Northern Michigan University

The Official Website of the Northern Michigan Wildcats Northern Michigan Wildcats

Nilssen (Left), and Leitheiser (Right)

Women's Skiing 3/14/2026 12:11:00 PM Jack Belcher - Athletics Communications Assistant

Nilssen and Leitheiser Finish 20k at NCAA Championships

Midway, Utah -- The NMU nordic ski team sent two female student-athletes to the NCAA National Championships, with day two coming to a close.

Despite warm conditions and high altitude that made racing difficult, the NMU women's nordic ski team finished strong in the 20k Mass Start on the second and final day of competition.

In a field of 40 racers, Henriette Nilssen led the way for the Green and Gold as she finished in 22nd place and first among CCSA skaters with a time of 55:02.0. She started strong with a 6:13.0 at the first lap marker, which put her in 18th. Nilssen remained in the high 20s for a majority of the race until getting a 6:58.5 lap time on the penultimate lap to secure her 22nd place. Nilssen averaged lap times just under 7 minutes for the duration of the race.

NMU's other Women's National Championship representative, Greta Leitheiser, finished in 31st overall with a time of 56:09.6. Leitheiser also started strong with a lap time of 6:15.8 that propelled her into 26th place at the first lap marker. From there, she just averaged just over 7 minutes per lap as she remained in around 30th place for the majority of the race. On the final lap, Leitheiser posted the 16th-best laptime of the lap with a 6:36.1 that helped her finish in 31st overall.

Rosie Fordham of Alaska Fairbanks ended up winning the race with a time of 51:54.6 as she completed the sweep of the weekend races. She moved into first by the second lap and posted field-best lap times through lap 6 as she finished 27.8 seconds ahead of the next closest finisher.

The Wildcats remained in 14th place in team points with 60 points as the women picked up an additional 9 points on their final day of competition. NMU remains one spot ahead of Michigan Tech in 15th (39.5 points), and also remains in second place among the teams that don't have NCAA alpine teams at the event, as Alaska Fairbanks remains ahead of them with 133.5 points in 10th place overall.

Fans can find individual results from today's race here, and team results from the weekend here.

The team now looks ahead to the final competition of the 2025/26 schedule, the US Spring National Championships in Two Weeks.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Henriette Nilssen: 5' 3"; Junior

Greta Leitheiser: Senior

Players Mentioned

Henriette Nilssen
: 5' 3"; Junior

Greta Leitheiser
: Senior