Complete Results

RUMFORD, Maine – St. Scholastica senior #Tyler Kjorstad# (Sr.-Duluth, Minn./Marshall) faced his final day in a Saints uniform with only potential for improvement. After finishing 37th in the opening 10 kilometer classic race Thursday, despite it being a robust effort, Kjorstad improved to 30th today in the men's 20 kilometer freestyle mass start race.

Starting conservatively in the sunny warming temps, Kjorstad slowly moved up through the field over the latter half of the race to dual for 29th position-the highest placing he reached on the day-with a very familiar competitor, Green Bay's Santiago Ocariz--the top freestyle seed from the central region. In the end, Ocariz outsprinted Kjorstad by 2.7 seconds with a time of 47:23.8 to Kjorstad's 47:26.5, to take 29th to Kjorstad's 30th.

In the final event of the championship week, Colorado's Vegard Kjoelhamar owned the race start to finish, dropping all but Simeon Hamilton of Middlebury in the first of four 5 kilometer loops, but the pace broke Hamilton after one lap, who faded to ninth by the end of the day, as Kjoelhamar skied out of sight of any other skier for the final 15 kilometers, winning in a time of 44:07.9. Kjoelhamar's efforts, as great as they were, were not enough to help the Buffaloes take down defending champs, the University of Denver Pioneers. Further back in the field, Kjoelhamar's teammates, Matt Gelso of the US Ski Team Development team and fellow Norwegian standout, Jesper Oestensen, could only muster 20th and 31st place finishes respectively, allowing the Pioneers to of Denver to distance themselves from the Buffaloes. It was the Pioneer's second National Championship title in as many years. New Mexico finished third, the Saints 22nd.

It was the Seawolves of Alaska-Anchorage, however, who owned the event, as freshman standout Lex Treinen outsprinted teammate Raphael Wunderle for second spot. Treinen fell at the start, leaving the stadium in last position, later broke a pole and had one replaced, yet still emerged from the field to win the pack scramble for second behind Kjoelhamar. Treinen's older brother Max, a sophomore, finished fifth to sew up the team scoring for UAA. With 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, the Seawolves won the men's 20km team score by a whopping 42 points over the University of New Mexico. Darmouth finished third.

“It was a great race for Tyler today, and an awesome way for him to finish out his collegiate skiing career,” said Saints Head Coach Chad Salmela. “We knew he would probably do better today than the classic race, but the field is so strong and you just never know what is going to happen, so as a coach, you're just nervous all morning. He skied really well, represented our school and our region well, and was the fifth Division III skier in the field. I'm very happy with that.”

With the championships ending on the men's 20k, the atmosphere was electric at the start, as the men's freestyle scores would decide the team title. “It was such a great atmosphere out here today,” said Salmela. “I'm really glad Tyler got to experience this. It's college skiing at its best. Last year, the event was held high in a mountain valley on a Wednesday and Friday, hundreds of miles from any of the other competing colleges, with an alpine event still to decide the team title, so it was really quiet with a tiny crowd. Today, it was beautiful out, so many people from so many Eastern schools were out there waving their team flags and making noise, it was just great. The crowd was huge for a cross country ski race and it just felt like a championship event. To ski well and finish your college career on such a day was just great for him.”

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
MEN'S 20KM FREESTYLE MASS START
RUMFORD, ME
March 14, 2009
1 7 KJOELHAMAR, Vegard CU 44:07.9 50.0
2 22 TREINEN, Lex UAA 44:27.4 47.0
3 12 WUNDERLE, Raphael UAA 44:27.9 44.0
4 20 KAAS, Martin UNM 44:28.4 41.0
5 18 TREINEN, Max UAA 44:29.9 39.0
6 15 HINKLEY, Mike DU 44:39.0 37.0
7 13 O'BRIEN, Patrick DAR 44:42.6 35.0
8 14 LANG, Jesse MTU 44:43.2 33.0
9 3 HAMILTON, Simeon MID 44:44.7 31.0
10 1 REISSMANN, Simon UNM 44:45.1 30.0
30 23 KJORSTAD, Tyler CSS 47:26.5 10.0

Team Scores Men's 20KM
1) UAA 130.0
2) UNM 88.0
3) DAR 83.0
4) CU 79.0
5) DU 74.0
6) UU 69.0
7) MID 56.0
7) MTU 56.0
9) BAT 41.0
10) NMU 39.0
11) UVM 37.0
12) NEV 27.0
13) MSU 14.0
14) UWGB 11.0
15) CSS 10.0
16) WIL 7.0
17) UAF 1.0

CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM SCORES
1. UNIVERSITY OF DENVER DU 659.0
2. UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO CU 602.5
3. UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO UNM 602.0
4. UNIV OF ALASKA-ANCHORAGE UAA 584.0
5. UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT UVM 573.0
6. UNIVERSITY OF UTAH UU 568.0
7. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE DAR 555.0
8. MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE MID 426.0
9. UNIV OF NEW HAMPSHIRE UNH 394.0
10. UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA NEV 284.0
11. COLBY COLLEGE CBC 209.0
12. NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIV NMU 195.0
13. BATES COLLEGE BAT 175.0
14. WILLIAMS COLLEGE WIL 147.5
15. UNIV OF ALASKA-FAIRBANKS UAF 122.0
15. ST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY SLU 122.0
17. MICHIGAN TECH UNIVERSITY MTU 121.0
18. MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY MSU 85.0
19. UNIV OF WISCONSIN-GREEN BAY UWGB 35.0
20. ST MICHAELS COLLEGE SMC 31.0
21. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE GAC 17.0
22. COLLEGE OF ST SCHOLASTICA CSS 13.0