Leibovitz strongest of the men in Wisconsin

Marian University won its second consecutive Division I team omnium title, in part, due to criterium wins by Adam Leibovitz (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, Wisc.).

The Mars Hill College Mountain Lions used a solid team finish in the men's criterium to overtake a strong squad from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology squad and win the DII team omnium crown.

"Today, we thought it was nearly impossible to win the team omnium," said Hugh Moran, Mars Hill College cycling coach. "We knew our women had to do very well; they ended up second in team points and that gave us a shot. We had to come from behind and beat MIT and stay ahead of Mesa. Everything just worked to perfection. All of the women rode well and with Kyle (Knott) winning the crit and the individual omnium - I couldn't be happier."

Alister Ratcliff (Durango, Colo./Fort Lewis College), who won the men's DI road race on Friday and placed 18th in Sunday's criterium, earned the DI men's individual omnium. Antonneau, who placed fifth in the women's road race before winning Sunday's criterium, earned the DI women's individual omnium as a freshman at Marian University. Kyle Knott (Mars Hill, N.C./Mars Hill College) finished fourth in the men's DII road race before winning the DII men's criterium and taking home the DII men's individual omnium title. Laura Ralston (Cambridge, Mass/Massachusetts Institute of Technology) won Sunday's criterium after finishing second in Friday's DII women's road race to garner the DII women's individual omnium.

Women's DII criterium

The morning started early with MIT continuing their domination of the DII women's division this time with Ralston winning the field sprint to take the criterium crown. With only one lap remaining in the 60-minute affair, the 31-woman DII field was mostly intact.

On the final time around the .9-mile circuit however a minor crash on the backside split up the group. Friday's road race national champion and last year's fourth-place finisher in the criterium, Martha Buckley (Cambridge, Mass/MIT) continued leading the sprint around to the finish with Ralston on her wheel and five others hanging on. Following Buckley, Ralston instantly opened a gap, executing a lead out in text book fashion to earn the sweep for MIT in the DII women's division. Dartmouth's Elle Anderson (Lebanon, N.H) and Kimberley Turner (Seattle, Wash./Seattle Pacific University) sprinted into silver and bronze medal position.

"It was a pretty fun, tactical race for the first half," said silver medalist Anderson. "MIT was definitely dominating, trying to get a breakaway, but I think the course today didn't really favor that because it wasn't quite technical enough. So, the first half of the race was just a lot of watching and trying to cover everything. It cooled down a little bit for the second half and it just lined up fine for the sprint. Since I don't have any other teammates, I just looked to the other biggest team, MIT, and I just lined myself up to be on the tail end of their lead out train. That worked out pretty well."

DI Women's Criterium

Collegiate cyclo-cross national championship silver medalist Antonneau captured her first road individual national title in the DI women's criterium. Robin Bauer (Shorewood, Wisc./University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Madison local Holly Mathews (Madison, Wisc./University of Wisconsin-Madison) were able to stick to Antonneau and earn silver and bronze in the sprint.

"We pretty much stuck to our plan that we had as a team to go for all of the prime points," explained Antonneau. "Once we got past that it was time to go for the win, so we followed our plan and it worked to our advantage. It was really nice to race here, in front of my friends and family. I could hear them cheering every time I passed."

The DI women's field took off hard, losing many of the starters pushing to hang on just as the 60-minute race began. Despite the fast pace and aggressive primes, more than 50 of the 67 starters were able to finish with the main group; attesting to the growing depth of talent in the women's collegiate cycling.

DII Men's Criterium

Halfway through the 75-minute race Alejandro Padilla (Lebanon, Tenn./Cumberland University), Paul Webb (Bellevue, Neb./Mars Hill College) and Kevin Mullervy (Centennial, Colo./Mesa State) were comfortably off the front. With six or seven laps to go however, Western Washington's Steve Fisher (Bellingham, Wash.) drilled it, helping to bring back the break with two remaining. Team time trial champs Mesa State then took the reins and led the pack around to the final sprint.

"Going into turn two, my teammate, Paul Webb, screamed to get on him and we got around," explained Knott. "We jumped the Mesa State train and Paul took me all the way into turn four and then Mesa took back over. I came out of turn that final turn in fourth wheel. I jumped and never looked back; then I got it! It feels better than I thought. It feels amazing.

Ian Crane (Bellingham, Wash./Western Washington University) finished just off Knott's wheel for silver while Maxwell Anderson (Waukesha, Wisc./University of Wisconsin-Platteville) earned bronze.

DI Men's Criterium

Adam Leibovitz (Indianapolis, Ind./Marian University), Nicholas Inabinet (Boone, N.C./Appalachian State University), Stephen Bedford (Beaverton, Ore./Portland State University) and Gregory Christian (East Lansing, Mich./Michigan State University) got away mid-way through the 75-minute DI men's criterium and were able to hold off the field. Leibovitz, the reigning elite pursuit national champion, was then able to out-kick the group to win the title.

With Leibovitz in the break, the strong Marian squad organized at the front as the clocked ticked down and the final lap ensued; helping the leaders hold off the pack.

"We worked really well together in the break; just keeping the field off," said Leibovitz. "We could see the field on the longer stretches and they were a ways back. I did know how close they were and if I saw them getting too close, I was going to hit it. Ultimately it was a great team effort by Marian to shut the field down so people couldn't get up to my break."

Sam Bassetti (San Geronimo, Calif./University of California-Davis) won the field sprint, and nearly caught the break group, to grab the final podium spot.

The 2011 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships wrapped up with an awards ceremony honoring the criterium champions and all of the weekend's omnium winners.