a slight lead over the University of Vermont in the race for the team title on Thursday as the NCAA Skiing Championships, hosted by Bates College, got under way after a day's delay.

Denver, looking for its second consecutive NCAA team title, has 330 points to Vermont's 327, with Alpine slalom on Friday and Nordic freestyle races on Saturday left in the Championships. The University of Utah isn't far behind, with 318 points, with Colorado (299) and Alaska-Anchorage (283) rounding out the top five.

Thursday saw the giant slalom competition get started after it was postponed due to bad weather on Wednesday.

In the women's GS at Sunday River, St. Lawrence University freshman Lindsay Cone won the individual title, a program first for the Saints. Cone notched the second best first run in the field of 34 competitors and her second run of 1:18.53 was the best in the field, giving her a combined time of 2:35.70, 0.70 seconds ahead of runner-up Estelle Pecherand of New Mexico.

"It was a beautiful day and the snow was perfect," said Cone, a native of Killington, Vt. "My skiing clicked for me. I was confident in my skiing."

"We're ecstatic," said Saints alpine coach Jeff Pier. "She started the year injured, so to come this far is tremendous. "I know they're pretty happy back (on campus) in Canton, N.Y."

Rounding out the top five were Eva Huckova of Utah, Alexandra Parker of Alaska-Anchorage and Stefanie Demetz of New Mexico.

Another freshman, Vermont's David Donaldson, won the men's GS with a two-run combined time of 2:30.24, 0.58 seconds ahead of runner-up Leif Haugen of Denver. Donaldson, a 22-year-old from Toronto, took first place in both the slalom and giant slalom earlier in the season at the Bates Carnival.

"I knew the hill very well and I had a little bit of an advantage," said Donaldson. "I made a few mistakes on the first run, but I knew on this hill you can put the hammer down and give it 100 percent, and not have to worry about dangerous terrain. You just have to absolutely go out as hard as you can in order to go out on top, and it's a good thing I did, I guess."

Rounding out the top five in the men's GS were Andrew Wagner of Middlebury, Eric Mann of Williams and Nick Cohee of Utah.

The Nordic competition went on as scheduled at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine, with Vermont senior Juergen Uhl putting on a dominating performance in the men's 10K Classical race. His teammate Donaldson said word of Uhl's performance motivated his Catamounts teammates to excel on the slopes half an hour away at Sunday River.

Uhl finished the course in 24:14.9, over 10 seconds faster than his nearest competitor, Raphael Wunderle of Alaska-Anchorage.

"I felt sweet. I didn't even try to ski, I just went out there and trusted my coaches -- they usually do a great job with [waxing] the skis," said Uhl. "When I heard the first split, I was up by only a second, maybe, but I knew it was all downhill after that, and I knew my skis were fast enough to do it, so I felt good. It all worked out perfectly."

Rounding out the top five in the event were Jesper Ostensen of Colorado, Harald Loevensk of Denver and Franz Bernstein of Vermont.

Denver sophomore Maempel won women's 5K Classical race in a time of 13:52.4, 6.5 seconds ahead of a familiar competitor, Polina Ermoshina of New Mexico.

"My goal was to be in the top three," said Maempel. "Polina and I pretty tight in the classical races. We're always switching. I knew if I had a good day and had good skis that I could win. And everything was perfect. The skis, the snow, the weather was great."

Rounding out the top five in the women's classical were Sadie Bjornsen of Alaska-Anchorage, Rosie Brennan of Dartmouth and Maria Moe Grevsgaard of Colorado.

The NCAA Skiing Championships, hosted by Bates College, resume tomorrow with the men's and women's slalom events at Sunday River.

Due to harsh weather conditions, the men's and women's giant slalom competition has been canceled for today and has been rescheduled for the same time tomorrow (women start at 9 a.m., men at 12:30 p.m.)

Thursday's Nordic events will go on as originally scheduled: the men's 10K Classical race starts at 10 a.m., followed by the women's 5K Classical race at 12 p.m.

NORDIC

Central Region – Men	Central Region – Women
Martin Banerud, Northern Michigan	Kelly Chaudoin, Gustavus Adolphus
Tyler Kjorstad, St. Scholastica	Anna Coulter, Alaska Fairbanks
Jesse Lang, Michigan Tech	Laura DeWitt, Northern Michigan
Oskar Lund, Michigan Tech	Ingrid Fjeldheim, Northern Michigan
Santiago Ocariz, Green Bay	Carolyn Freeman, Green Bay
Justin Singleton, Northern Michigan	Jenna Klein, Michigan Tech
Petter Sjulstad, Michigan Tech	Julia Pierson, Alaska Fairbanks
Phillip Violett, Northern Michigan	Elizabeth Quinley, Michigan Tech
Oyvind Watterdal, Alaska Fairbanks	Theresia Schnurr, Alaska Fairbanks
	Marie-Helen Soderman, Northern Michigan
	Jill Smith, Michigan Tech

East Region – Men	East Region – Women
Franz Bernstein, Vermont	Robyn Anderson, Middlebury
Sylvan Ellefson, Bates	Kristen Bednar, St. Lawrence
Sam Evans-Brown, Bates	Jennie Bender, Vermont
Simeon Hamilton, Middlebury	Rose Brennan, Dartmouth
Patrick Johnson, Middlebury	Sophie Caldwell, Dartmouth
Nils Koons, Dartmouth	Hannah Dreissigacker, Dartmouth
Dimitri Luthi, Williams	Lucy Garrec, Colby
Patrick O’Brien, Dartmouth	Kathleen Maynard, Colby
Glenn Randall, Dartmouth	Elise Moody-Roberts, Middlebury
Juergen Uhl, Vermont	Caitlin Patterson, Vermont
	Natalie Ruppertsberger, Bates
	Sarah Wright, New Hampshire

West Region – Men	West Region – Women
Daniel Clark, Denver	Annelise Bailly, Denver
Ben Fick, Utah	Sadie Bjornsen, Alaska Anchorage
Anders Folleraas, Montana State	Jaime Bronga, Alaska Anchorage
Matt Gelso, Colorado	Annelies Cook, Utah
Tor-Hakon Hellebostad, New Mexico	Kate Dolan, Denver
Mike Hinckley, Denver	Polina Ermoshina, New Mexico
Martin Kaas, New Mexico	Maria Grevsgård, Colorado
Vegard Kjoelhamar, Colorado	Chelsea Holmes, Nevada
Harald Lovenskiold, Denver	Kaelin Kiesel, Montana State
Jesper Ostensen, Colorado	Antje Maempel, Denver
Jonathan Pluvinet, Nevada	Claire Rennie, Montana State
Lutz Preussler, Nevada	Laura Rombach, Alaska Anchorage
Simon Reissmann, New Mexico	Kristin Ronnestrand, Nevada
Bernhard Roenning, Montana State	Zoe Roy, Utah
Ryan Scott, Montana State	Sara Schweiger, Utah
Even Sletten, Utah	Alexa Turzian, Colorado
Didrik Smith, Utah
Lex Treinen, Alaska Anchorage
Max Treinen, Alaska Anchorage
Raphael Wunderle, Alaska Anchorage

PARTICIPANTS BY INSTITUTION

Institution	Men’s Alpine	Women’s Alpine	Men’s Nordic	Women’s Nordic	Total
Alaska Anchorage	3	3	3	3	12
Alaska Fairbanks	0	0	1	3	4
Bates	0	2	2	1	5
Colby	2	1	0	2	5
Colorado	3	3	3	2	11
Dartmouth	3	3	3	3	12
Denver	3	3	3	3	12
Green Bay	0	0	1	1	2
Gustavus Adolphus	0	0	0	1	1
Michigan Tech	0	0	3	3	6
Middlebury	2	3	2	2	9
Montana State	0	0	3	2	5
Nevada	3	3	2	2	10
New Hampshire	3	3	0	1	7
New Mexico	3	3	3	1	10
Northern Michigan	0	0	3	3	6
St. Lawrence	1	1	0	1	3
St. Michael’s	1	0	0	0	1
St. Scholastica	0	0	1	0	1
Utah	3	3	3	3	12
Vermont	3	3	2	2	10
Williams	2	1	1	0	4

The University of Denver will enter the 2009 National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championships as the defending champion after claiming its record 19th title at last year’s championships in Montana. The Pioneers earned 649.5 team points, overcoming a 17.5-point deficit on the final day of competition to push past the second-place finishers from the University of Colorado. The University of Utah finished third.

Denver’s John Buchar claimed individual titles in both of the men’s Alpine events while Lucie Zikova of Colorado topped the field in both of the women’s Alpine events. Maria Grevsgaard, also of Colorado, claimed the individual titles in both of the women’s Nordic races. The men’s Nordic titles were split between Dartmouth College’s Glenn Randall, who won the 10-kilometer freestyle race, and Marius Korthauer of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks who claimed the 20-kilometer classical title.