March 5, 2008
BOZEMAN, Mont. — The University of New Mexico ski team is in eighth place with 98 points after Day One of the 2008 NCAA Ski Championships. Sophomore Polina Ermoshina placed eighth in the women’s freestyle race to lead the way for the Lobos.
“Overall, this was about as good of a start to the championships as we could have hoped for, considering we do not have a full team and have struggled with injury and illness all season,” said Lobo head coach Fredrik Landstedt. “Polina Ermoshina had a great skate race this morning and we got outstanding results from Simon Reissmann and Casey Dyck.”
Ermoshina earned the second All-America honor of her career by improving six places over her freshman performance of 14th in 2007. The native of Moscow, Russia, completed the five-kilometer race in 18:08.6. Junior Melanie Zemp picked up points for UNM in the race with a 39th-place finish, despite feeling ill.
In the men’s freestyle race, the Lobos sported a full contingent and finished fifth as a team in the event. Freshman Simon Reissmann placed 12th, followed closely by junior Casey Dyck in 14th place. Sophomore transfer Tor-Hakon Hellebostad finished 29th to pick up the final points for UNM. All three racers competed in their first-ever NCAA finals races today.
Reissmann was questionable to start at the NCAAs after dislocating his shoulder in a training fall three weeks ago. The native of Schotten, Germany, had only been able to ski for two days in the past three weeks and put up the Lobos top time of 31:56.8 in the 10-kilometer race.
Competition continues on Thursday, March 6, with the men’s and women’s giant slalom races at Bridger Bowl. The Lobos expect to move up a few spots with strong finishes in the events.