BETHEL/RUMFORD – Powered in large part by Antje Maempel and the women’s Nordic ski team, the Denver Pioneers grabbed a slight lead over Vermont on Thursday in the NCAA Skiing Championships.

Denver, looking for its second consecutive team title, has 330 points to Vermont’s 327, with slalom on Friday and Nordic freestyle races on Saturday.

Utah isn’t far behind, with 318 points, with Colorado (299) and Alaska-Anchorage (283) rounding out the top five.

In the women’s GS at Sunday River, St. Lawrence freshman Lindsay Cone won the individual title, a program first for the Saints. She finished 0.70 ahead of runner-up Estelle Pecherand of New Mexico.

“It was a beautiful day and the snow was perfect,” said Cone, a native of Killington, Vt. “My skiing clicked for me.”

Rounding out the top five were Eva Huckova of Utah, Alexandra Parker of Alaska-Anchorage and Stefanie Demetz of New Mexico.

Vermont freshman David Donaldson, won the men’s GS with a two-run time of 2:30.24, 0.58 seconds ahead of runner-up Leif Haugen of Denver. Donaldson, a 22-year-old from Toronto, took first place in both the slalom and giant slalom earlier in the season at the Bates Carnival.

Rounding out the top five were Andrew Wagner of Middlebury, Eric Mann of Williams and Nick Cohee of Utah.

At the Nordic competition at Black Mountain, Vermont’s Juergen Uhl put on a dominating performance in the men’s 10K classical race.

Uhl finished the course in 24:14.9, more than 10 seconds faster than his nearest competitor, Raphael Wunderle of Alaska-Anchorage.

Rounding out the top five were Jesper Ostensen of Colorado, Harald Loevensk of Denver and Franz Bernstein of Vermont.

Denver sophomore Maempel won women’s 5K Classical race in a time of 13:52.4, 6.5 seconds ahead of Polina Ermoshina of New Mexico.

“My goal was to be in the top three,” said Maempel. “Polina and I pretty tight in the classical races. We’re always switching. I knew if I had a good day and had good skis that I could win. And everything was perfect. The skis, the snow, the weather was great.”

The NCAA Skiing Championships, hosted by Bates College, resume tomorrow with the men’s and women’s slalom events at Sunday River.