Ogden Wins Classical Title; Dartmouth Falls Back to Third

Friday, March 8

Stowe, Vt.

10:00 AM

Dartmouth College

NCAA Day Three

Katharine Ogden crosses the finish line with the Dartmouth skiing flag in hand

Photo by: Clarkson Creative

Ogden Wins Classical Title; Dartmouth Falls Back to Third

3/8/2019 1:16:00 PM | Skiing

Classical Results and Standings

Katharine Ogden won the 15K classical by 23.4 seconds, but the Big Green fell out of the lead in the overall standings

By: Rick Bender

STOWE, Vt. — Dartmouth sophomore Katharine Ogden successfully defended her NCAA classical crown on Friday at the Trapp Family Lodge, besting the field by 23.4 seconds in the 15K race with a time of 46:25.7. Even with the victory, the Big Green fell out of first place back into third with 359 points, just two behind Colorado for second while Utah jumped to the front with 426.5 points and just one day remaining at the 2019 NCAA Skiing Championships.

Not only did Ogden win her second NCAA classical race in as many years, she won her third national title having won the freestyle at last year's championships. She is the first Dartmouth skier in 56 years to win three titles in a career (James Page '63) with still two years ahead of her.

"I was really nervous this morning, but it was great to be back in my home state and on a course that I know well," Ogden said in a post-race interview. "I tend to favor the tactic of taking the lead early, and I figured this wasn't the day to change that strategy, so I'm glad it worked out well."

With the title comes a spot on the All-America First Team, and junior Lauren Jortberg claimed her place on the second team for the third time in her career by finishing sixth, a mere half a second outside of the top five that get first-team honors. Senior Lydia Blanchet concluded her collegiate racing career with a solid 12th-place finish, giving the Big Green 86 points.

"It was a fun day for the team today with fantastic skiing conditions," Dartmouth's director of skiing and women's Nordic coach Cami Thompson Graves said following the race. "Katharine and Lauren both skied a smart race, and Lydia really had a gutsy performance after some food poisoning last night. It is really impressive to watch Katharine ski when she decides to make a move and then just pulls away from the field!"

Starting with the No. 1 bib, Ogden staked her place in the front of the line and only relinquished it briefly a time or two early in the race as she took a quick fall at one point. After the first 5K lap, she was leading with two others on her heels, Utah's Julia Richter and Colorado's Hedda Baangman. Richter kept pace for the next 3K or so before Ogden made her move. With 5K still to go, she had opened up a lead of 11 seconds, and she continued to build on that as she pulled away from the field. As she neared the finish line, it was obvious she would win easily, so she grabbed the Dartmouth skiing flag and carried it with her across the finish line.

Jortberg spent most of the race in a group of five skiers all vying to finish fifth. Each of the five skiers took their turn leading the pack, but down the final stretch, Vermont's Anna Bizyukova and Jortberg got a small amount of separation and battled for fifth with Bizyukova (48:07.7) squeaking ahead of the Big Green junior (48:08.2).

Blanchet, meanwhile, settled in with the group behind Jortberg and consistently remained in either 12th or 13th at nearly every checkpoint. By the end of the race, however, she was all by herself in 12th, 12 seconds behind Vermont's Margie Freed and nearly 17 seconds ahead of Colorado's Anne Siri Lervik.

In the men's 20K classic, the Dartmouth trio fell toward the back of the field early, but senior Callan Deline made a push during the second 5K loop to move up from 31st into 19th halfway through the race. From there, he maintained his place and even moved up two more slots by the conclusion of the race in 42:51.2. Senior Gavin McEwen finished up in 33rd place (43:58.6) and sophomore Adam Glueck crossed the finish line in 44:43.6 to place 38th overall, leaving the Big Green with 14 points on the men's side.

Utah was the big winner on the day, earning the most points in both races with 93 on the women's side — thanks to Ute skiers finishing second, fourth and seventh — while the men earned 81 points. In order to catch Utah, Dartmouth will need to gain 68 points in the slalom races. Considering the Big Green outscored the Utes by 57 in the giant slalom yesterday, another strong performance on the slopes of Mount Mansfield would give Dartmouth a shot at making a run at its fourth NCAA team title.

The first slalom race of the day tomorrow will be the men with their first run at 9 a.m., followed by the women at 10 a.m. The second runs are expected to begin at noon. Fans can watch online at www.ncaa.com/live for free.

Notes: Junior men's alpine skier Tanguy Nef, who won the giant slalom yesterday, will try to duplicate Ogden's feat by defending his slalom crown from a year ago to join the exclusive club of Dartmouth skiers with three or more NCAA titles to their credit. That group consists of Ogden, Page, Ralph Miller '57 and Chiharu Igaya '57, the last of which set the NCAA record with six … Ogden's brother Ben, a freshman at Vermont, earned a spot on the men's All-America Second Team by placing eighth in the 20K, the top finish for a skier from the East.