Colorado University Athletics
Skiing Opens 2005 Season At Utah
January 04, 2005 | Skiing
When the University of Colorado ski team opens the gate on the college slate Wednesday at the Utah Invitational, it will do so with quite possibly its strongest core of returning skiers in recent memory as 15th year head coach Richard Rokos returns 13 letterwinners and seven All-Americans and he and the Buffs look to improve from last season's NCAA fourth-place finish.
They will also go in to the meet as the Ski Racing Magazine's fourth-ranked team in its 2005 preseason poll. With 131 points, the Buffs trail a west-heavy preseason favorite Utah (144), Denver (141) and defending national champion New Mexico (139).
NORDIC
With eight of nine letterwinners and all but one 2003 participant returning to last year's cross country team, expectations were deservedly high. And those expectations were more than met as the Buffs won their first "national nordic title" with five finishers in the top six in the classical races and the sixth in 11th place. The Buffs' 206.5 points in the last day of competition was the most in one single day by any school in the meet, as well as the most ever in a nordic single day.
With all but two letterwinners, and one from that NCAA milestone. returning in '05, the anticipation of this year's team couldn't be higher.
Leading the cross country charge will be men's team which loses just Josh Smullin to graduation and is the only team without a newcomer. Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer must grin at the thought of returning his top three skiers from a year ago in All-Americans Tor Erik Shjellerud (who had four runner-up classical finishes a year ago, including the NCAA Championships), Erling Christiansen, who is a four-time All-American in both disciplines, including a sweep of first-team titles in '04 and Henrik Hoye, who posted top-10 finishes in all but one race a year ago, including a second-team All-American finish in the skate.
Returning letterwinner Nick Sterling, who turned in career-best efforts in both races as a sophomore, will be motivated by his near miss of the NCAA roster a year ago that was contested in his own backyard. The Buffs' fifth returning letterwinner is sophomore Tim Damrow who will look to improve from four top-20 efforts as a freshman.
Like their counterparts on the men's team, the women's cross country roster graduated second-team and academic All-American Claire Critchley, a major contributor on the 2002, 03 and 04 teams. Returning is the most veteran member of the entire 2005 squad, Muriele Huberli, who has 34 races in 18 meets and three NCAA Championships under her belt, not to mention three All-American titles to her resume. She's been the Buffs' No. 2 constant the last two seasons behind Jana Rehemaa, who had top five finishes in all but her first race last year, six runner-up efforts and a pair of first-team All-American titles with matching fourth-place efforts in both the skate and classical races in Donner Summitt, Calif. Hoping to make the leap to the NCAA roster is junior Brooke Rygg who has played a support role on a pair of slim women's nordic rosters, and is coming off the most productive season of her career in Boulder .
Newcomers Mia Gow, Maria Malmin and Western State transfer Jess Gray ( Steamboat Springs , Colo. ) will give the Buffs some much needed depth.
ALPINE
A strong returning corps of 2003 All-American Brad Hogan, 2004 NCAA participant Tahir Bisic and three-time letterwinner Fritz Ernemann hope to prove that sending just two men's alpine skiers to last year's NCAA Championships for the first time in over 15 seasons was just a fluke.
Bisic is the top returning downhill skier from the 2004 campaign with top-20 finishes in six races entering the NCAA Championships where he finished 25th in the slalom and 26th in the GS. Ernemann had the most productive season of his career with nine finishes in 10 races including a season-best 13th in the GS at the NCAA West Regional that wasn't enough to put him over the top and on to what would have been his first NCAA Championship roster. Also back in '04 is Hogan, who looks to pick up in his redshirt sophomore season where he left off in '03, as one of the best slalom racers in the west with a freshman season slate that made him the first men's alpine skier since 1991 to finish every race of the season, and do it in top-10 fashion and as a two-time All-American.
Making up for the losses of Mike Read and Cody Jenick, freshmen Joel Adams ( Steamboat Springs , Colo. ) and Miles Cooke ( Wenatchee , Wash. ) will be looking to make an immediate impact on a veteran squad.
The women's downhill team will suffer the most growing pains of Rokos' four teams in '05 as just Erika Hogan and Kristin Taylor return while five-time All-American Mia Cullman and 2004 NCAA participant, four-year letterwinner and captain Erin McEachren are graduated while letterwinners Julie Czesnowski and Sarah Fischer are victims of attrition.
The best downhill skier on either the men's or women's team in 2004, Hogan was the national runner-up and a first-team All-American in the giant slalom, and won her first collegiate race and added two more second-place efforts in the slalom, coincidently her stronger of the two disciplines. In her first season, former Canadian National Team member and all-conference skier Kristin Taylor was the most accomplished newcomer in the downhill, scoring in all but three races a year ago. The two will leave a void at the Alaska-Anchorage Invitational when they compete in the World University Games in the middle of January.
Joining the two veterans in Innsbruck will be newcomers Rachel Roosevelt, a U.S. National Team member since 2000 and Czech Republic National Team member Lucie Zikova. Additional newcomers to the deepest roster on the team are Catherine Brown ( Edina , Minn. ), Jannicke Brusletto ( Oslo , Norway ) and Ashley Woodworth ( Portland ).
EXTRA CREDIT
The women's downhill roster for the Alaska-Anchorage Invitational in Jackson Hole, Wyo. will be slim as Rokos, Erika Hogan, Rachel Roosevelt, Lucie Zikova and Kristin Taylor will be competing in this year's World University Games, Jan. 12-22, in Innsbruk, Austria. Rokos, Hogan and Roosevelt will be skiing under the American flag while Taylor will represent her native Canada and Zikova, the Czech Republic.
Two years ago in Tarvisio, Italy, Rokos served as the coach of the U.S. team and Hogan was the top female American skier at the games, winning just the second American medal and the first in skiing when she claimed the bronze with a third-place finish in the slalom.
THE SCHEDULE
For the first time since the 2002 season, the Buffs and Eldora Mountain are out of the West Region rotation, and will be competing away from home from now until the middle of the 2006 campaign. But if history should repeat itself, the long and winding road will pay dividends in March as the Buffs were the national runners-up that season after finishing second in their final two regular season meets and winning the NCAA West Regional.
The Buffs christen the season in the familiar setting of both Park City and Soldier Hollow where they have posted both a pair of runner-up and two straight fourth-place team finishes since the 2000 season. While CU's top four downhill skiers are competing in Innbruck, the rest of the team will continue their 13-day road trip at the Alask-Anchorage Invitational in Jackson Hole , Wyo. , a hill they haven't skied since the 2000 NCAA West Regional.
After two weeks of classes the Buffs will be as close to home as they can get in '05 when they take to I-70 and the Denver Invitational at Winter Park . In their last two trips to " Colorado 's first ski resort", the Buffs have posted bridesmaid finishes at the 2003 NCAA West Regional and the 2002 DU Invite. After another 12-day hiatus from competition, the Buffs and the rest of the teams in the west close out the regular season at the MicheLobo-UNM Invitational in Taos and Red River , N.M.
The NCAA West Regional title will be decided in Bozeman, Mont., a first for the Big Sky school which hosted the national championship in ?98, before the NCAA Championships return to the east and Stowe, Vt., for the first time since the 1997 season.
