March 7, 2007
JACKSON, N.H. - Rene Reisshauer (Erfurt, Germany) won the individual national championship in the men's 10K freestyle, one of three Pioneers to earn All-America honors in the first event of the 2007 NCAA Championships Wednesday.
The win marked Reisshauer's third individual national championship and his first since sweeping both the classical and freestyle races at the 2005 NCAA Championships. In 2006, Reisshauer finished fourth in the classical and 11th in the freestyle.
DU has won 11 individual national titles in Nordic skiing and is second all-time with 66 total individual championships.
John Stene (Trondheim, Norway) was fifth and Havard Selseng (Sogndal, Norway) was 17th, as the men's team compiled 97 points in the event.
In the women's race, Annelise Bailly (Ruffieu, France) finished fourth behind three skiers from Northern Michigan, who swept the event. Kara LaPoint (Truckee, Calif.) came in 27th.
At the end of the first day of the NCAA Championships, Denver sits in third place with 146 points, trailing Northern Michigan (189) and Dartmouth (166). Utah is in fourth place with 143 points, and Colorado sits in fifth with 131.
"It was a really solid day. For a full team effort, holding off CU was the goal, and we did that and more. We felt like we were going to be stronger in the classical, so to come out of the freestyle in second place gives us even more confidence," said DU Head Nordic Coach Wolf Wallendorf. "We are really happy about Rene's win today. We didn't expect that, but Rene had a great race, and he's now fired up for the classical on Friday."
Reisshauer has now won six races this season. However, today's race was only his second freestyle win of the season. Heading into Friday's races, Reisshauer has won four of five classical races this season and finished second once.
Stene finished in the top-10 for the fifth straight time in as many races at the NCAA Championships. Stene won the classical and was 10th in the freestyle last year, and he finished second in the classical and sixth in the freestyle in 2005.
Stene finished in the top-five of four freestyle races this season, and he has five top-six classical finishes heading into Friday's race.
Bailly and LaPoint made their NCAA Championship debuts Wednesday. Bailly had won three freestyle races and finished third and fourth in the other two races prior to the championships.
Today's races were postponed an hour due to extremely frigid temperatures and wind chill factors.
The NCAA Championships continue with the men and women's giant slalom to be held at Attitash, N.H., on Thursday, Mar. 8. The women are scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. MT, and the men are slated at 10:30 a.m. MT.
