Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Win Own Flood/CU Invite
February 01, 2003 | Skiing
ELDORA - The University of Colorado ski team recorded the most dominant showing in the NCAA west region in five years, as the Buffaloes cruised to a 53-point win here Saturday in its own meet, the 11th Annual Laura Sharpe Flood/CU Invitational.
The Buffaloes won with 618 total points, almost evenly dispersed through the eight four events, scoring at least 72 in seven of the disciplines. Utah finished a distant second with 565, followed by New Mexico in third with 523 and defending NCAA champion Denver in fourth with 483. Nevada (372), Alaska-Anchorage (356), Western State (307), Whitman (258.5) and Montana State (98.5) rounded out the nine-team field.
CU's 618 points set a record for the most in the NCAA west since the scoring format was standardized two years ago. It bested the only other 600-plus point effort, when DU won the 2002 Montana State Invitational with 603 points. And the Buffs' 53-point winning margin was the widest in the west in five years, dating back to the 1998 Western State invite, when Utah won with CU second, 54 points back.
"This was a great race. With it being our home race we brought everything we had into this," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "Everyone turned in honest work and effort. The cross country kids did great, so that's something to carry into the rest of the season."
As for the alpine performance of his team, which racked up 323 points and 14 top 10 finishes just five days after returning from the World University Games in Italy, Rokos was pleasantly surprised. "I still can't believe how they pulled this off between the jet lag and being sick since we got back (Tuesday). Now we can recover and get on with things."
Rokos also acknowledged the importance of winning at home, and this particular meet. "It's essential. It's our pride, but with honoring Laura (Sharpe Flood) it goes beyond a regular race. It's in honor of her." Flood, a CU sophomore at the time, crashed into a tree on a training run at Eldora on April 3, 1990; she suffered a massive head injury and basically died in Rokos' arms.
In the men's slalom, CU posted an impressive 1-2-4 finish, with freshman Brad Hogan leading the way in a 1:34.82 time. That topped sophomore teammate Tyler Shepherd's time of 1:35.70, who finished second. Western State's Ben Brown was third (1:37.12), with Buff senior Jed Schuetze nabbing fourth in 1:37.45. How good a race was it for the Buffs? A Buff developmental skier, Matthew Macko, placed seventh in 1:38.00.
"I'm pretty pleased with the team finish in general," Hogan said. "To do so well in a home meet is great for the coaching staff and it provides good things for the school." Hogan went to the mat so-to-speak for his team. On his first run, gates bounced back and smacked him in the face and legs. "I took a gate to the head and cut my lip and my eyes started watering and I couldn't see. Then I took a second gate to the leg. I almost skied off the course, and just closed my eyes most of the way." He responded with the fastest second run time of 47.69 seconds.
Shepherd wasn't disappointed with his runner-up finish. "This was a great day, and my best slalom result of the season by far. Plus, we only have one home meet a year, and I wanted to make the most of it."
"That was the most conservative slalom I've ever skied," Schuetze said. "The course was pretty rough. I just made sure that I finished for the team. It turned out to actually be a better run than I expected, and it was a good day for the team. These (men's and women's) were the slalom results that we needed."
In the women's slalom, the Buffs placed three finishers in the top seven. DU's Sophie Ormond just edged Buff freshman Erika Hogan for the win, with just one-one hundredths of a second separating the pair.
Ormond had the fastest first run in 44:51, with Hogan the second quickest the second time around in 42.51. When the smoke cleared, Ormond won in 1:27.15, just .01 ahead of Hogan.
Hogan was also in Italy for the WUG last weekend, and promptly got sick upon her return. But she dealt with the situation well. "It's a head game when you're sick. I'm very happy we're done (with the meet and the crazy past two weeks)... I'm ready for a break." She capitalized on the difference course set-up between runs. "There was a big difference between them. The first had tight turns, the second was more open and faster."
Freshman Amy Beresford posted her best collegiate finish, as she finished in a rare three-way tie for fourth in 1:28.02, thriving on the fastest second run time (42.24). And senior Tove Pashkowski added a seventh place effort in 1:28.79.
Beresford greatly improved on her 31st place finish in Friday's giant slalom. "You go for it each day, but it doesn't always go the way you want. Yesterday the race didn't turn out the way I wanted. Today, I made it down with two decent times and skied well. There was a little more horizontal and vertical distance on the second run, and I made the most of it."
Colorado won Friday's nordic competition with a combined 150 points in the men's and women's freestyle races, and came back strong with 145 in Saturday's classical events. Utah was the team victor in nordic action in the classical, posting a 1-2 finish in the women's 5k.
The Utes' Katrin Smigun made it six-for-six on the year as she won for the fifth time this winter by over 30 seconds. Her 15:31.0 time bested teammate Sara Svendsen's 16:22.0 clocking to keep her victory string going.
"I feel good about that result," Smigun said. "I didn't feel great about it (Friday's winning time), and I thought maybe it was because I might not have had enough training. This is the highest I've ever skied, and I think I'm in pretty good shape. What really helped me today was getting the split times from my assistant coach. I knew exactly how I was doing, I was able to keep my tempo good and I knew I could push it at the end uphill. I felt like everything was under control."
CU's top finisher was sophomore Muriele Huberli, who placed sixth in 16:36.4. Senior Claire Critchley was eighth in 16:41.1, with sophomore newcomer Jana Rehemaa 10th in 16:47.8. Critchley suffered a fall on the course that added 10 seconds to her time, otherwise she was looking at a top five finish.
The women skied first and caught a break, as the conditions were "near perfect" according to Huberli. But by the time the men skied, it had warmed to the upper 40s and parts of the course turned slushy and wet.
"We were fortunate to ski first, as the conditions were pretty good," Huberli said. "I think I did better today in the uphill than in the flat parts. I'm not disappointed with my result, but I think I can do better. Personally, I like mass starts (as opposed to the staggered starts utilized at this meet due to the snow conditions). Where we had to ski, it was too narrow for a mass start. I don't mind individual starts, but it's more like a race when we all start at the same time."
Colorado placed two in the top four in the men's 10k, as Alaska-Anchorage's Tobias Schwoerer easily won in 29:04.7. Freshman Henrik Hoye finished second for the second straight day (in 29:49.0), while senior Norbert Pelc was fourth in 30:23.5. Frosh Erling Christiansen was CU's next finisher (11th), despite suffering from flu-like symptoms here both days.
"It was really a tough race," Hoye said. "Some places you could get a good kick, other places were all wet. But I had pretty good skis, so I was pleased. (Hitting) the wax is important, but with this track, we can 'double-pole' a lot so you really didn't need to count on perfection with the wax."
"I couldn't be more pleased with the scores we posted in the two days here," CU nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. "We have at least three top 10 caliber skiers on both the men's and women's teams, and now we have some depth as well. We want to build on all this, but we also have to peak at the right time, and that's a month from now at the NCAA's."
The schools won't get much rest, as they will turn right around and do it again next Friday and Saturday in the Western State Invitational at Gunnison. That's the last tune-up prior to the NCAA West Regional at Winter Park in three weeks.
