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Collegiate nats: CU, Whitman win omnium crowns

Published: May. 16, 2005

Although no cyclist from the University of Colorado stepped atop the podium at the NCCA Collegiate Road Cycling National Championships in Lawrence, Kansas, the team as a whole posted enough top-10 finishes to wrap up the Division I team omnium title on Sunday.

After the women’s team of Molly Hummel, Kelly Murphy, Sarah Levy and Melissa Thompson finished third in Sunday’s 12-mile team time trial and the men’s squad of Collin Becker, Josh Bezecny, Taylor Kneuven and Adam Blanchard finished seventh, the Buffaloes topped Cal Berkeley by 36 points.

It’s the first team omnium road title for CU since 2000, and the first time in four years that the University of California-Berkeley has not gone home with the overall division I championship.

Berkeley lost valuable points on the women’s side after Marcela Smid, a top contender to win the criterium, hit the tarmac on the last lap of Friday’s race. The Bears’ luck didn’t improve in Saturday’s road race, as Stephanie Graeter, last year’s road-race champion, crashed on the first lap and had to be taken to a nearby hospital. The women rebounded by winning today’s team time trial by 20 seconds over the University of Washington, but the effort could not make up for the previous days’ lost results.

The Buffaloes, however, consistently placed riders in points-winning positions, and the accumulation paid off. CU’s Molly Hummel finished seventh in Friday’s criterium and Saturday’s road race, and Josh Bezecny finished fourth in the road race, only one second behind winner Bobby Lea.

In only its second year of existence, Whitman College’s cycling team took top honors in the Division II team omnium, beating Lees-McRae by 50 points.

Whitman was powered by a dominating women’s team. Rebecca Jenson, Laura Valaas, Mara Abbott and Jane Rynbrandt crushed the competition in the team time trial. Valaas finished second in Friday’s criterium and Abbott – a freshman and newcomer to the sport – won Saturday’s road race after a solo victory.

Lees-McRae posted the fastest time of the day on the windy course, finishing the 12-mile out-and-back loop in 26:15:10.

National Collegiate Road Championships
Team time trial
Division I
Men
1. Fort Lewis College
2. University of Washington
3. Indiana University
4. University of California-Berkeley
5. University of Florida
6. University of Vermont
7. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
8. University of Colorado
9. University of Georgia
10. University of California Davis

Women
1. University of California-Berkeley
2. University of Washington
3. University of Colorado
4. Fort Lewis College
5. Penn State University
6. University of Florida
7. University of Virginia
8. Indiana University
9. University of California Davis
10. Midwestern State University

Division II
Men
1. Lees-McRae
2. Western Washington
3. Whitman College
4. Cumberland
5. American University
6. MIT
7. Dartmouth
8. Colorado College
9. Princeton University
10. DePauw University

Women
1. Whitman College
2. DePauw University
3. Dartmouth
4. Princeton University
5. MIT
6. U.S. Military Academy
7. Lees McRae
8. Colorado College

Omnium
Division I
1. University of Colorado, 446pts
2. University of California-Berkeley, 410
3. Stanford University, 391
4. Fort Lewis College, 385
5. University of Florida, 360
6. Penn State University, 350
7. Indiana University, 332
8. University of Washington, 317
9. University of Virginia, 292
10. Midwestern State University, 260

Division II
1. Whitman College, 508pts
2. Lees-McRae, 458
3. Dartmouth, 408
4. USMA, 366
5. MIT, 360
6. Cumberland, 359
7. DePauw University, 353
8. Colorado College, 328
9. Princeton University, 320
10. Western Washington University, 239