University of Colorado Athletics
Skiing Overtakes Utah, Wins Alpine At MSU
January 03, 2003 | Skiing
"This was a good confidence builder," said head coach Richard Rokos. "It was just a great effort from everyone."
Nordic events of the Invitational will be contested Jan. 17-18 at Bohart Ranch, Mont., due to the U.S. National Cross Country Ski Championships this week. Both teams will meet up next weekend, Jan. 11-13, in Park City and Soldier Hollow Utah when they compete at the Alaska-Anchorage Invitational.
In what looks to be a second-straight season of closely contested meets between West Region powerhouses CU, Utah and Denver, just three points separated the three teams, which finished 1-2-3. Colorado won the Invitational with 282 points, a mere two and a half points ahead of Utah (280.5), which finished a point and a half ahead of the Pioneers (279).
The 2002 NCAA runner-up in the slalom, Cullman won in 1:37.69, a full second ahead of New Mexico's Caroline Schicht (1:38.70), who had won Friday's giant slalom. With Erika Hogan out of the equation after being disqualified in her first run, the CU women didn't have any other top-10 finishes, but had three additional top-20 efforts by Erin McEachren (12th), Amy Beresford (13th) and Sarah Fischer (15th). Their efforts earned the Buffs 71 points on the women's side, which trailed New Mexico (78) and Denver (77).
"It's going to be a dog-fight all season between Mia and Erika," Rokos said. "Mia raced very, very calm and had two quick runs. It was too bad that Erika was disqualified."
For the second straight day, the Buffs took the men's portion of the meet with 71 points, edging Utah (68) and Denver (67). Utah's Pierre Olsson won his second race of the meet in 1:41.76. After finishing sixth in the GS Friday, CU's Jed Schuetze turned in a second-place finish just three one-hundredths of a second off the winning pace in 1:41.79 with Brad Hogan (1:41.87) right behind him in fourth. Colorado's only other finishers were Tyler Shepherd (18th) and Fritz Ernemann (26th) as Tahir Bisic was DQ'd when the tips of his skis hit the starting gate and Michael Read's bindings popped off.
"I'm very happy with Jed Schuetze's races. His slalom was brilliant and his giant slalom yesterday was right there. Tyler had great races as well. In his first college race, Brad was a big surprise, but he's a guy with a high level of experience."
Montana State Invitational Team Scores--1. Colorado, 282; 2. Utah, 280.5; 3. Denver, 279; 4. New Mexico, 261; 5. Nevada, 207.5; 6. Western State, 159; 7. Whitman, 137; 8. Alaska-Anchorage, 86; 9. Montana, 75.
Men's Slalom-- 1. Pierre Olsson, Utah, 1:41.76; 2. Jed Schuetze, CU, 1:41.79; 3. Jernej Bukovec, Utah, 1:41.87; 4. Brad Hogan, CU, 1:42.03; 5. Dominik Schweiger, DU, 1:42.55. CU Finishers-- 18. Tyler Shepherd, 1:46.21; 26. Fritz Ernemann, 1:49.45. DQ- Michael Read, Tahir Bisic.
Women's Slalom-- 1. Mia Cullman, CU, 1:37.69; 2. Caroline Schicht, UNM, 1:38.70; 3. Barbara Knor, DU, 1:38.98; 4. Jennifer Delich, UNM, 1:39.00; 5. Sophia Baeck, DU, 1:39.48. CU Finishers-- 12. Erin McEachren, 1:41.11; 13. Amy Beresford, 1:43.23; 15. Sarah Fischer, 1:43.81; 22. Tove Pashkowski, 1:47.09. DQ--Erika Hogan.
