March 07, 2012 (Bozeman, Mont.) – Utah’s Maria Graefnings successfully defended her individual NCAA Championship in the women’s 5km freestyle race, kicking things off on the right foot for the RMISA schools at Bohart Ranch on Wednesday in the first of four days of competition at the 2012 NCAA Championships.

In terms of team results, the day belonged to east schools Dartmouth and Vermont, but the RMISA still dominated the overall standings placing all six of its teams in the top nine of the standings after Day One of the 2012 NCAA Championships.

Dartmouth is the only team that racked up over 100 points in both the women’s 5K freestyle (110) and men’s 10K freestyle (104) races, finishing second on the women’s side and third on the men’s side to open up a solid 31-point lead over rival Vermont, who rests in second place. Dartmouth’s total on the day was 214 points to 183 for Vermont, who racked up an impressive 121 points in the women’s race.

Host Montana State took the men’s race with 106 points, followed by Utah’s 105 in a very closer race in the standings. That allowed the Utes to cut into Vermont’s lead after the women’s race and they’re just four points down on the Catamounts with 179 points while Montana State is just another three points back at 176. Defending NCAA Champion Colorado is tied with the central region’s Northern Michigan in fifth place with 154 points. Denver is in seventh (118), Alaska Anchorage eighth (112) and New Mexico ninth (74) to round out the RMISA teams. Middlebury from the east sits in 10th place.

Utah’s Maria Graefnings put in another solid performance as she has won three straight races, all on this Bohart Ranch course, this time she won with an impressive time of 14:05.9, with a 19.9-second gap over Vermont’s Caitlin Patterson (14:25.8). Dartmouth’s Sophie Caldwell rounded out the podium in a itme of 14:31.0, edging out Vermont’s Lucy Garrc by less than a second (14:31.8) while Alaska Anchorage’s Jaime Bronga rounded out the top five and first-team All-America selections with a time of 14:40.8.

“I tried to stay positive all the way, keeping my confidence up,” said Graefnings. “The NCAAs are the best time of the year, so you may as well enjoy it. I love this course, it’s challenging, it mixes everything. You have steep hills, flats, downhills that are tricky, it’s a good course. With all the people cheering, it’s so much fun.”

Graefnings is closing out a dominant career which began at Nevada and continued at Utah after the Wolfpack disbanded their program two years ago. In three years with RMISA she has never finished lower than ninth in 31 career races. In 2010, she won one race in the regular season at New Mexico and then turned it on at the RMISA Championships at Steamboat Springs, Colo., where she was second in the classic race and tied for the win in the freestyle race.

In 2011, she was dominant winning seven of eight regular season races before finishing second in both disciplines at the RMISA Championships and then winning the freestyle race at NCAAs and taking second in the classical race.

This year, she missed the first four races of the year while back racing in Sweden and in her first set of races in Alaska, she won a freestyle race and was second and third in the two classical races (she placed fifth in the other freestyle race). She then dominated both races here at Bohart Ranch at the RMISA Championships two weeks ago, winning the freestyle competition by 32.1 seconds and the classic race by 34.9 seconds.

Graefnings’ victory today gives her 13 career wins out of 31 races and she has hit the podium a total of 19 times with four runner-up performances and two third-place finishes. She now has two individual NCAA Championships to her credit and has won three individual RMISA Championships. The talented Swede is a five-time All-American with four first-team performances.

“National champion sounds great, hopefully I can hear it again,” Graefnings added. “My goal is to win, it’s a tough course, it should be good. At Regionals, the classic race was crazy, there was a ton of snow, hopefully it’s more like today this time.”

Another five athletes earned second-team All-America honors, which included Colorado’s Joanne Reid (14:48.4), Dartmouth’s Erika Flowers (14:50.9), Vermont’s Amy Glen (15:02.8), Dartmouth’s Annie Hart (15:08.1) and Northern Michigan’s Marie-Helen Soderman (15:10.5).

Men’s Race

In the men’s race, Northern Michigan’s Erik Soderman was the story of the day, coming from 17 seconds back after the first 5km loop to win the race by 25.0 seconds in a time of 25:20.2.  Utah’s Miles Havlick took second in 25:42.4 while Dartmouth’s Sam Tarling (25:53.6) earned the final podium spot by just two-tenths of a second ahead of Montana State’s Michael Schallinger (25:53.8). Colorado’s Rune Oedegaard took fifth just another couple of seconds back in 25:57.6 to round out the first-team All-Americans.

“It was tough today,” Havlick said. “Skis were really good, it was really tight. Everybody was within five seconds on the lap, you just had to finish strong on the last lap. Soderman was 17 seconds down at the lap and just turned it on, that’s ridiculous. We had two girls on our team get food poisoning, so it’ll be sweet to have an extra day off tomorrow and watch the alpine teams – we’ll be ready Friday.”

Havlick is also closing out his junior campaign Friday and has been one of the more dominant racers over the last two years. He was the RMISA Men’s Nordic MVP after he hit the podium in each of his eight regular season races. He was edged off the podium by his teammate Didrik Smith for the first time at the RMISA Championships, coming in behind his teammate by three-tenths of a second in a sprint to the finish in the classical race.

In 2010 as a freshman, he had 10 races with one win and five top 10 performances, including a sixth place in the classic race at the NCAA Championships. Since the start of the 2011 season, he has finished on the podium 19 times with five race victories over the last 21 races. Havlick is a four-time All-American including his race today with two first-team and two second-team performances.

Those earning second-team All-America honors were Utah’s Didrik Smith (26:03.1), Montana State’s David Norris (26:03.9), Dartmouth’s Eric Packer (26:09.9), Northern Michigan’s Kjell-Christian Markset (26:10.9) and Montana State’s Tyler Reinking (26:12.3).

The east took a slight lead over the west in terms of All-America honors, earning nine of the 20 total honors while the west had eight and the central region, all from Northern Michigan, had three.  The west, however, did have more first-team All-Americans on the day with five, while the east had four and central one.  Both the west and central had an individual NCAA Champion while the east had an edge on the podium with three to the west’s two and central’s one.

The focus now shifts about a half-mile south and 600 feet up to Bridger Bowl where the giant slalom races kick off the alpine portion of the championships. On Friday the action returns to Bohart Ranch with the classic races and then Saturday the NCAAs conclude the championship with the slalom races.

Other Notes:

• Colorado’s Joanne Reid earned her fifth All-America award in her fifth opportunity and she now has three first-team and two second-team honors.

• Alaska Anchorage’s Jaime Bronga continued her excellent season and looks to be back in top form after a little dip at the RMISA Championships, picking up a first-team All-America honor finishing fifth in the women’s race. The RMISA Women’s Nordic MVP, she had a fantastic regular season finishing in the top four in each of the eight races with two wins and two runner-up performances. After not participating in the freestyle race at the RMISA Championships, she placed ninth in the classical race.

• Montana State’s Michael Schallinger got the better of his men’s Nordic teammates today by taking home first-team All-America honors while the other two brought home second-team honors. MSU joins the Dartmouth and Vermont women in getting all three athletes in the top 10 to earn All-America honors. Schallinger along with teammate’s David Norris and Tyler Reinking have performed well all season, with Reinking taking fourth, Norris fifth and Schallinger sixth in the final MVP rankings. The three are taking full advantage of their home course – in the three races since the start of RMISA Championships they have yet to finish lower than 11th on this course with eight top-10 performances and four in the top five.

Full results HERE.