Buffs Finish Second at NCAA Ski Championships

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The 2018 NCAA Skiing Championships came to a close here Saturday with the men's and women's freestyle races at Howelsen Hill where the Colorado Buffaloes finished as runner-up at the 65h annual national championship.

Denver held a 26-point lead going into the fourth and final day of the championships and pulled away from CU on Saturday to win its third title in the last five years. The Pioneers scored 604 points, the most in the five seasons at a NCAA Championship in the current scoring format that went into effect in 2014, as DU claimed its 24th overall national title in skiing.

Colorado has now finished as the runner-up eight times, with eight titles, in 28 seasons under head coach Richard Rokos. All-time overall, CU has 20 championships and 13 runner-up finishes in the sport, including three straight second place showings since its last title in 2015.

CU finished with 563 points, the most the Buffs have scored at an NCAA Championship in the current scoring format.

"It's honorable, but someone scored a little more," Rokos said. "DU, they deserve it. They definitely have the strongest team, very well balanced. Not to diminish out effort, we were there, we have a good team and did pretty much even in all disciplines, but not as much as DU.

"It was a good year, evaluation of the season was we were there on any given day. In the end of it, we were a little short."

Colorado's point total would have been enough to win the title in three out of the last four years.

CU claimed five more All-America honors on Saturday – three in the men's 20K freestyle race and two in the women's 15K freestyle. That gave Colorado a total of 17 All-America accolades earned this winter, which ties with DU for the most by any school. Eleven of the 12 Buffaloes here earned All-America honors in the meet, four netting first-team status.

MEN'S 20K FREESTYLE RACE: The men's race was the first of two on the day and saw Denver expand its 26-point meet lead after day three up another 10 to 36. The Pioneers placed their three racers in the top seven while Colorado went second, ninth and 10th. That gave DU the race win with 90 points to CU's 80.

Alev made an incredible recovery from his race on Thursday and was able to get up on the podium by finishing in second place. He was just two seconds out from winning the race, as Northern Michigan's Ian Torchia was able to sneak by him on the final turn into the sprint to the finish line. Regardless, that was 37 greatly needed points Alev picked up for the Buffaloes and a first-team All-America honors.

Petter Reistad finished ninth for Colorado and Sondre Bollum 10th, both second-team All-Americans.

In Reistad's final collegiate race, he ends his career as a six-time All-American (three first-team honors and three second-team). That is tied for the eighth-most All-America honored earned

WOMEN'S 15K FREESTYLE RACE: The Buffaloes finished in third place in the women's race, which was on by Dartmouth who scored 79 points and Denver was close behind in second with 77.

CU's 72 points came behind Petra Hyncicova finishing in sixth place, Christina Rolandsen in seventh and Anne Siri Lervik in 11th.

For Hyncicova, it is the seventh All-America honor she has claimed as her noteworthy Buffalo career comes to an end. That ties for the third-most All-America honors earned by any Buffalo in either discipline in Colorado history.

Rolandsen picked up her third career All-America honor and Lervik finishes her first NCAA Championship with the one that she earned in Thursday's classical race that she placed second in.

MOST ALL-AMERICA HONORS, CU SKI HISTORY (All Teams)
Mads Stroem (2014-17) – 8
Maria Grevsgaard (2006-09) – 8
Rune Oedegaard (2012-15) – 7
Joanne Reid (2010-13) – 7
Lucie Zikova (2005-08) – 7
Erling Christiansen (2003-06) – 7
Petra Hyncicova (2015-18) – 7
Eight tied with 6, including Petter Reistad

QUOTEABLE
Head coach Richard Rokos
On The Alpine Performance
"We have a good team, we were lacking depth on the ladies side because of injuries so we end up with three athletes and it is kind of intimidating at least because you really cannot afford any mishap. With David being out for a big part of the season, it hurts the overall training opportunity or competitiveness during training, so those were a little bit of the downsides of the season. Otherwise, everybody made their contribution and effort."

On Alvar Alev's recovery from Thursday.
"It is something that I saw before 10 years ago we had a similar case with Kit Richmond. He did fantastic today obviously. It was unexpected, we all expected him to perform and be there, but not at that level. It was fantastic and congratulations to Alvar."

Petra Hyncicova
On her season from the Olympics to the NCAAs
"I feel really tired and I'm happy that the season is over because it was a lot. I enjoyed everything with it and I was trying to do everything here at the NCAA, but I guess I didn't have that much energy left. It was a great winter and a great season I guess."

On her race Saturday
"I wish I would be on the podium and made more points for the team because we really deserve to win this year I think. We are a great team and I love my teammates and they all deserve it. We are teammates and we just need all of us to do well and we kind of missed some good luck this week I guess."

On the team
"It is a little bit disappointing because we were still hoping before the last race that we could make it, but we have to admit that DU was better than us. You always want to win."

Alvar Alev
On his good result Saturday and recovering from Thursday
"Today I felt good. After the first day I was really disappointed and I do not know exactly what happened there, probably heat stroke or dehydration, it was so suddenly. Today I felt like I could do that, I was ready to win but unfortunately I didn't make it. At least I gave it a try, second was good, but we didn't win as a team so that is a small prize for me."

2018 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
March 10, 2018 | Howelsen Hill

NCAA Skiing Championship Team Scores (FINAL):
1. Denver 604; 2. Colorado 563; 3. Dartmouth 448½; 4. Utah 385.5; 5. Vermont 330; 6. Montana State 293; 7. New Mexico 277; 8. Middlebury 248; 9. Alaska-Anchorage 194; 10. Northern Michigan 179; 11. New Hampshire 108½; 12. St. Michael's 73; 13. Williams 62½; 14. Alaska-Fairbanks 58; 15. Colby 50; 16. Plymouth State 37; 17. St. Lawrence 28; 18. Bates 22; 19. Michigan Tech 11; 20. Boston College 7; 21. Bowdoin 6; 22. St. Scholastica 4; 23. Harvard 0.

MEN'S FREESTYLE TEAM SCORES (top 10):
1. Denver 90; 2. CU 80; 3. NMU 71; T-4. UU 42; T-4. UVM 42; 6. DAR 39; 7. MID 37; 8. CBC 27; 9. WIL 20; 10. UNM 19.

MEN'S FREESTYLE (40 finishers): 1. Ian Torchia, NMU, 54:21.0; 2. Alvar Alev, CU, 54:23.0; 3. Eivind Kvaale, DU, 54:25.0; 4. Dag Frode Trolleboe, DU, 54:30.2; 5. Callan DeLine, Dart., 54:32.2; 6. Zane Fields, Colby, 54:33.0; 7. Lars Hannah, DU, 54:33.1; 8. Martin Bergstroem, Utah, 54:35.0; 9. Petter Reistad, CU, 54:36.4; 10. Sondre Bollum, CU, 54:41.5.

WOMEN'S FREESTYLE TEAM SCORES (top 10):
1. Dartmouth 79; 2. Denver 77; 3. Colorado 72; 4. Montana State 60; 5. Utah 53; 6. Middlebury 25; 7. Northern Michigan 22; 8. Alaska Fairbanks 19; 9. New Mexico 19; 10. Vermont 9.

WOMEN'S FREESTYLE (40 finishers):
1. Katharine Ogden, Dart., 43:21.9; 2. Hailey Swirlbul, UAA, 44:00.4; 3. Linn Eriksen, DU, 44:08.3; 4. Guro Jordheim, Utah, 44:15.7; 5. Emma Tarbath, MSU, 44:31.5; 6. Petra Hyncicova, CU, 44:54.6; 7. Christina Rolandsen, CU, 44:58.2; 8. Lauren Jortberg, Dart., 45:01.8; 9. Jasmi Joensuu, DU, 45:12.8; 10. Tealer McCrerey, DU, 45:25.3. Other CU Finisher: 11. Anne Siri Lervik, 45:29.4.

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Alvar Alev

Sondre Bollum

Petra Hyncicova

Anne Siri Lervik

Petter Reistad

Christina Rolandsen

Mads Stroem

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