Buff Skiers Finish Third At NCAA's

By David Plati
Assistant AD/Media Relations
[Associate SID Colleen Reilly Krueger on-site]

LYME, N.H. - In the end, the University of Colorado ski team just didn't have enough things go its way to overcome a hot Utah team in what turned out to be a throwback week, as the Buffaloes finished third here Saturday in the 50th Annual NCAA Championships.

Utah won going away with 682 net points, easily besting Vermont's 551 and Colorado's 546.5; in fact, the Utes winning margin of 131 points is an NCAA record, only the second time the difference between first and second has been in triple digits. The other time occurred in 1990, when UVM beat Utah by exactly 100 points, with CU also taking third that year. New Mexico finished fourth with 531.5 points, and three-time defending champion Denver scored 522.5 and saw its run end with the fifth-place effort.

It was Utah's ninth title since 1983, when the NCAA merged the men's and women's programs into a combined sport, was their 10th all-time, and marked the ninth consecutive crown won by an NCAA West Region school. Utah and Vermont finished either first or second the same year 10 times between 1983 and 1997, with Utah's victory finally breaking the five-year hold on the crown by the state of Colorado, as CU won in both 1998 and 1999 prior to DU's three-year reign. Denver joined Wyoming and CU in the record book for falling the most places, five, a year after winning the championship. Wyoming was fifth after winning in 1968, as were the Buffs in 1992 after its '91 crown.

CU head coach Richard Rokos was disappointed with the third place finish, as he had hopes of returning to Boulder with a fifth national title since 1991.

"It was a tough fours days, that's for sure," Rokos said. "What hurts is when many of your best skiers don't finish anywhere near the way you expect them to. There were a couple of things that happened to our best skiers, and when they didn't finish where they could or should have, it winds up hurting because they count against you."

The Buffs got off to a good start on the day, as after the first run in the men's slalom, sophomore Brad Hogan was in third, senior Jed Schuetze held fourth and sophomore Tyler Shepherd was in a tie for 10th. But Colorado, desperate for three top 10 finishes, if not higher, wasn't able to pull it off.

Schuetze was the sixth out of the gates in the afternoon and posted the sixth best second run time of 52.18 to finish sixth overall with a two-run time of 1:41.06, while Shepherd grabbed 11th in 1:43.38. Hogan, who had some problems at the end of his second run that cost him at least eight seconds, slipped to a 21st place finish in 1:49.66.

"We didn't quite get the miracle we needed," Schuetze said following his effort, which netted him second-team All-America honors. "We left everything we had on the course this weekend, but through a combination of things, we just had too big a hill to climb. But today's race was great. The snow was great and the opportunity was there."

Schuetze transferred to Colorado from Utah prior to the 2002 season, and took a little comfort in the Utes' title. "Of course I wanted us to win, but if anyone else had to win, I'm glad it was Utah," he said. "I still have a lot of friends on the team. But it doesn't make it any easier."

What made it even tougher for Schuetze was that it was his last collegiate race. "I've been thinking about that for quite a while... last regular season race, last regional, last NCAA's. It definitely went by quickly. I guess I'll be enjoying the golf course now."

Shepherd rebounded from a 25th place in Thursday's giant slalom, but didn't feel his finish in the slalom made up for it. "It doesn't, really," he said. "I didn't plan to finish where I did. I tried to do what I wanted, but I made a big mistake at the start and one at the finish."

Hogan was actually winning the race at the interval of the second run by 1.16 seconds before disaster struck. "I did what my sister did... I leaned in, and it cost me." Though he didn't tumble, he skied far enough off the run whereas it cost him the lead.

Dartmouth's Bradley Wall won in a 1:40.28 time, edging Vermont's James Cochran by two-hundredths of a second; the pair had been tied after the morning run with 48.43 clockings.

The women's slalom was the last event of the competition, and the Buffs got a solid effort our of junior Mia Cullman, who posted the best individual finish of the week by a Buffalo in placing third in 1:36.20. In sixth after the morning run, she skied the second fast afternoon time (46.14) to move up three spots. Utah's Lina Johansson won in a 1:35.03 time, which included the fastest runs in both morning and the afternoon, in becoming the Utes' fourth individual champion of these championships. She beat Colby's Jenny Lathrop (1:36.02) by nearly a second.

"I was third as a freshman, too," Cullman said. "I was a little too relaxed the first run and even though I almost won the second, it was too slow of a first run." She did earn first-team All-America honors with her finish, the third time in her career she has been afforded the honor.

"Sometimes we're just not made to win," she added, "We had funny conditions, extreme weather the whole week. Too bad only the last day was like it is in Colorado. But this meet is always fun and always exciting for all of us, even if we don't win."

Senior Tove Pashkowski concluded her Buff career with a 21st place finish in 1:40.53, while freshman Erika Hogan fell in the morning, costing her 10 seconds or more, and also had to hike in the afternoon, adding probably another eight or so, and eventually finished 33rd in 1:57.07.

"I think that my confidence was a little low after racing so poorly the last couple of days, and confidence spills over to other parts of your race," Pashkowski said following her final collegiate race. "I don't feel that we all skied to our ability. Mia finished third today and the rest of us should have been right up there with her. It's both disappointing and frustrating."

"Cross country came through for us, they did pretty well across the board in both races," Rokos noted of the CU nordic teams, which were only outpointed 327-299 by Utah this week. "In alpine, we had our ups and downs, mostly downs. The giant slalom was a disaster, but we started well in the slalom. Jed and Tyler had a good day, Mia had a very good day, but the rest just didn't ski the way they normally ski. They're mad, upset, disappointed, frustrated. They've been working to this all year, it's what you hope for, what you invest in, and it didn't happen. But I can't and don't blame anyone, it's just the way things went for us.

"But Utah skied well, and they deserve the result that they earned," Rokos added. They put together a solid performance on all fronts every day."

Colorado loses only four seniors off of this year's team, which was one of Rokos' youngest in his 13 years at the reins of the Buffs. The fact that CU should be as strong or stronger next year was little consolation to him Saturday.

"We left good kids at home, no question about it, and some of them will be able to take over," Rokos said. "We were a very young team, and in reality, it's probably not a bad finish. But we had one goal in mind, and that goal was not achieved. It wasn't to finish third, or second. It makes for a long year to wait for another chance at the national championship."

NCAA Championship Team Scores--1. Utah 682; 2. Vermont 551; 3. Colorado 546.5; 4. New Mexico 541.5; 5. Denver 522.5; 6. Dartmouth 472; 7. Nevada 373.5; 8. Middlebury 363.5; 9. Alaska-Anchorage 331.5; 10. New Hampshire 307; 11. Northern Michigan 259; 12. Alaska-Fairbanks 254; 13. Colby 237.5; 14. Williams 228.5; 15. Western State 118; 16. Bates 93; 17. Whitman 52; 18. Montana State 45; 19. Harvard 34; 20. Michigan Tech 15; 21. Wisconsin-Green Bay 7; 22. St. Cloud State 5. (The low three scores for the five schools who qualified full teams were eliminated per NCAA scoring rules, as a maximum 21 skier results (out of 24) count toward team scoring. Gross point totals for the five were: Utah 725, Colorado 569.5, Vermont 551, New Mexico 547.5, Denver 543.5, Dartmouth 476.)

Men's Slalom--1. Bradley Wall, Dart., 1:40.28; 3. James Cochran, UVM, 1:40.30; 3. Scott Kennison, UVM, 1:40.55; 4. Patrick Biggs, Dart., 1:40.72; 5. Eric Rygg, Midd., 1:40.80; 6. Jed Schuetze, CU, 1:41.06; 7. Pierre Olson, Utah, 1:41.94; 8. Mark Heinrich-Wallace, Will., 1:42.45; 9. Jernej Bukovec, Utah, 1:43.01; 10. Dominik Schweiger, DU, 1:43.34. Other CU Finishers: 11. Tyler Shepherd, 1:43.38; 21. Brad Hogan, 1:49.66.

Women's Slalom--1. Lina Johansson, Utah, 1:35.03; 2. Jenny Lathrop, Colby, 1:36.02; 3. Mia Cullman, CU, 1:36.20; 4. Hilary McCloy, UVM, 1:36.22; 5. Abbi Lathrop, Colby, 1:37.21; 6. Barbara Knor, DU, 1:37.47; 7. Jamie Kingsbury, UVM, 1:37.53; 8. Laura Scripture, Midd., 1:37.63; 9. Petra Svet, Utah, 1:37.86; 10. Sophie Ormond, DU, 1:38.06. Other CU Finishers: 21. Tove Pashkowski, 1:40.53; 33. Erika Hogan, 1:57.07.

CU SKIING / 2003 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

CRACKING THE TOP: "Round up the usual suspects" could be a phrase applied to the NCAA Skiing Championships. Since the '72 title meet, Vermont (19 titles or seconds), Utah (18), Colorado (15; 13 wins and two seconds) and Denver (5, three wins, two runner-up) have dominated college skiing over the past 32 seasons. Only three other schools, Wyoming (one win and four seconds), Dartmouth (one co-title) and New Mexico (one second) have been able to crack the top two in this span.

ALL-TIME: CU's third place finish did mark the seventh straight year that the Buffs finished in the top three at the NCAA's, as CU won titles in 1998 and 1999, finished second in 2000 and 2002 and was third in 1997, 2001 and this year. The Buffaloes have won 16 national championships in skiing: 11 men's (1959-60-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-82), four combined (1991-95-98-99) and one women's (1982, AIAW). The 15 NCAA titles by Colorado trail Denver by two, as the Pioneers caught and passed CU by winning three straight to open the 21st century. After DU and CU (32 combined), Utah has won 10, Vermont 5, Dartmouth 2 and Wyoming 2 (CU and Dartmouth tied for the '76 crown).

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS: Colorado did not have an individual NCAA champion for only the fourth time in the last 22 seasons, but still leads all-time with 70 individual titles, topping Denver (62), Utah (58), Vermont (50) and Dartmouth (30). The Buffs have had three or more individual champions 11 times, and the only time CU had as many as four was back in 1960, when John Dendahl won three elements (skimeister, nordic, cross country) and Dave Butts captured the downhill.

SEARS CUP: Colorado's third place finish earned the Buffaloes 85 points in the Sears Cup Standings, as skiing was the first of nine NCAA winter titles decided for 2002-03; swimming and indoor track & field follow next weekend. Colorado was in 17th place in the final fall standings with 187 points (Stanford leads with 443), but has at least temporarily moved all the way up into sixth place with its new 272 total. Utah, with 100 points for the win, jumps from 63rd into 18th place.

HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS: Richard Rokos wrapped up his 13th season as head coach of the Buffaloes. He has guided the Buffaloes to national championships in 1991 (his first season), 1995, 1998 and 1999, to second place finishes in 2000 and 2002, third-place efforts in 1997, 2001 and 2003, fourth-place showings in 1993, 1994 and 1996, and a fifth-place finish in 1992. Under Rokos, the Buffaloes have won 35 of 80 meets they have skied in, including 31 of 67 in the west and six NCAA West Regionals (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2002). In his tenure, CU has had 66 first-team All-Americans and 112 first- or second-team selections (alpine and nordic).

IN-THE-END: The NCAA scoring format calls for a maximum 21 results to be counted when tabulating the team scores. Teams which fielded a full 12-skier roster had their lowest three scores omitted (those with 11 on their squad would have had one score thrown out, but didn't apply this year as three qualified 10, including runner-up Vermont). This was designed to allow for one or two falls not to devastate a team when the NCAA cut back the number of participants from 16 to 12 in 1997. In the gross scoring, Utah had 725 points, followed by CU (569.5), UVM (551), New Mexico (547.5), Denver (543.5) and Dartmouth (476); CU had third place finishes in the women's slalom, men's freestyle and men's classical thrown out. In women's scoring alone, Utah dominated with 398 points, followed by New Mexico (335), Denver (304.5) and Colorado (289.5); in the men's scoring, UVM was first (358), followed by Utah (327), Dartmouth (297) and CU (280). CU was third in nordic points with 299, trailing Utah (327) and New Mexico (318); and was fifth in alpine points (270.5), behind Utah (398), Vermont (347), Denver (291) and Dartmouth (271).

ALL-AMERICANS: Six Buffaloes earned All-America honors in the meet, two gaining first-team status: Mia Cullman (slalom) and Jana Rehemaa (freestyle). Four others earned second-team mention: Erling Christiansen (freestyle and classical), Henrik Hoye (classical), Brad Hogan (giant slalom) and Jed Schuetze (slalom). Top five finishes earn skiers the first-team honor, while finishing sixth through 10th nets a second-team honor. Cullman joins a select group as a three-time, first-team All-American, as she is just the fourth CU alpine woman to be afforded the honor, as did Kate Davenport and Caroline Gedde-Dahl (both 1996-97-98) and the late Hana Pochobradska (1991-93-94). She's the seventh CU woman overall to earn first-team honors three times, and can become the first CU alpine skier (either gender) and only the second ever to be a four-time first-teamer if she accomplishes the feat in 2004. Nordic skier Egil Nilsen was a first-team All-American from 1976 through 1979.

NCAA SKIING ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: CU placed 11 team members on the NCAA Skiing All-Academic Team, as the qualifications included owning a 3.50 or better grade point average and participation in the NCAA regionals. Amy Beresford, Tahir Bisic, Claire Critchley, Fritz Ernemann, Muriele Huberli, Erin McEachren, Tove Pashkowski, Michael Read, Jed Schuetze, Josh Smullin and Nick Sterling were named to the prestigious squad. Northern Michigan and Utah had 12 skiers named, followed by CU and Denver with 11, and Dartmouth and New Mexico each with 10.

LOOKING AHEAD: Eight of the 12 athletes who competed here for Colorado are scheduled to return for the 2003-43 school year: alpine skiers Mia Cullman, Brad Hogan, Erika Hogan and Tyler Shepherd and nordic performers Erling Christiansen, Henrik Hoye, Muriele Huberli and Jana Rehemaa. The other four that participated here were all seniors and are thus out of eligibility: Tove Pashkowski and Tyler Shepherd of the alpine squad and Claire Critchley and Norbert Pelc of the cross country team. Those were the only seniors on the team, as CU will returns 17 letterwinners in all (10 alpine, seven nordic).

FUTURE SITES: The 2004 NCAA Championships will be in the Lake Tahoe area (Truckee and Norden, Calif.), with Nevada as host. Eastern schools (UVH, UNH and Colby) are bidding on the 2005 site, which will be selected in April, and Colorado is bidding for the 2006 event at Steamboat Springs; the state's last NCAA meet was in 1993 at Steamboat.