STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (csssaints.com) -- St. Scholastica's Reitler Hodgert (Bend, Ore./Summit HS ) finished his debut race at an NCAA Skiing Championship in 25^th place with a time of 24:04.3, in the men's 10km freestyle, that kicked off the men's Nordic portion of the championships.

Colorado's heavy favorite, Mads Stroem, delivered the win for the host team despite being outskied in the final five kilometers by Northern Michigan's Ian Torchia. Stroem edged Torchia by 10.6 seconds in a winning time of 22:06.8 to Torchia's 22:17.4. Denver's Moritz Madlener was third in 22:26.6.

Hodgert started under control as he'd planned to and raced a controlled race at the 6,600-foot altitude, clocking only the 36^th fastest trip around the first loop. But from the halfway mark, Hodgert threw down a great second lap, the 23^rd fastest trip around the second time, to come out on the right end of skiers within 2.5 seconds. "I didn't feel great at all, but I had enough saved up for the last loop," said Hodgert of his race. 

Head coach, Chad Salmela, felt the race was brilliantly run by Hodgert and was perhaps the best freestyle race of his career. "I swore to myself I wouldn't urge Reitler to pick up his effort until the second lap," said Salmela. "It was perfect.  He was way back after the first lap, but in control, and I knew there'd be a huge number of skiers who simply got too amped at this altitude."

As Hodgert neared the end of the race, Salmela positioned himself to urge Hodgert past the gang of six virtually tied. "He was the last starter of that group and I made sure he heard that three seconds gets him six places. He also got caught [from behind] by his 30-second guy and they beat each other up to the finish and that literally made the difference between 25^th and 30^th."

Hodgert finished the day as the second Division III athlete in the field, beaten only by a Williams College  skier, and 5^th for the central region. "It's an all-division championship, but it's nice to know you're one of the best D3s," said Salmela.  "When you go up against Williams, Middlebury, and Colby, and only one of all those skiers is the only team that gets you, that's nice."

With skiers in second, fourth, and ninth, CCSA powerhouse, Northern Michigan won the men's Nordic team score handily by 19 points over Denver, 90 to 71 points respectively. Colorado was third with 67. St. Scholastica finished 12th with Hodgert giving the Saints six points. For the NCAA Championships, teams must place a skier in the top 30 to score points.

"It feels good to get on the board, I'm not going to lie," said Salmela.  "Nobody wants to come and post a no-score for the week.  We can at least cross that off the concern list."

Salmela was also impressed with the CCSA's performance on day one.  "I think the CCSA performance showed that NMU is one of, if not the toughest program in NCAA men's Nordic right now.  They had to bench their defending NCAA champion due to illness and they still put three in the top 10. It no doubt improves the level of the entire region, and Reitler, as well as Gaspard [Cuenot of Michigan Tech in 12th] have definitely been sucked into that slipstream this year, and were again today. Today proves that central is a good place for competitive ski racing."

The NCAA Skiing Championships conclude Saturday with a 20km mass start classic event.