(Editor's note: Montana State Athletics press release)
BOZEMAN -- The NCAA Skiing Committee has announced that 74 men and 74 women have been selected to participate in the 2020 NCAA Skiing Championship March 11-14 at Bridger Bowl and Crosscut Mountain Sports Center. Montana State claims eleven of the 148 student-athletes competing.
Teams can qualify up to 12 racers- three men and three women athletes from alpine and Nordic disciplines. Only three schools enter the championships with the full allotment of competitors, and all three come from the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association of which MSU competes. Fielding full teams are Colorado, Denver and Utah.
Montana State, along with Dartmouth, Middlebury and Vermont have 11 skiers, while Alaska-Anchorage and New Hampshire qualified ten. In all, 23 teams will be competing for the national championship in a sport that combines both men’s and women’s scores to determine its winner.
Qualifying for the Bobcats are Åge Solheim, Riley Seger and Louis Muhlen-Schulte (men’s alpine), Nellie Talbot, Haley Cutler and Tegan Wold (women’s alpine), Emma Tarbath, Anna Fake and Aubrey Leclair (women’s Nordic) and Zanden McMullen and Eli Jensen (men’s Nordic).
Last winter, Montana State placed ninth at the NCAA Championships in Vermont.
The Bobcats will be paced by Solheim and Muhlen-Schulte. The two sophomores garnered second-team All-America honors last winter after placing sixth and seventh, respectively, in slalom.
MSU’s Nordic contingent will be led by Tarbath and Fake. Two years ago, at the NCAA meet in Steamboat Springs, Colo., Tarbath captured first-team All-America honors in the 15-km freestyle, while Fake notched second-team All-America kudos in the 5-km classic event.
Montana State, who is hosting the NCAAs for the seventh time, recorded a program high fourth place showing in 1969 (men) and 2016 (combined). Individually, four Bobcats have claimed national titles, including Tor Fageraas, 1962, Nordic Combined; Dan Brelsford, 1978, Slalom; Anika Miller, 2016, Nordic Freestyle; and Benedicte Lyche, 2017, Giant Slalom.
The 2020 NCAA Skiing Championships will begin on Wednesday, March 11 with the men’s and women’s giant slalom at Bridger Bowl.