Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
NCAA Championships
Players Mentioned
SKIERS JUMP TO FIFTH AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
March 11, 2004 | Skiing
TRUCKEE, Calif. -Â The University of Colorado ski team moved up as expected here Thursday, as its strong cross country teams won the freestyle competition to catapult the Buffaloes from eighth place into fifth at the halfway point of the 51st Annual NCAA Championships.
Â
Denver remained in the lead in the gross point standings with 333, followed by New Mexico (307), Utah (304.5), Vermont (295) and then Colorado (275.5). But the net point standings show what a tight race is forming for the battle to be on top when things conclude come Saturday afternoon.
Â
Since teams can only count a maximum 21 scores, schools with full 12-person rosters must drop their lowest three scores and those with 11 have to drop one. Applying that format at the midway point has Vermont leading the net standings with 287 points, with DU second (277), Utah third (272), New Mexico fourth (270) and the Buffs fifth (262.5), as just under 25 points separate the top five teams. CU and UVM qualified 11 for the meet, the others aforementioned full 12-man squads.
Â
          "That's not a lot of points to make up," CU head coach Richard Rokos said of his team trailing by 24 ? in the net standings going into Friday's alpine action. "Slalom is always a wild card, people go down and don't finish. We have to ski fast, no question, but at the same time, we can't afford to go down. It will be a tough compromise, but we're ready, we've got a lot of training in. We have a lot of things in our favor heading into the last two days, so they should be anything but boring for us."
Â
           Combining the scores from the men's and women's freestyle races, Colorado scored 168.5 points to edge Utah by a one to win the overall event. The Buffs scored 96 points in the men's 10-kilometer race on the strength of three finishers in the top 11, while tallying 72.5 in the women's 5k version to place fifth.
Â
           "It wasn't the day we were hoping and dreaming of, but given all the factors, such as Henrik (Hoye) and Muriele (Huberli) being sick, we really can't complain," said CU nordic coach Bruce Cranmer. "We were still number one as a unit today, and that's obviously not that bad. We just didn't score as many points as we would have liked, because we need to do what we can to help make up for being a skier short here."
Â
            Sophomore Erling Christiansen led the men's parade with a third place finish, earning first-team All-America honors in the process. He skied the course in a 22:04.7 time, trailing Utah's Henning Dybendal winning time of 21:27.9 and Vermont's Lowell Bailey, who raced the track in 21:43.1.Â
Â
            "I finally had a good race this season," Christiansen said. "The skis were good, Bruce did a great job (on the wax). I planned for the last couple of weeks to peak for this weekend, and obviously it worked."Â
Â
             Thursday's races featured staggered individual starts, and Christiansen was hanging around fourth or fifth most of the first nine kilometers. "I pushed really hard the last kilometer when I heard I was only eight seconds out of third at the last splits," he said. "And (teammate) Josh Smullin came out to watch, and he yelled at me for 30 or so seconds to really push it. That helped a lot."
Â
            Hoye managed to finish in 10th place in a 22:25.3 clocking, good for second-team All-America accolades, despite being sick. CU's other male nordic skier, Tor Erik Schjellerud, finished outside of the top four for the first time in nine races this winter, placing 11th in 22:30.3.
Â
             In the women's 5k, Alaska-Fairbanks' Sigrid Aas won in 11:55.5, topping in-state rival Mandy Kaemp of Alaska-Anchorage's time of 12:03.3. Utah's Barbri Hatlevik was third in 12:06.8, with CU junior Jana Rehemaa just missing the winner's podium with a fourth place effort in 12:10.5, earning first-team All-America honors in the process.Â
 Â
             Rounding out CU's performances were senior Claire Critchley, who was 17th in 12:42.5, and Huberli, a junior, who tied for 26th in 12:53.9; both were in a logjam that saw 13 skiers separated by just under 13 seconds.
Â
            "They were even, fair races," Cranmer said of the freestyle competition. "It was a fairly flat course, and the conditions were icy and fast, and that plays into the hands of the easterners; they're more used to those. Some people ski different courses better than others, but I never would have guessed that skiers like Tor Erik and Erlend Hoff from Denver would be out of the top 10."Â
Â
             "But finishing in the top three was a great race of Erling, and fourth was a solid race for Jana," he continued. "She doesn't usually excel on the flatter courses, she loves the hills and the strategy that comes with them.
Â
              "We're really looking forward to Saturday's races because it will be a much different course, with long, steep climbs that we're accustomed to and classic has proven to be our better event," Cranmer added. "Henrik and Muri should be healthier, and Tor Erik is a better classic skier. The season's taken a toll on him. He's done a lot of racing and a lot of traveling, including back to Norway for the national championships. So he's competed in a fair amount of races in a short time, and his body just wasn't there for him today."
Â
             The action swings back to the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort Friday for the slalom races, with the men's first run commencing at 10:30 a.m. (mountain) and the women's at 11:30 a.m.; the seconds runs will follow. The competition wraps up Saturday with the classical cross country races, with the men's 20K at 10 a.m. and the women's 15K at Noon.Â
Â
NCAA Championship Team Scores (Gross)-1. Denver 333; 2. New Mexico 307; 3. Utah 304.5; 4. Vermont 295.0; 5. COLORADO 275.5; 6. Middlebury 259.5; 7. Alaska-Anchorage 226; 8. Dartmouth 202; 9. Nevada 178; 10. Alaska-Fairbanks 132; 11. Colby 112.5; 12. Williams 93; 13. Montana State 81; 14. Northern Michigan 77; 15. New Hampshire 65; 16. Western State 48; 17. Boise State 41; 18. St. Lawrence 24; 19. Whitman 21; 20. Bates 18; 21. Harvard 17; 22. Michigan Tech 2; 23. Wisconsin-Green Bay 1. (Note: only a maximum 21 of 24 skiers will score for those five schools that qualified full-squads; Colorado and Vermont qualified one short, so 21 of their 22 will count.)
Â
Team Scoring Leaders (Net)-1. Vermont 287;Â 2. Denver 277;Â 3. New Mexico 272;Â 4. Utah 270;Â 5. COLORADO 262.5;Â 6. Alaska-Anchorage 226;Â 7. Middlebury 203.5;Â 8. Dartmouth 185;Â 9. Nevada 178;Â 10. Alaska-Fairbanks 132.
Â
Women's 5K Freestyle-1. Sigrid Aas, UAF, 11:55.5; 2. Mandy Kaempf, UAA, 12:03.3; 3. Barbro Hatlevik, Utah, 12:06.8; 4. Jana Rehemaa, CU, 12:10.5; 5. Martina Stursova, UNM, 12:12.0;  6. Johanna Turunen, UAF, 12:16.6; 7. Trine Lundamo, UNM, 12:19.3; 8. Sari Tuovinen, UNR, 12:20.5; 9. Nicole DeYong, UAA, 12:21.6; 10. Jenny Hannson, Utah, 12:23.2. Other CU & Area Finishers: 11. Karein Camenisch, DU, 12:25,3; 12. Melody Scheefer, WSC, 12:25.4; 17. Claire Critchley, CU, 12:42.5; 22. Niina Karvonen, DU, 12:47.4; 25. Tara Hamilton, DU, 12:52.4; T26. Muriele Huberli, CU, 12:53.9; 29. Jessica Gray, WSC, 12:55.8.
Â
Men's 10K Freestyle-1. Henning Dybendal, Utah, 21:27.9; 2. Lowell Bailey, UVM, 21:43.1; 3. Erling Christiansen, CU, 54:09.4; 4. Garrott Kuzzy, Midd., 22:04.9; 5. Martin Bartnes, DU, 22:08.4; 6. Jesse Carlstrom, UNR, 22:08.7; 7. Zach Violett, UAA, 22:19.7; 8. Bryan Cook, NMU, 22:20.5; 9. Ethan Foster, UVM, 22:20.8; 10. Henrik Hoye, CU, 22:25.3. Other CU & Area Finishers: 11. Tor Erik Schjellerud, CU, 22:30.3; 15. Erlend Hoff, DU, 22:46.2; 17. Amund Hansen, DU, 22:58.4; 37. Brian Gregg, WSC, 25:15.3.
                              Â
Â