LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – The St. Olaf College women's Nordic skiing team won its second consecutive event at the U.S. Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) National Championships in the Freestyle Sprint, while the men's team was the runner-up on Wednesday at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.
Led by an individual title from junior
Lily Ward, the St. Olaf women used a 1-2-4-7-8-11 finish from their six participants to win the team title by a 28-point margin over Paul Smith's College for the team's 14th first-place finish in the last 16 events at the USCSA National Championships. Sophomore
Paavo Rova led four Ole men in the top 10 with a third-place performance as St. Olaf was 10 points behind Paul Smith's College with 17 points.
All six Ole women earned First Team or Second Team All-America accolades with their top-11 finishes. Ward opened the day with the top time in the qualifier (3:26.0), won quarterfinal 1 (3:32.38), was second in semifinal 1 (3:36.96), and posted a three-second win over Cope-Schaeffer in the A Final (3:32.21) to claim her first USCSA individual title.
After starting the day with a four-place result in the qualifier (3:32.4), Cope-Schaeffer won quarterfinal 2 (3:46.33) and semifinal 1 (3:36.79) before placing second to Ward in the A Final (3:35.76). Junior
Amae Kam-Magruder finished fourth overall with a time of 3:50.20 in the A Final after winning her quarterfinal (3:37.70) and semifinal (3:34.04) heats.
First year
Anna Peikert and sophomore
Annika Fuhrmann recorded a 1-2 finish in the B Final to place seventh and eighth, respectively, while sophomore
Lizzy Weider finished the day in 11th.
Rova, sophomore
Daniel Gladkov, first year
Jack Aldrich, and sophomore
Lance Hastings all earned All-America honors with top-10 results for the Ole men. Rova was 10th in the qualifier (2:53.4), second in quarterfinal 1 (2:49.44), first in semifinal 1 (2:54.29) and third in the A Final (2:58.82).
Gladkov won the morning qualifier (2:42.7) before finishing third (2:49.54) and fourth (2:55.93) in his quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively. He finished the day in sixth in the A Final (3:37.40). Aldrich and Hastings were second (3:10.96) and third (3:13.43) in the B Final to wind up in eighth and ninth overall.
After an off day on Thursday, St. Olaf's teams will return for the 15K Freestyle Mass Start on Friday, March 13.
