by David Mable
With school pride on the line, the Collegiate Relay began with a mad dash to the first hill, with Brevard College pulling away with Fort Lewis College in the first leg. Lindenwood University and Marian followed, staying close to each other, but losing distance on the leaders.
Scott McGill of Brevard passed off to Carson Beckett for the second leg of the race, and Beckett opened up a gap.
“Scott had a super successful first lap,” said Beckett. “I just went out with an open course and tried to get as much time as I could.”
The start of the collegiate varsity relay. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships, Masters Men 65-69. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
Passing off to Hannah Arensman, the younger of the two sisters, Brevard kept its lead, while the dual for second and third continued behind.
Fort Lewis and Brevard were locked in battle early on. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships. © D. Mable / Cyclocross Magazine
Marian College worked their way forward on legs two and three, making their way into a silver medal position by the end of the final lap. Fort Lewis College won the battle with Lindenwood taking bronze, Lindenwood taking fourth. Colorado Mesa University finished fifth.
Virginia Tech had the most recongizeable jeans, or jortz. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships, Collegiate Relays. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
Allison Arensman anchors the winning varsity collegiate relay. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships, Collegiate Relays. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
In the Collegiate Club race, Virginia Tech had a late lead while the University of Vermont was forced to chase when Meghan Owens went down in the first corner.
Start line anticipation. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships, Collegiate Relays. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
“It was crazy fast.” said Owens. “I crashed on the first corner and just got up and had to chase my way back to everyone. I don’t remember a lot of it, it was crazy!”
She passed on to teammate Sam Damphousse, who nearly closed the gap on Virginia Tech, but was unable to take the lead. Owens took her second lap, the third leg, working to hold onto third position, behind Appalachian State, before passing off the anchor leg to Nick Lando.
University of Vermont – Collegiate Club relay winners. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships, Collegiate Relay. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
“Luckily Meg held it together for her lap,” said Lando. “I just went as hard as I possibly could. The gap was less than a minute, but they were out of sight, so I had to give it everything I had. I saw Virginia Tech and thought “Oh, I gotta go hard now.”
Vermont closed in on Virginia Tech and pulled even as the two teams hit the pavement with 100 yards to the finish.
University of Vermont outsprinted Virginia Tech (who was on a singlespeed) to take the club varisty relay title. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships, Collegiate Relays. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
“I guess having them (Virginia Tech) on single speeds helped a bit. I knew she was on a single speed, so I’m even more impressed by it.”
Vermont took the win by a bike length with Virginia Tech taking second. Appalachian State hung on for third, staying ahead of a charging Wake Forest. The team from New Mexico finished fifth, taking the final spot on the podium.
Be sure to see the full photo gallery below the results.
2017 CX National Championships Hartford Day 3 Results Collegiate 4x4 Relay
| Place | Bib | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collegiate Relay - VARSITY TEAMS | ||||
| 1 | 19 | Brevard College | 27:31:00 | |
| 2 | 16 | Marian University | 28:32:00 | 1:01 |
| 3 | 17 | Fort Lewis College | 29:12:00 | 1:41 |
| 4 | 20 | Lindenwood University | 29:37:00 | 2:06 |
| 5 | 24 | Colorado Mesa University | 31:14:00 | 3:43 |
| 6 | 21 | Lees-McRae College | 33:05:00 | 5:34 |
| 7 | 25 | Savannah College of Art and Des | 33:21:00 | 5:50 |
| 8 | 23 | Piedmont College | 34:12:00 | 6:41 |
| 9 | 22 | Mars Hill University | 34:53:00 | 7:22 |
| 10 | 18 | Milligan College | 35:04:00 | 7:33 |
| Collegiate Relay - CLUB TEAMS | ||||
| 1 | 2 | University of Vermont | 31:29:00 | |
| 2 | 8 | Virginia Polytechnic University | 31:30:00 | s.t. |
| 3 | 7 | Appalachian State University | 32:19:00 | 50 |
| 4 | 4 | Wake Forest University | 33:36:00 | 2:07 |
| 5 | 5 | University of New Mexico | 34:34:00 | 3:05 |
| 6 | 9 | Harvard University | 37:26:00 | 5:57 |
| 7 | 3 | US Military Academy | 40:32:00 | 9:03 |
| DNS | 1 | Furman University | ||
| DNS | 6 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
2017 Cyclocross National Championship Collegiate 4×4 Relay – Photo Gallery:
Brevard College dominated the Varsity relay. 2017 Cyclocross National Championships, Collegiate Relay. © A. Yee / Cyclocross Magazine
