CU Skiing | 2018 NCAA Championship Notes - University of Colorado Athletics

IN-THE-END: Listed below is how the 2018 championship broke down; Colorado was the men's point champion for just the third time this millennium and for the first time since 2011. The Buffaloes were with first or second in every discipline breakdown with the exception of women's alpine (fourth):

MEN'S TEAM SCORING: Colorado 293, Denver 288, Dartmouth 254, Utah 191½, Vermont 156, New Mexico 143, Middlebury 129.
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORING: Denver 316, Colorado 270, Montana State 200, Dartmouth 194½; Utah 194; Vermont 174, Alaska-Anchorage 146.
ALPINE POINT LEADERS: Denver 299, Colorado 265, Vermont 251, Dartmouth 209½, New Mexico 192, Utah 158½; Montana State 153, Middlebury 118.
Men's Leader: Dartmouth 166 (2nd—Colorado 151). Women's Leader: Denver 174 (2nd—Vermont 149).
NORDIC POINT LEADERS: Denver 305, Colorado 298, Dartmouth 239, Utah 227, Northern Michigan 179, Montana State 140.
Men's Leader: Denver 163 (2nd—Colorado 142). Women's Leader: Colorado 156 (2nd—Dartmouth 151).

CRACKING THE TOP: NCAA West schools have won 22 of the last 24 championships, as the skiing elite fraternity remains hard to crack; only seven different schools have claimed the title since the sport went coed in 1983: Denver and Utah (10 titles each), Colorado (8), Vermont (5), Dartmouth (1), New Mexico (1) and Wyoming (1). But since the '67 title meet, Colorado (26 first or second place finishes, including 17 wins), Utah (23; 11, 12), Vermont (21; 6, 15) and Denver (20; 14, 6) have dominated college skiing over these 52 seasons. Only three other schools, Wyoming (two wins and four seconds), Dartmouth (two wins, two seconds) and New Mexico (one title and two seconds) have been able to crack the top two in this span (note: adds to 53 titles since CU and Dartmouth shared '76 crown).

CU ALL-TIME: The Buffaloes have won 20 national championships in skiing: 11 men's (1959-60-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-82), eight coed (1991-95-98-99-2006-11-13-15) and one women's (1982, AIAW). The 19 NCAA titles by Colorado trail Denver by five, as the Pioneers (24) caught and passed CU by winning three straight to open the 21st century and extended their lead with three more from 2008-10 and with titles now in 2014, 2016 and 2018. After DU and CU (43 combined in NCAA competition), Utah has won 11, Vermont 6, Dartmouth 3, Wyoming 2 and New Mexico 1 (CU and Dartmouth tied for the '76 crown).

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS: The Buffs did not have an individual champion this year, just the second time in the last 11 winters that CU was shutout of the top of the podium. The eight individual champions came from four different schools: Dartmouth (4), Denver (2), Northern Michigan and Utah. Colorado still leads all-time with 94 individual NCAA titles, topping Denver (90), Utah (75), Vermont (64), Dartmouth (40), Wyoming (19), New Mexico (17) and Middlebury (11). The Buffs have had two or more individual champions 31 times (three or more 14 times), including five occasions when CU skiers topped the podium four times: 1960, John Dendahl (skimeister, Nordic, cross country) and Dave Butts (downhill); in 1963, Buddy Werner (alpine combined, downhill), Bill Marolt (downhill) and Jimmie Heuga (slalom); in 2006, Jana Rehemaa (classical, freestyle), Kit Richmond (freestyle) and Lucie Zikova (downhill); in 2008, Maria Grevsgaard (freestyle, classical) and Lucie Zikova (giant slalom, slalom) and last winter Petra Hyncicova (freestyle, classical) and David Ketterer (giant slalom, slalom). CU has had at least one individual NCAA champion in 28 of the last 37 years.

LEARFIELD DIRECTORS' CUP: Colorado picked up 90 points in the Learfield Director's Cup Standings, jumping from ninth place into third with 359.5 total points; skiing was the first NCAA winter championship completed (Denver also made a significant jump, from 114th into 38th (150 points), earning 100 points for its win, and Utah jumped from 41st to 19th). Stanford leads with 523 points, with Penn State second (386) Wisconsin fourth (352.5) and UCLA fifth (332); there are seven Pac-12 schools in the top 20 overall. The indoor track, and rifle championships will be included in the next official release of the standings on March 22.

HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS: Rokos wrapped up his 28th season as head coach of the Buffaloes (he is just the fifth person to coach a quarter century or longer in any sport at Colorado). He has guided CU to national championships in 1991 (his first season), 1995, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2015, as well as to eight second place finishes and five third place efforts. Under Rokos, Colorado has won 72 of 171 ski meets, including 64 of 143 in the west (with 14 RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regionals titles). In his tenure, CU has had 140 first-team All-Americans and 225 first- or second-team selections (Alpine and Nordic), all adding to exactly 331 top 10 finishes in NCAA championship competition, including 17 this winter.

NORDIC COACH BRUCE CRANMER: Cranmer has done an equally excellent job with the Nordics. He has coached CU skiers to 19 individual Nordic NCAA titles, and his Buffalo teams have been the Nordic point champions seven times at the NCAA meet (2004-06-08-10-11-13-14) and the runner-up four times (2002-16-17-18).

ALL-AMERICANS: Eleven of the 12 Buffaloes here earned All-America honors in the meet, four netting first-team status: Alvar Alev (freestyle), Ola Johansen (giant slalom), Anne Siri Lervik (classic) and Petter Reistad (classic). Johansen (slalom) and Reistad (freestyle) also earned second-team honors in those events. Seven others earned a combined 11 second-team nods: Sondre Bollum (classic, freestyle), Nora Christensen (slalom), Petra Hyncicova (classic, freestyle), David Ketterer (giant slalom, slalom), Max Luukko (giant slalom), Christina Rolandsen (freestyle) and Tonje Trulsrud (giant slalom, slalom). Top five finishes earn skiers the first-team accolade, while finishing sixth through 10th nets a second-team honor.

LOOKING AHEAD: Nine of the 12 student-athletes who competed for the Buffaloes in the 2018 championships are scheduled to return for the 2019 season; the only exceptions are three Nordic performers, senior Petra Hyncicova, junior Petter Reistad (who will graduate this spring and has accepted a job offer in his native Norway) and Alvar Alev, who only had one year of eligibility because of his age when he came to Colorado. CU will graduate just two others off its entire roster, also cross country letterwinners, Ian Boucher and Ane Johnsen.

FUTURE SITES: The 2019 meet will return to the east with the University of Vermont set to host; Montana State will host the 2020 event.

CU Skiing | 2018 NCAA Championship Notes

Players Mentioned

Alvar Alev

Sondre Bollum

Ian Boucher

Nora Christensen

Petra Hyncicova

Ola Johansen

Ane Johnsen

David Ketterer

Anne Siri Lervik

Max Luukko

Petter Reistad

Christina Rolandsen

Tonje Trulsrud

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