Sadie James made her NCAA Championship debut in the women's 5K freestyle race on March 10, 2016 in Steamboat Springs, Colo. (File photo by Dennis Curran/EISA) 

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Bates College junior Sadie James made her NCAA National Collegiate Ski Championships debut on Thursday, placing 37th out of 40 competitors in the women's 5-kilometer freestyle race at Howelsen Hill.

James (Avon, Maine), competing at high altitude for the first time in her life, finished her interval in 14:33.0, which was 1:26.9 behind the race winner, Anika Miller of Montana State (13:06.1). James trailed the 36th-place finisher, Alaska-Anchorage's Patricia Sprecher, by one-tenth of a second. She finished over two seconds ahead of Harvard's Rachel Hampton, and and also ahead of Michigan Tech's Andrea Lee and Colby's Amy Bianco. 

In perhaps a testament to the effects of altitiude, only one competitor from the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association circuit placed among the top 10 in the race: Vermont's Mary Kate Cirelli placed 10th.

James, who is Bates' lone representative at NCAAs in either Nordic or alpine, will race on Saturday at 11am Mountain Time in the women's 15K classical technique mass start race to close out the national championships.