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RIPTON, Vt. (csssaints.com) -- St. Scholastica sophomore Sharmila Ahmed (Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS) weathered two downhill crashes on a slick, warm course in the women's 15km mass start freestyle at the NCAA Skiing Championships at the Rikert Nordic Center on Breadloaf Campus of Middlebury College, to finish in 36th position, in a time of 42:36.8.

Ahmed began playing catch up in the early running after losing control on the second of three downhills each lap, and skiing off course into a tree.  She persevered despite being in last place and proceeded to fight for every spot she could ahead of her.  By the beginning of the final lap, Ahmed had moved up the field catching and passing a group that had the possibility of putting her as high as 32nd by the finish 3.5 kilometers later, only to fall again on the downhill section that had thwarted her the first time around.  Getting back to her feet, Ahmed caught and passed two more skiers by the finish to move from 38th into 36th.

The race was dominated by Colorado skiers JoAnne Reid and Eliska Hajkova, both of whom helped lead a final day charge by the Buffaloes that would yield the team title when the day was through.  Reid put a surge in at the beginning of the third and final lap to open a gap on her teammate and Alaska Anchorage's Marine Dusser.  Reid skied comfortably to the title in a time of 38:17.8.  Hajkova edged Dusser by just four-tenths of a second, 38:44.6 for second, to Dusser's 38:45.0.  The Colorado women won the day in women's Nordic handily over Dartmouth College in 2nd.

Ahmed has struggled with a physical constraint common in the freestyle technique in which her shin muscles tighten up and nearly become dysfunctional in certain track conditions.  The day's hard packed, wet snow, were nearly the worst such track conditions for Ahmed.  "I had great skis.  I just couldn't control them and my shins tightened up right away," explained Ahmed. 

"We chose the fastest skis we had for her, and they were fast, but they just were hard to control on the rock hard surface," said Saint head coach Chad Salmela.  "We both kind of knew the options and this was the best option.  It wasn't perfect, but it was what we could do under the circumstances, and I feel Sharmila really did a great job with them.  Minus two falls, she could have easily been top 30 or better.  I'm just happy with her effort and fighting the whole way, and improving on Thursday's race."

Saturday's race concludes the Saints' ski season, one in which the Saints made great strides, posting a series of unprecedented performances, including Ahmed's appearance at these championships.

"When I look back on 2013, this to me is the year the women's team really evolved into a competitive collegiate program at the regional level and we showed up on the national level.  We still have room to get better, but I am incredibly proud of the season our women's ski team has had," reflected Salmela.