Penn State, Midwestern State victors at collegiate nationals road race

By clippedin

Overall national collegiate team omniums are on the line this weekend at the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships which got underway in North Carolina on Friday with the men’s and women’s D1 and D2 road races.

Women

The ladies opened racing on Friday with both D1 and D2 doing two laps of the hilly road course for a 77-kilometer contest.

With the D1 ladies all together at the end of lap one, it came down to a bunch sprint at the line which was won by Monica Volk (Penn State). She beat out Sofia Gome Villafane (Fort Lewis College) and Jessica Bobeck (University of Colorado) who claimed the silver and bronze medals. University of Arizona’s Erica Clevenger, the collegiate national champion in triathlon, took fifth.

Then in the D2 event, Jennifer Caicedo (King University) crossed the finish line victoriously and defended her national title from last year.  Amy Benner (California State University) and Heidi Franz (Seattle University) followed in second and third.

Men

The men were up next for three laps in and around Marshall, N.C. for a total of 115.5 km.

In the D1 event, four riders broke away and gained a two-minute advantage on the field, but by the final lap, the entire race including the lead group had blown apart.

Stefan Rothe (Midwestern State University) found himself alone at the front and soloed over the line for the national title in a time of 2:46:26. Sean Gardner (Virginia Polytechnic University) and Willem Kaiser (University of Georgia) collected the silver and bronze medals. University of Arizona’s Kyle Trudeau, pro in mountain, took 15th.

It was a two-man battle at the end of the D2 men’s race with Noah Tankersly (East Tennessee State University) outsprinting Glenn Ferreira (University of Delaware) for the win. Ty Mechling (US Naval Academy) grabbed the third step of the podium.

What’s on the line?

Not only will individual and team omnium winners be crowned for Collegiate Road Nationals when the event concludes on Sunday (standings), but the event also marks the final 2015/2016 national championship in the National Collegiate Team Omnium (which also included collegiate track, BMX, MTB and Cyclo-cross Nationals).

Competition continues on Saturday with the criterium and concludes on Sunday with the time trials. For live updates from collegiate nationals, follow #collnats and “clippedin” on Snapchat and @USACCollegiate on Twitter.

Southwest collegiate rider profiles

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Omnium Standings

Main photo by Marian Cycling