Skiers Finish 6th At NCAA Championships

Saturday, March 12

Stowe, Vt.

All Day

Colorado

Nordic

Buffs Finish Second At NCAA Ski Championships

Saturday, March 14

Buffs Back In Lead At NCAA Ski Championships

Friday, March 13

Ski Buffs In Second Place At NCAA Championships

Thursday, March 12

Buffs In Lead After Opening Day Of NCAA Championships

Wednesday, March 11

March 12, 2005 | Skiing

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

STOWE, Vt. - The University of Colorado ski team had three top six finishes in Nordic freestyle competition here Saturday to vault two spots into a sixth place finish in the 52nd NCAA Championships.

Denver won its 18th national championship in the sport, its first since 2002 as well as the 11th consecutive title captured by an NCAA Western region school. The Pioneers won rather handily with 622.5 team points, with host Vermont in second with 575. The Catamounts were the last eastern school to claim the crown, doing so in 1994; this was their fourth runner-up finish since their last win.

Utah finished third with 545 points, followed by New Mexico, the defending NCAA champion, in fourth with 518. Dartmouth busted into the top five for the first time in four years by scoring 486 points, and then came Colorado with 436 as the Buffaloes held off Alaska-Anchorage by two points to finish sixth.

Colorado scored its fewest number of points since the sport went coed in 1983 (its first time under the 500 mark), and it was also the first time the Buffs finished outside the top five. CU had finished fifth at that just twice, in 1985 and 1992, but this year did mark the first time the Buffaloes skied two skiers short of the maximum in its history. CU last finished as low as sixth in 1981, when the women placed eighth in the old AIAW Championship, and back to 1956 when the men also were sixth.

The weather Saturday offered challenges to the entire field. While it wasn't windy, it was literally "raining" snow, as a wet, heavy blanketing fell the entire time during both races as a classic Nor'easter has taken a hold of New England.

"We had more than our fair share of misfortune and bad luck, but a lot of good things also happened this week," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "We learned some tough lessons this year, which is an inspiration for me to go fix both some long and short-term things. This last race showed our capacity to do very well, we just didn't have the overall balance as a team that we've had in past years."

Rokos was referring to the last event of these championships, the men's 20-kilometer freestyle race, in which CU juniors Erling Christiansen and Henrik Hoye finished second and third, respectively. Denver's Rene Reisshauer won in a 55:57.3 time, winning by just under 11 seconds, about the same margin of the lead he held over the last five kilometers of the race.

Christiansen skied the four laps in a 56:08.0 clocking, with Hoye right behind him in 56:09.1. Both were rewarded with first-team All-America honors for their finishes, the second in three days for Hoye, who also placed third in Thursday's 10k classic.

Christiansen led most of the first five kilometers, with two Vermont skiers right behind him and Hoye in ninth at that point. No pack had yet to break away as it was a steady stream of skiers. But by the midway point, 10 had separated into a lead pack with six others in the chase pack; Christiansen was still either leading or was within a ski length or two.

Over the next couple of kilometers, the lead switched hands between four skiers, Christiansen, Reisshauer, Hoye and Alaska's Zach Violett. By the completion of the third lap, three had separated themselves ahead of the others, with Reisshauer owning a fairly decent lead at that point with the Buffs in chase. Utah's Magnus Carlsson was able to close the gap and approach Christiansen and Hoye in the end, but the Buff pair held off his charge and he finished fourth in 56:11.2.

"It was kind of a slower pace," Christiansen said. "I was kind of loose, especially going uphill. I was trying to focus on my frequency and tempo, and tried to ski away from the slower skiers and had the lead for most of the race until the DU guy (Reisshauer) took off. Before we knew it, there was a gap of about 10 seconds. The UVM guy (Ethan Foster) slowed down a bit and three of us were in a cluster for a time and I knew then I wouldn't have a chance to catch back up to the lead.

"At the finish, I worked as hard as I could uphill and used my whole body to sprint," he added. "It was the most fun race of the year; it was a real cross country with lots and snow and a lot of great skiers. It was so good to get two CU guys on the podium."

"This is just a rehearsal before Steamboat," Hoye chimed in, referring to CU's hosting the 2006 meet at Steamboat Springs. "This was my best skate race of the year. We had really good skis, we hung in there and we fought hard.

"It was really hard to be up front," he said in referring to Reisshauer's win. "This is a hard race (in the snowy conditions) for someone to break out in. Right about the eight-K mark, we had a little accident; Foster was ahead of us and we tried to pass and that's when Reisshauer picked it up. Foster slowed down, Erling crashed into him and I was right behind the both of them. Overall, it was a pretty good race, pretty exciting."

CU senior Tor Erik Schjellerud finished 18th in 58:40.3; he never fully recovered from a bout with the flu that sidelined him most of February. He lost 10 pounds with the illness and was maybe 75 percent of his self according to CU Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer.

Earlier in the women's 15-kilometer race, five skiers separated themselves from the rest of the pack fairly early in the race before Alaska's Mandy Kaemp pulled away at the start of the last 5k lap. She won in a 46:18.8 time, well ahead of teammate Nicole DeYong who took second in 46:54.8.

For Colorado, three women skied their final races in a Buffalo uniform. Muriele Huberli just missed out on first-team All-America honors, settling for second-team accolades with a sixth place result in 47:45.7. Brooke Rygg closed her career with perhaps her best collegiate effort, finishing 20th in 49:25.7. Jessica Gray rounded out the CU trio with a 30th place finish in a 50:47.5 time.

Huberli spent the first portion of the race in the lead group, and still was contending for third or fourth place with less than two kilometers remaining before settling into sixth. New Mexico's Martina Stursova (third, 47:10.8) and Trine Lundamo (fifth, 47:31.8) and Northern Michigan's Lindsay Williams (fourth, 47:25.5) snuck ahead of her in the stretch run.

"It was kind of a slow race at the beginning, no one seemed to want to lead," Huberli said. "Mandy took off and increased the tempo, but I was fine with my pace and where I was. After the final downhill and coming up into the stadium, Williams and Trine got me.

"I'm happy with my career (at CU)," she added. "My big goal was to reach the podium at some point in my four years. I'm sad for sure that it's all over. I wish I had another year." Huberli fell just short of a top three finish at the NCAA's, finishing fifth as a junior in the classic.

"It was an exciting finish and I was super-psyched to get two people in the top three," Cranmer said. "It was good to finish on an upbeat note, though it was disappointing that Tor Erik didn't feel better and couldn't ski at his best."

"I feel really good about the women's races," Cranmer said. "Brooke had one of her better races of her career. To finish in the top 20 in a field this strong was great for her to end her career with. Muri feels she was capable of doing better, but it's hard to be at your top pinnacle of shape and form on the same day. Overall though, it was a good day. I'm pretty happy."

"This was a thrilling race, it reminded me of the championship eight years when it was here because it was super-exciting then, too," Rokos said in summing up the day's races. "Cross country is hard work, obviously Bruce and Dan (Weinberger, assistant coach) should get a lot of credit. It was a thriller show today."

"For next year, we'll have to build off our women's alpine and men's cross country teams," added Rokos. "Jana Rehemaa will be back in women's cross country, so we will have at least one ace to build around, and we'll have to shore up our men's alpine unit a bit." Rehemaa had to sit out this year due to a complicated eligibility issue, though she is in excellent academic standing.

"With this behind us, we can now use it as motivation and point to Steamboat," Rokos concluded. "Three-hundred sixty one days until we can begin to redeem ourselves."

NCAA Championship Team Scores-1. Denver 622.5; 2. Vermont 575; 3. Utah 545; 4. New Mexico 518; 5. Dartmouth 486; 6. Colorado 438; 7. Alaska-Anchorage 436; 8. Middlebury 326; 9. Nevada 303; 10. Northern Michigan 300; 11. Colby 280; 12. New Hampshire 222.5; 13. Montana State 209; 14. Williams 201; 15. Alaska-Fairbanks 165; 16. Boise State 92; 17. Whitman 71; 18. Michigan Tech 61; 19. St. Lawrence 56; 20. Wisconsin-Green Bay 42; 21. Bates 30; 22. Western State 26. (Note: only a maximum 21 of 24 skiers scored for those four schools that qualified full-squads: Dartmouth, Denver, Utah, Vermont; New Mexico qualified one short, so 21 of their 22 counted.)

Women's 15K Freestyle-1. Mandy Kaempf, UAA, 46:18.8; 2. Nicole DeYong, UAA, 46:54.8; 3. Martina Stursova, UNM, 47:10.8; 4. Lindsay Williams, NMU, 47:25.5; 5. Trine Lundamo, UNM, 47:31.8; 6. Muriele Huberli, CU, 47:45.7; 7. Sandra Gredig, Utah, 48:04.8; 8. Johanna Turunen, UAF, 48:07.5; 9. Laura Valaas, Whit., 48:07.8; 10. Elizabeth Harrington, Dart., 48:11.2. Other CU Finishers: 20. Brooke Rygg, 49:25.7; 30. Jessica Gray, 50:47.5.

Men's 20K Freestyle-1. Rene Reisshauer, DU, 55:57.3; 2. Erling Christiansen, CU, 56:08.0; 3. Henrik Hoye, CU, 56:09.1; 4. Magnus Carlsson, Utah, 56:11.2; 5. Daniel Sonntag, Utah, 56:58.4; 6. John Stene, DU, 57:00.3; 7. Lowell Bailey, UVM, 57:04.9; 8. Ethan Foster, UVM, 57:09.3; 9. Benjamin Sonntag, UAA, 57:18.5; 10. Dirk Grimm, UNM, 57:55.3. Other CU Finisher: 18. Tor Erik Schjellerud, 58:40.3.

CU SKIING / 2005 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

CRACKING THE TOP: NCAA West schools have now won 11 straight championships, as the skiing elite fraternity remains hard to crack. Only six different schools since collegiate skiing went coed in 1983 have won NCAA Championships: Colorado, Denver, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming. But since the '72 title meet, Vermont (20 titles or seconds), Utah (19) Colorado (15; 13 wins and two seconds) and Denver (6, four wins, two runner-up) have dominated college skiing over these 34 seasons. Only three other schools, Wyoming (one win and four seconds), Dartmouth (one co-title) and New Mexico (one title and one second) have been able to crack the top two in this span.

ALL-TIME: CU's sixth place finish was its lowest since the sport went coed in 1983, but tied for the third highest all-time for a team two skiers or more short of a full squad (since this format was implemented in 1997). CU recently had a run of seven straight years in which it had 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 2003. 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 woman's (1982, AIAW). The 15 NCAA titles by Colorado trail Denver by three, as the Pioneers caught and passed CU by winning three straight to open the 21st century. After DU and CU (33 combined), Utah has won 10, Vermont 5, Dartmouth 2, Wyoming 2 and New Mexico 1 (CU and Dartmouth tied for the '76 crown).

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS: Colorado did not have an individual NCAA champion for the third straight year, but only the sixth time in the last 24 seasons and still leads all-time with 70 individual titles, topping Denver (65), Utah (61), Vermont (52) and Dartmouth (32). 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.

NACA DIRECTORS' CUP (formerly the Sears Cup): Colorado's sixth place finish earned the Buffaloes 70 points in the NACDA Directors' Cup Standings, as skiing is the first of nine NCAA winter titles decided for 2004-05 (track was decided later the same day). CU was in eighth place in the final fall standings with 275 points (Notre Dame led with 337), but has temporarily moved into the No. 1 position with 345 points. Denver, with 100 points for the win, jumps from being unranked (102 schools were) into a tied for 49th place. The Buffs were the top ranked Big 12 school in the standings in the fall, ahead of No. 9 Texas (262), No. 31 Nebraska (137) and No. 48 Missouri (197).

HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS: Richard Rokos wrapped up his 15th 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, 1996 and 2004, fifth-place in 1992 and sixth in 2005. Under Rokos, the Buffaloes have won 35 of 92 meets they have skied in, including 31 of 77 in the west and six NCAA West Regionals (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2002). In his tenure, CU has had 74 first-team All-Americans and 125 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 (the one with 11 on its squad, New Mexico, had one score thrown out). 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. Since CU was two skiers short, its gross and net point totals in this meet were the same. In the gross scoring, Denver had 660.5, Vermont 600, Utah 552, New Mexico 527 and Dartmouth 492. Here are the final standings within the standings in different categories:

MEN'S TEAM SCORING: 1. Denver 360; 2. Vermont 331; 3. Utah 277; 4. New Mexico 269; 5. Alaska-Anchorage 245; 6. Dartmouth 228; 7. Colorado 226; 8. Middlebury 194; 9. Nevada 177; 10. Colby 163.

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORING: 1. Denver 300.5; 2. Utah 275; 3. Vermont 269; 4. Dartmouth 264; 5. New Mexico 258; 6. Colorado 212; 7. Alaska-Anchorage 191; 8. Northern Michigan 177; 9. Montana State 172; 10. Middlebury 132.

NORDIC POINT LEADERS: 1. Alaska-Anchorage 346; 2. Denver 341; 3. New Mexico 313; 4. Northern Michigan 300; 5. Colorado 288; 6. Utah 270; 7. Vermont 242; 8. Dartmouth 209; 9. Alaska-Fairbanks 165; 10. Montana State 115. The CU men were second out of 16 teams with 187 points, topped only by Denver's 215; the women were seventh out of 17 teams.

ALPINE POINT LEADERS: 1. Vermont 394; 2. Denver 355.5; 3. Dartmouth 319; 4. Colby 316; 5. Utah 315; 6. Middlebury 278; 7. New Mexico 244; 8. New Hampshire 212.5; 9. Nevada 202; 10. Williams 190; 11. Colorado 168; 12. Alaska 111. The CU women were sixth out of 14 women's teams; the Buff men were 12th out of 15 men's teams.

ALL-AMERICANS: Five Buffaloes earned All-America honors in the meet, three gaining first-team status: Henrik Hoye (freestyle and classical), Erling Christiansen (freestyle) and Lucie Zikova (slalom). Two others garnered second-team mention: Muriele Huberli (freestyle) and Rachel Roosevelt (slalom). Top five finishes earn skiers the first-team honor, while finishing sixth through 10th nets a second-team honor. It's the second first-team recognition for Christiansen (he has three top five and six top 10 NCAA finishes in as many races), and the first such honors for Hoye (he has two top five and five top 10 finishes in six NCAA races) and Zikova.

NCAA SKIING ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: CU placed three team members on the NCAA Skiing All-Academic Team (its version of Academic All-America), as the qualifications included owning a 3.50 or better grade point average and participation in the NCAA regionals. Tahir Bisic, Erling Christiansen and Kristin Taylor were named to the prestigious squad, all for the second straight year.

LOOKING AHEAD: Four of the 10 athletes who competed here for Colorado are not scheduled to return for the 2005-06 school year, all Nordic team members: Jessica Gray, Muriele Huberli, Brooke Rygg and Tor Erik Schjellerud (Schjellerud has already graduated with his degree in business management). The only other seniors on the entire team were alpine skiers Tahir Bisic and Fritz Ernemann, otherwise CU will return as many as 16 letterwinners for next winter (10 alpine, 6 Nordic).

FUTURE SITES: The 2006 NCAA Championships will return to Colorado for the first time since 1993, as Steamboat Springs was selected as the site and the University of Colorado as the host in 2003. CU last served as the host in 1993, when the event was also held at Steamboat; Alpine events are at Howelsen Hill (slalom) and Mount Werner (giant slalom) with Nordic events also at Howelsen. The 2007 meet will be awarded to an eastern site later this spring.

(Associate SID Colleen Reilly Krueger contributed to this report.)

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Players Mentioned

Tahir Bisic

Erling Christiansen

Fritz Ernemann

Henrik Hoye

Muriele Huberli

Jana Rehemaa

Rachel Roosevelt

Brooke Rygg

Tor Erik Schjellerud

Kristin Taylor

Lucie Zikova