March 7, 2007

From Dartmouth Athletics

JACKSON, N.H. - Northern Michigan University took the top three spots in the women's 5-kilometer freestyle cross country race to claim the early lead at the 2007 NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Championships.

With the sweep, Northern Michigan leads in the team standings with 189 points after the first day of competition here. Dartmouth stands in second with 166; the University of Denver is in third with 146.

The Wildcats trio of Lindsay Williams, Morgan Smyth, and Lindsey Weier took all three podium spots, with Williams winning the race in 13:50.4. Smyth was 16 second back in 14:06.6, and Weier, the 2006 Olympian who just last week competed at the World Championships in Japan, finished third, two seconds behind Smyth in 14:08.3.

Dartmouth placed all three of its competitors in the top 10, as Elsa Sargent took seventh place, Sara Studebaker took eighth and Susan Dunklee took 10th.

Bitter cold and wind delayed the start of today's races by one hour; at start time the temperature hovered just below zero. But when the racing began, University of Denver junior Rene Reisshauer returned to the NCAA medal stand, taking the men's 10-kilometer freestyle race in 24:52.2. Utah's Snorri Einarsson was second in 25:21.6; Alaska- Fairbanks' Marius Korthauer was third in 25:43.5 Denver and Utah both placed two racers in the top 10; Denver's John Stene, was fifth and Utah's Even Sletten finished 10th.

Reisshauer was a double winner at the 2005 Championships, taking both the 20-k freestyle and the 10-k classical races.

Action continues Thursday at the NCAA Skiing Championships with men's and women's giant slalom competition at the Attitash-Bear Peak ski area in Bartlett, NH. For complete race results see http:// www.eisaskiing.org/BART/Results07/ncaa07.html