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Stanford, Western Washington take college omnium titles
Stanford University claimed the Division I road racing national championship this weekend in Lawrence, Kansas, while Western Washington University took the Division II crown at the 2007 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships.
After three days of racing, May 11-13, Stanford didn’t win any of the individual events – the team time trial, road race nor criterium – but instead won the Division I championship by the virtue of the consistency of its finishes.
“We finally had the depth in both men and women to do it,” Stanford’s Devin Flaherty said. “Usually it’s one or the other, but this year we had both.”
Throughout the weekend, the Cardinal consistently placed in the top standings. Friday, the men’s and women’s time trial teams finished sixth and third, respectively.
Riding solo off-the-front for a full lap and refusing to fall behind after getting caught, Stanford’s Rand Miller put up a ninth-place finish in the Saturday road race, an 84-mile trek through rolling hills and brutal heat of rural Kansas. Riding another breakaway, the aggressive Miller took sixth in the criterium in downtown Lawrence.
Stanford’s Arwen Bradley placed ninth in the women’s road race, while Caitlyn McCollough finished sixth in the criterium the following day.
In scoring the team championships, individual riders were given an amount of points based on their finishes in the three events this weekend. While winning a race certainly helped teams’ causes, consistently finishing at the front of the race was what clinched it.
“It’s not about winning the races,” Flaherty explained. “It’s about stacking the top 15.”
At the end of racing Sunday, Stanford held an 89-point advantage over 2006 champion California-Davis.
Like Stanford, Western Washington also won its division crown on the strength of its consistency. WWU’s Megan McPhee placed fifth in the women’s criterium and 16th in the road race, while Brian Williams took sixth in the men’s criterium and Chris Daifuku took ninth in the road race.
Western Washington didn’t claim as decisive a victory as Stanford, though. At Sunday’s criterium, the Vikings came into the race with a tenuous 25-point lead over Whitman College.
The women’s criterium saw the Whitman women aggressively looking to make up the points gap.
Led by Rebecca Jensen and defending champ Mara Abbott, Whitman took control of the race early on. Along the slender, tree-dotted roads of downtown Lawrence, Whitman stretched the peloton and ruthlessly attacked along the one-mile, figure-eight course.
Coming into the final lap, George Washington’s Jennifer Bodine latched on to Abbott’s wheel, and into the final turn of the race, a 90-degree turn, Bodine made a sharp, attacking turn in front of her opponent.
Bodine made her kick and out-sprinted Abbott to the finish line.
“It was basically suicide or not,” Bodine said.
Thanks in part to Bodine’s finish in the women’s Division II criterium, and Williams’ and McPhee’s finishes, Western Washington stretched its lead over Whitman to 73.
In the Division I women’s criterium, Midwestern State’s Natalie Klemko won the school’s second individual title in as many days, after Klemko’s boyfriend, Alex Boyd, won the men’s road race Friday. Like Boyd, Klemko won the race on a solo breakaway.
Six laps from the finish, Klemko attacked and started to build a short lead over the peloton. The next lap, a crash left the peloton in disarray.
“I had no idea there was a crash happening,” she said.
Behind the legs of Fort Lewis’ Kristin McGrath and Penn State’s Erica Allar, the field put together a strong comeback, but Klemko coasted to the finish with a seven-second advantage. The reason for Klemko’s sudden attack: Boyd.
“If he could do it, I knew I could do it,” she said. “I didn’t exactly know if that move was going to the line. I just knew I had to go.”
In the Division II men’s criterium, Colorado College’s Jared Faciszewski won with a one-minute gap, and in the Division I men’s criterium, Colorado State’s Phil Mann took a group sprint.
Riding in a 10-man breakaway, Mann helped keep the pace strong into the final laps of the race.
“I think the other guys were pretty mad at me, because I kept saying ‘Go! Go! Go!’” Mann joked.
Into the final stretch, riding on guts, Mann outkicked California-Davis’ Tyler Dibble and Virginia’s Mark Hardman.
Also Sunday, winners of the individual omnia were announced. Hardman won the men’s Division I omnium, with Florida’s Rebecca Larson winning the women’s Division I omnium. Larson also won the women’s road race on Saturday.
Chris Stuart of Mesa State took the men’s Division II title, while Abbott took her third-straight title in the women’s division. Abbott also won the women’s road race and was on Whitman’s winning time trial team.
2007 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships
May 13. Kansas.
Division I Men’s Criterium
1. Phil Mann, Colorado State, 65 minutes and 3 laps in 1:10:48.7
2. Tyler Dibble, UC-Davis.
3. Mark Hardman, University of Virginia
4. Jeffery Buckles, Virginia Commonwealth University
5. Reed Tanger, Northwestern
6. Rand Miller, Stanford
7. Jared Barrilleaux, Cal Poly
8. Scott Veggeberg, Texas
9. Daniel Blomgren, Cal Poly
10. Mark Smelser, Kansas State, all s.t.
Division I Women’s Criterium
1. Natalie Klemko, Midwestern State, 55 minutes and 3 laps in 59:28.0
2. Kristin McGrath, Fort Lewis College, at 0:07.8
3. Erica Allar, Penn State, at 0:09.9
4. Susannah Pratt, New Hampshire
5. Rebecca Larson, Florida
6. Caitlyn McCullough, Stanford
7. Kacey Manderfield, Lees-McRae
8. Hadley Trotter, UNC-Chapel Hill
9. Amanda Seigle, UC-Davis
10. Lila Hickey, Colorado State, all s.t.
Division II Men’s Criterium
1. Jared Faciszewski, Colorado College, 65 minutes and 3 laps in 1:11:14.7
2. Nicholas Bennette, Princeton, at 0:01.05
3. Spencer Beamer, Furman
4. Craig Leukens, Yale
5. Thomas Brown, Emory
6. Brian Williams, Western Washington
7. Jason Sears, MIT
8. Eric Schildge, Dartmouth
9. Peter Horn, Vassar
10. Adam Carr, Johnson State
Division II Women’s Criterium
1. Jennifer Bodine, George Washington University, 55 minutes and 3laps in1:03:29.7
2. Kendi Thomas, Whitman College
3. Mara Abbott, Whitman College
4. Jen Stebbins, Dartmouth College
5. Meagan McPhee, Western Washington University
6. Devon Haskell, Chicago
7. Megan Guarnier, Middlebury
8. Ashley Anderson, Furman
9. Andrea Luebbe, Lehigh
10. Netana Hotimsky, Mesa State
Final Standings (after 3 days)
Division I Men’s Omnium
1. Mark Hardman, Virginia, 231
2. Tyler Dibble, UC-Davis, 206
3. Alex Boyd, Midwestern State, 200
4. Kiel Reinjen, Colorado, 188
5. Will Duggan, Vermont, 186
Division I Women’s Omnium
1. Rebecca Larson, Florida, 253
2. Erica Allar, Penn State, 251
3. Susannah Pratt, New Hampshire, 217
4. Hadley Trotter, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 178
5. Natalie Klemko, Midwestern State, 176
Division II Men’s Omnium
1. Chris Stuart, Mesa State, 183
2. Eric Schlidge, Dartmouth, 181
3. Peter Horn, Vassar, 180
4. Todd Nordblom, Colorado College, 173
5. Toby Marzot, Dartmouth, 166
Division II Women’s Omnium
1. Mara Abbott, Whitman, 274
2. Jennifer Bodine, George Washington, 226
3. Megan Guarnier, Middlebury, 216
4. Devon Haskell, Chicago, 213
5. Kendi Thomas, Whitman, 196
Division I Overall Standings
1. Stanford, 519
2. UC-Davis, 430
3. Fort Lewis, 409
4. Midwestern State, 385
5. Colorado State, 347
Division II Overall Standings
1. Western Washington, 478
2. Dartmouth, 448
3. Whitman, 405
4. Mesa State, 399
5. MIT, 340
