Flanders and Bye Lead Huskies Contingent at NCAAs

NCAA Championships Freestyle Results: Women 5K | Men 10K

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Alice Flanders and Tom Bye had the top performances for the Michigan Tech women's and men's Nordic skiing teams today in day one at the NCAA Championships. Today's discipline was freestyle, with the women racing five kilometers and the men racing 10K.

Flanders skied in the top 10 for a good part of the race but finished in 21st. She completed the course in 15:35. Deedra Irwin finished in 37th position with a time of 16:02.

Bye notched a time of 27:46 in his first NCAA Championship experience. He took 35th place, five spots ahead of teammate Haakon Hjelstuen, who turned in a time of 29:10.

"We weren't firing on all cylinders today," said Tech coach Joe Haggenmiller. "All four athletes gave good efforts, but the conditions were tough. We just didn't have it.

Race temperatures were near 40 degrees, causing some snow melt on the trails.

"We really hadn't seen slush all year long," added Haggenmiller. "The conditions were fantastic here for training on Sunday and Monday, but much different today.

"We'll work hard on rebounding in the classic races on Friday."

The second and final day of Nordic skiing at the NCAA Championships will be Friday (Mar. 13). The two classic style races are a men's 20K and a women's 15K.