LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - The Saint Michael's College Alpine skiing team stands 11th among 22 schools at the NCAA National Collegiate Championship following the opening day of Nordic races on Thursday. The Purple Knights are fifth among East schools after a dominant Wednesday of giant slalom races.

Junior Simen Strand (Høvik, Norway/Dønski VGS), sophomores Helene Kristoffersen (Rælingen, Norway/Dønski VGS) and Eirik Kveno (Asker, Norway/Dønski VGS), and first-year Gray Flanagan (West Burke, Vt./Green Mountain Valley School) all landed All-America status on Wednesday, each finishing among the top 10 in the GS. Entering the day, only Kristoffersen, Strand and Guillaume Grand '19 had ever earned All-America.

Saint Michael's, which sent only the four Alpine qualifiers to the championship, garnered 95 points from the GS, good for a respectable placement among schools that sent student-athletes from both their Alpine and Nordic programs. Seventh-place University of New Hampshire has 122 points between 10 skiers, eighth-place University of Vermont owns 121 from the maximum 12 competitors, and ninth-place Middlebury College claims 103 with 10 qualifiers. Saint Michael's has outdistanced 14th-place University of Alaska Anchorage, whose 10 qualifiers have accumulated 38 points, and 15th-place Colby College, which has six representatives and 31 points.

Saint Michael's is second only to Westminster (Utah) College among schools which sent student-athletes from one discipline to the championship. Westminster's six Alpine skiers have 97 points thus far.

CARNIVAL FACTS

• The Purple and Gold's four All-America finishes were the most by any school in the GS, with the University of Colorado Boulder, Denver University and the University of Utah all claiming three. The Purple Knights' four qualifications accounted for half of the eight All-America showings from the East on Wednesday.
• The Purple Knights are already within 13.5 points of the school record they set at the 2022 NCAA Championship. They placed a program-record 12th during the 2018 NCAA Championship.
• With 72 points in the GS, the men placed second, short only of Colorado (94.5). Kristoffersen singlehandedly scored 23 points to place Saint Michael's 10th in the women's GS, ahead of New Hampshire (22) and UVM (17) - both of which qualified three women's Alpine competitors for NCAAs.
• Saint Michael's is among nine schools with the maximum three male Alpine skiers at NCAAs, including four from the East. Only eight schools qualified more than the Purple Knights (4), who trailed national powers Dartmouth (6), New Hampshire (6) and UVM (6) in the East.
• 148 skiers are taking part in Alpine and Nordic races at the NCAA Championship, with 34 female and 34 male Alpine skiers competing, including 17 apiece from the East Region.
• At least three Saint Michael's Alpine skiers have qualified for the NCAA Championship six times since 2016; prior to that, neither the Alpine nor Nordic squads had ever sent more than one to an NCAA Championship.
• Fifteen of the 23 qualifiers in College history have come in Gus MacLeod's '02 13-year tenure as Alpine head coach, with those 15 accounting for 27 qualifications.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S EVENT

• Friday at NCAA Championship, with the first run of men's slalom starting at 9 a.m. and the women beginning at 10 a.m.