To think they almost skipped the awards ceremony.

Overcoming flat tires and mile-long hill climbs, the Northwestern cycling team finished second in the Division II National Collegiate Cycling Championships last weekend at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

The team almost left the event following disappointing results in Sunday’s time trials — members even expected to finish out of the top five, said team president Ryan Ramos.

“We were just hanging out at this hotel and a coach came up and told us we finished second and we just said, ‘Whatever,'” cyclist Krystian Bigosinski said. “We didn’t believe it until we went to the awards ceremony.”

Six members of NU’s cycling team competed at the national competition — Weinberg seniors Ramos and Bigosinski and McCormick freshman Jason Hall competed in the men’s events, while Speech senior Jennifer Stern, and Weinberg seniors Margaret Shanafield and Emily Dale competed in the women’s events.

The team finished second in the Division II competition, for schools with 15,000 or fewer students.

Fort Lewis College, of Durango, Colo., placed first overall.

The women had two individual top-10 finishes; Stern placed sixth out of 24 women, and Shanafield tied for seventh. Dale tied for 12th.

Ramos placed highest among the men, at 15th out of 55, while Bigosinski finished 39th and Hall finished 42nd.

“I saw our team this year as having the most depth of any year,” Ramos said. “I knew coming in we might make the top five. I never imagined in my wildest dreams we’d come in second.”

The event was a particularly remarkable achievement, Ramos said, because most of NU’s riders normally compete in shorter B-level races of about 25 to 35 miles, while the events at the national championships were A level, which is nearly twice as long.

Stern, who qualified for nationals as an individual last year, said the team’s training efforts gave them the chance to win. But she was still surprised by the second-place finish.

“It was a complete shock,” she said. “It just goes to show that hard work pays off.”

The championships took place over three days with a different event each day. Teams competed in a road race Friday through the streets of Athens. It included a grueling one-mile hill climb.

The long hills presented a challenge for Illinois-trained NU cyclists. Shanafield said it was a battle all the way.

“(The hills) were pretty killer,” she said. “I saw some people get off and walk. I just pedaled as hard as I could.”

Following Saturday’s short-track event, in which Stern placed fourth and Shanafield placed fifth, the team headed into Sunday’s team time trials, a 15-mile race.

With high expectations going into the event, the women’s team suffered a serious setback when Stern got a flat tire two miles past the last wheel pit.

“We really thought we had a good chance at winning the title, but about four miles in I heard the air going out of my tire,” Stern said.

Still, after seeing another team pass her squad, she knew she had to keep going.

But Ramos said the team’s dedication paid off.

“They counted down fifth, fourth, third and we still didn’t hear our names,” Ramos said.

“It still hasn’t sunk in.”