Coach Jed Friedrich and the national qualifiers from the Gustavus women’s Nordic ski team
Nordic skiers Laura Edlund, Kathleen DeWahl, and Kelly Chaudoin will participate in the 55th annual NCAA Collegiate Skiing Championships this week, March 5-8, at Bohart Ranch in Bozeman, Mont. These skiers earned the right to participate in the championships based on point totals earned in eight Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) races throughout the season. Edlund (Sr., Forest Lake, Minn.) and DeWahl finished (Sr., St. Paul, Minn.) sixth (145.9) and seventh (155.9), respectively, in the final CCSA point standings. Chaudoin (Jr., Ely, Minn.) finished eleventh with 168.2 points.
Thirty nine skiers will compete in a 5K freestyle race on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. MST and a 15K classic race on Friday at 11:00 a.m. MST. The Gusties are the first Division III institution in the CCSA to qualify the maximum three skiers for the national championships. No other Minnesota institution has a participant in the women’s Nordic skiing competition. Previously, Gustavus had only sent one skier, Chandra Daw in 2006, to the NCAA Championships in school history.
Dartmouth College, one of three teams with a full compliment of 12 skiers, enters as the defending champion. Montana State University, Bozeman, is this year’s host.