BOZEMAN, Mont. – Eveliina Piippo won the women's 5K freestyle championship and Bernhard Flaschberger took third in the men's 10K race, but the University of Denver ski team slipped behind Utah into second place at the halfway point of the 2020 NCAA Ski Championships. 

Shortly after the conclusion of the freestyle races on Thursday, the NCAA issued a statement cancelling all winter and spring NCAA Championships, effective immediately, thus putting an abrupt end to the 2020 NCAA Ski Championships and season. 

"Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors cancelled the Division I men's and women's 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA Championships," the NCAA statement read.  "This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to the spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities." 

That statement was released at 2:15 p.m. MT, about a half hour after the awards presentation following the women's 5K and men's 10K freestyle races. It is unclear whether the results from Wednesday and Thursday's races will be considered official or not.  

As it stands at the halfway point of the championship, Utah took a 32 point lead over Denver, 293-261.  

In the women's race, Piippo won in a time of 13:21.1, edging Middlebury's Sophia Laukli by just 4.8 seconds, to give the Pioneers three Individual champions in as many races. That matches the second-most number of individual wins the Pioneers have had at an NCAA Championship. DU had four winners in 1969, '71 and '96, and three several times including 1954, '58, '61, '65, '67, 2000, '07, '10, '11 and most recently in 2016.  

Vera Norli finished in 28th and Emma Larsson in 34th to round out the women's race.  

Flaschberger hit the podium in third but was just 6.0 seconds behind the race winner Ben Ogden from Vermont, while Utah's Samuel Hendry took second in 23:53.3. Borgar Norrud finished in 19th and Ole Marius Kirkeng in 33rd for the Pioneers. 

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