Nordic Teams Maintain Sixth Place in Standings at NCAAs

Friday, March 13

Lake Placid, N.Y.

10:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Nordic Classic

Nordic Teams Maintain Sixth Place in Standings at NCAAs

3/13/2015 3:26:00 PM | Skiing

By: Dartmouth

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Sophomore Patrick Caldwell, who won the national title in the 10K Free on Wednesday, led a trio of Dartmouth skiers in the 20K Classic on Friday to help the Big Green maintain their sixth-place standing at the NCAA Skiing Championships. Caldwell finished the race in 10th place to secure second-team All-America honors as Dartmouth finished the day with 224 points, well ahead of Northern Michigan in seventh with 193 but also well behind Vermont's 272 in fifth.

A large pack formed at the front of the men's race through the first of four laps around the 5K course at Mt. Van Hoevenberg with just 10 seconds separating the top 16 skiers. Caldwell and senior Silas Talbot were among that group, with sophomore Fabian Stocek just lingering a couple of places back. That pack was whittled down to nine at the conclusion of the second lap with Caldwell running seventh, just seven seconds back. The Big Green trio had little change for the remainder of the race with Caldwell falling back to 10th in 57:05.2, a good three seconds ahead of Northern Michigan's Erik Soderman.

Talbot crossed the finish line next in 12th at 57:15.0, while Stocek completed the race in 57:58.8, good for 17th. Northern Michigan not only had the individual champion in Fredrik Schwencke, who outlasted three others in a heated race to the finish in 56:12.3, but also won the event in the team standings with Kyle Bratrud placing seventh to go with Soderman in 11th. Colorado had the other two on the podium with Mads Stroem just a mere 0.6 seconds behind Schwencke, while the Buffaloes' Rune Oedegaard and New Mexico's Aku Nikander collided and fell while right on the leaders' heels on the final stretch, leaving them to recover to finish third and fourth, respectively.

Northern Michigan's trio posted 85 points to beat out Colorado whose top two supplied all of its 71 points while New Mexico totaled 66 to beat out Dartmouth (54) for third.

Earlier in the day, junior Corey Stock represented the Big Green women in the 15K Classic and finished 20th in the 40-skier field with a time of 50:42.8. The pace at the front was set by Emilie Cedervaern of New Mexico and Vernokia Mayerhofer of Utah who separated themselves from the field shortly after the completion of the first three laps. In the end, Cedervaern was able to fend off Mayerhofer for the title in 47:40.3 by 1.5 seconds, with Denver's Sylvia Nordskar joining them on the podium in third.

Utah won the event with 87 points, followed by Colorado (80), New Mexico (57), Vermont and Middlebury (36) tied for fourth.

The championships conclude on Saturday with the slalom at Whiteface Mountain. The men and women will begin their first run at 8:30 a.m., with the second run starting at 11:30 a.m. The competition can be viewed live online at the official NCAA website, NCAA.com.