LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Wednesday marked the first day of racing for the 2015 NCAA Nordic skiing championships; Thursday will feature the inaugural Alpine events.

 

On Day One, the top 40 collegiate men and women from around the country, including 14 women and 13 men from the EISA circuit, competed at the same venue that hosted the Eastern Regional championships two weeks earlier. Representing Williams in the national event for the second time were  Hannah Cole and Eli Hoenig, joined by senior Will Wicherski who is competing in his fourth and final NCAA championships.

 

In the men's event, a 10-kilometer individual start skate race, the western region as a whole skied to very impressive finishes with the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Denver, and Montana State University taking four of the top five spots. However, first place for the day went to an Eastern skier, Patrick Caldwell of Dartmouth, who managed to edge out Moritz Madlener of Denver by about two seconds for a total time of 25 minutes, 09.1 seconds.

 

In 26:55.1, Wicherski managed to get 18th overall, sixth for Easterners, and was the first Williams finisher.

 

With 22 points from Wicherski and Hoenig combined, the Williams Nordic men were ninth overall for the day, beating out the University of Alaska Fairbanks by two points. Colorado won for the men's Nordic day one with 82 points.

 

As for the women's Nordic race, Cole, as the sole Williams representative, claimed a spot in the top 25, a noticeable improvement on her performance last year at the NCAA championship held in Soldier Hollow, Utah. Cole's time of 15:40.2 around the 5-kilometer course put her about 1:20 back from the leader, Veronika Myerhofer of Utah.

 

The Nordic skiers get a brief reprieve until Friday, when the men will test their metal on a 20-kilometer mass start classic race and the women a 15-kilometer equivalent. In the meantime, the Alpine races commence tomorrow with giant slalom. Senior Christoph Lentz will be Williams' only athlete competing on Thursday.