Junior Rene Reisshauer 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 on March 7.
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.
Senior John Stene was fifth and senior Havard Selseng was 17th as the men’s team compiled 97 points in the event.
In the women’s race, sophomore Annelise Bailly finished fourth behind three skiers from Northern Michigan, who swept the event. Junior Kara LaPoint came in 27th.
At the end of the first day of the NCAA Championships, the Pioneers are 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,” says DU Head Nordic Coach Wolf Wallendorf.
This season, Reisshauer has won six races, Stene finished in the top-five of four freestyle races and Bailly won three freestyle races.
DU has won 11 individual national titles in Nordic skiing and is second all-time with 66 total individual championships.
The NCAA Championships will continue with the men and women’s giant slalom to be held in Attitash, N.H., on March 8.