STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – The Denver Pioneers had three Nordic skiers place in the top 10 and had five of their six in the top 15 on Thursday in the men's and women's Nordic 7.5-kilometer freestyle on day 2 of the 2024 NCAA Championships.
Denver stayed in the third position in the overall standings at the halfway point of the national championships with 251 points. The Pioneers are just 5.5 points behind second-place and host Colorado and trail leader Utah by only 61.5 points.
"As far as the day went, we were right in the mix," said DU Nordic Head Coach
Rogan Brown. "The ladies were super consistent, strong results from them. They really outpunched some of our main rivals. Proud of the team overall today. We're really looking forward to closing it out on Saturday after we cheer on the alpiners Friday."
All three of Denver women finished in the top 15 in the interval start at Howelsen Hill Ski Area, with sophomore and birthday girl
Selma Andersen leading the trio in 10th place. Graduate student
Henriette Saeterdal Semb was 11th and senior
Hanna Ray came in 14th. The Pioneers were the only college program to place all three student-athletes in the top 15 in the women's 7.5K.
Graduate student
Florian Knopf picked up the Pios only top five of the day by placing fifth in the men's skate, earning first team All-American honors in the process.
Junior
Andreas Kirkeng earned second-team honors by coming in 10th and freshman
Krystof Zatloukal placed 21st, but he was just 21 seconds out from grabbing a top-15 position.
"Florian had a great race and put together a deserving fifth-place result," Brown said. "Andreas, obviously not up to his potential to where he has been this season in that skate race, but I think it's just given him the fire to come out and perform on Saturday."
The final four events of the 2024 NCAA Championships will take place within 36 hours of one another as the Friday features a night alpine slalom under the lights of Howelsen Hill before the Nordic 20K classic mass start on Saturday morning.
"The key thing for us is to ride these positives and carry that momentum into Saturday's race," Brown said. "I think the team trusts where they're at and we've been strong all season. We have some confidence that we can catch CU and Utah. We're in a place to hunt down some valuable hardware still."
DENVER MEN INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
5.
Florian Knopf, 19:44.5
10.
Andreas Kirkeng, 20:08.2
21.
Krystof Zatloukal, 20:41.3
DENVER WOMEN INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
10.
Selma Andersen, 23:08.5
11.
Henriette Saeterdal Semb, 23:15.2
14.
Hanna Ray, 23:22.6
TEAM STANDINGS (through 4-of-8 events): 1. Utah 312.5; 2. Colorado 256.5;
3. Denver 251; 4. Dartmouth 184; 5. Montana State 183; 6. Vermont 167; 7. Alaska Anchorage 125; 8. New Hampshire 99; 9. Westminster 82; 10. Alaska Fairbanks 72; 11. Middlebury 62; 12. Colby 47.5; 13. St. Michael's 44.5; 14. Michigan Tech 43; 15. Harvard 21; 16. Bowdoin 17; 17. St. Lawrence 15; 18. Plymouth State 9; 19. Nevada 3, T20. Northern Michigan 1, T20. Williams 1; T22. Bates 0; T22. Boston College 0
MEN'S 7.5K FREESTYLE TOP 10 (40 finishers): 1. John Hagenbuch, DAR, 19:09.2; 2. Joe Davies, UU, 19:20.2; 3. Tom Mancini, UU, 19:35.9; 4. Will Koch, CU, 19:40.6;
5. Florian Knopf, DU, 19:44.5; 6. Magnus Boee, CU, 19:46.3; 7. Johannes Flaaten, CU, 19:53.6; 8. Fredrik Nilsen, MSU, 19:58.9; 9. Jack Lange, DAR, 20:08.2;
10. Andreas Kirkeng, DU, 20:08.2.
WOMEN'S 7.5K FREESTYLE TOP 10 (40 finishers): 1. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU, 22:08.2; 2. Haley Brewster, UVM22:29.3; 3. Jasmine Drolet, DAR, 22:30.7; 4. Tilde Baangman, MSU, 22:32.9; 5. Kate Oldham, MSU, 22:50.0; 6. Rosie Fordham, UAF, 22:51.6; 7. Astrid Stav, UAA, 22:55.8; 8. Anna-Maria Dietze, CU, 23:02.7; 9. Luci Anderson, UNH, 23:03.1;
10. Selma Andersen, DU, 23:08.5.
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