Vermont rallies to take NCAA ski crown

CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Vermont came from behind on the final day of competition to win its fourth NCAA skiing championship in six years.

Nina Hamilton and Karianne Opergard finished first and second in the women’s 15-kilometer freestyle cross-country race to key Vermont’s stellar Nordic performance Saturday.

The Catamounts entered the day in third place, behind Utah, the defending champion, and New Mexico.

Hamilton and Opergard broke from the pack early, and Hamilton outsprinted her teammate to win in 46 minutes, 20.1 seconds.

“I definitely didn’t expect this result,” Hamilton said. “I kept waiting for (New Mexico skier) Ivana Radlova to catch us, but it never happened.”

Radlova, a pre-race favorite, led a chase group of about a dozen skiers before falling. She finished 10th.

Niklas Skoglund of New Mexico won the men’s 20-kilometer freestyle race, in which the top five crossed the finish line in a space of four seconds.

Skoglund’s time of 52:37.0 beat Northern Michigan’s Pete Vordenberg by 1.1 seconds. Utah’s Havard Solbakken was third, followed by Vermont’s Aki Partenan and Nathan Schultz of Colorado.

Vermont amassed 688 points, 21 ahead of Utah. New Mexico was next with 659, followed by Colorado with 622 and Middlebury College with 449.