Montana State Remains In Lead At NCAA Championships

Thursday, March 10, 2016 • by Laura Mishkind, RMISA

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—At the close of the second day of the 2016 NCAA Skiing Championships, Montana State University still holds the lead with a total of 282 points. After the Bobcats’ Alpine success, the Nordic team kept the momentum. They had two women and two men finish in the top 10 of the women’s 5K freestyle and men’s 10k freestyle.

“We definitely got a boost,” head Nordic coach Matthew Johnson said of the Bobcats’ Alpine lead. “We took that excitement and just channeled it into positive energy going into today, but not trying to do anything differently than we normally do. Just trying to come out and execute the game plan and trying to race as consistently as we have all season.”

Anika Miller finished first for the Bobcats in the 5K race with a time of 13:06.1 and her teammate, Cambria McDermott, came in fourth 9.4 seconds later.

“When I finished, I had no idea how I’d done actually until my teammates jumped on me and were screaming,” Miller said. “I had no idea. I just started crying.”

The University of Colorado Boulder’s Petra Hyncicova (13:14.0) finished second, with Sloan Storey from University of Utah only .1 behind her. Colorado, Utah, and the University of Denver all had two women finish in the top 10 on Thursday.

On the men’s side, Colorado’s Mads Stroem took the 10K individual championship with a time of 22:06.8. Denver and Colorado once again had two skiers in the top 10 for the men’s 10K race, while Northern Michigan had three.

Northern Michigan’s Ian Torchia (22:17.4) came in second while his teammates, Adam Martin (22:35.2) and Jake Brown (23:02.9), finished fourth and ninth, respectively.

“We knew that if we had a good day, all three of those boys were capable of winning and we just didn’t know which one,” said Northern Michigan’s head coach Sten Fjeldheim. “We weren’t shocked or surprised that they’re all in the top 10, but you never know at altitude.”

After Denver and Utah’s success in the Thursday races, they have pulled the team scores much higher, giving them a good shot at overtaking Montana State. Currently, Utah holds the second place and has 264 points with Denver in third and just one point behind.

However, the Bobcats have expanded their lead to 18 points. They are now just the seventh different school to lead at the midway point since 1983.

“The momentum definitely helps our mindset, but the bottom line is we’ve got to go out and race the same way that we race everyday. That’s the way to succeed,” Johnson said. “Trying to mix it up and change it for the championship isn’t going to go well. Coming in with too much excitement isn’t going to go well, but skiing like we’re in the lead and skiing like we’re champions is going to do well for us.”