Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Alpine
Players Mentioned
Skiers In Ninth After Day One At NCAA Championships
March 09, 2005 | Skiing
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STOWE, Vt. - The University of Colorado ski team still hopes to contend for the title when all is said and done at these 52nd NCAA Championships. But the Buffaloes dug themselves a bit of a hole in the giant slalom Wednesday, posting only three scores in winding up in ninth place after day one of the meet.
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Host Vermont capitalized on its home mountain in sweeping both the men's and women's GS races and posted 216 team points on the day, good for a 30-point lead over Colby (186). Denver held down third with 173, with Utah fourth with 154. Defending NCAA champion New Mexico was in eighth (111), with Colorado next with 86 points to secure ninth?just one point ahead of Nevada and two better than New Hampshire.
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With winds constant and gusting to 50 miles per hour, temperatures in the teens, the wind chill below zero and icy conditions, especially at the start, the eastern schools thrived on conditions they more acclimated to. Five placed in the top seven after the giant slalom races; to show how rare that has been in recent memory, western schools owned the top four spots in 2004, occupied four of the top five in 2003, and five of the top six, including the top four in 2002.
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In the women's race, UVM junior Jamie Kingsbury won her second national title in three years, won easily with a two-run time of 1:55.03. That was two-and-a-half seconds ahead of Colby's AbbiLathrop, who posted a 1:57.53 time. Kingsbury posted the fastest first run by more than a second (57.82), and then cruised to the win with the second fastest time the second time down the hill.
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Colorado was led by freshman Rachel Roosevelt, an east coast native who trained at the Stratton (Vt.) Mountain School, as she finished 10th to earn second-team All-America honors. She posted a 2:00.34 time after standing in ninth after the first run.
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Junior Erika Hogan was 11th in 2:00.65, moving up a couple of notches after coming in 13th following the first run.  Disaster struck for the Buffs when its second alpine seed, Lucie Zikova, lost a ski on her first run and was unable to finish.
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In the men's GS, things were much closer, as Vermont freshman Greg Hardy won his first race of the winter in a 1:45.49 time, just two one-hundredths of a second ahead Colby's Warner Nickerson.Â
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The Buffaloes only qualified one male alpine skier, freshman Joel Adams. Skiing in his first NCAA title meet, he finished 22nd in 1:49.80, right around where he was seeded overall (20th).Â
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               "It's not just being disappointed, but a continued streak of bad luck," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "This was Lucie's turf, she's skied on ice like this her entire life and while Rachel and Erika had good days, her fall just took it right out of us.
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               "We're not trained and aren't exposed to these (eastern) conditions; most western skiers aren't," he added. "That's no excuse, but it's tough for us to adjust to this immediately. The men's results prove how big an advantage these conditions are to the eastern schools. They're used to conditions like these and we just don't have opportunities to ski on this during the season. It's not a surprise to any of us, you just hope that you can adjust quickly. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. And today, we didn't."Â
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Roosevelt echoed those sentiments.
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"I've been mostly skiing in Europe the last few winters, and really haven't skied these conditions since high school, but I remember them very well," Roosevelt said. "The second run was set by a western coach, and it was more open, which I like better. I skied more aggressively in the second run, I took a straight line, but it cost me at the end. I had to dump some speed before the flats right before the finish.  I'm a little disappointed, there was room for me to move up, but I'm looking forward to the slalom."
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At the bottom of the first pitch, three racers lost their skis at the identical spot on the course, Middlebury's Megan Hughes, CU's Zikova and Utah's Lina Johansson, all three very high seeds in the race (Nos. 9, 11 and 13, respectively).
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"I was putting pressure on my downhill ski as I was turning," Zikova said. "I looked down, and suddenly, I lost my ski and fell."
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"These were really tough conditions," Adams said. "I went out much more aggressively for my second run (he moved up to 21st from 28th after the first run). The east pretty much owned the day, but this was a good experience for me and I'm looking forward to Friday's slalom."
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               Team can count a maximum 21 of 24 scores toward its team total, so things aren't as dire as they may appear for Colorado. However, the Buffs can ill afford any further bad breaks if it hopes to contend for a top three finish, much less the title. With only 10 skiers here, CU can only post 20 scores to begin with; applying the formula after day one, which would be dropping the low three scores of the teams that qualified full 12-skier teams (and one if 11 qualified), Vermont still leads and CU is still ninth, though the difference is 35 points, not 130.
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               "Today was just the first day," Rokos said. "We still have three opportunities for better days, and that can start tomorrow in cross country. We have a very strong team and we'll see if we can make up some significant ground."
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               Attention now to turns to the Nordic skiers, as the classical cross country races take center stage Thursday. The men's 10k is at 7:30 a.m. MST, followed by the women's 5k at 9:30. The slalom races are set for Friday, as first runs are at 7:30 (men) and 8:30 (women); second runs follow at 10:15 and 11:15, respectively. The competition wraps up Saturday, with the freestyle cross country races, with the women's 15K at 8:00 and the men's 20K at 10:00.
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NCAA West Regional Team Scores-1. Vermont 216;Â 2. Colby 186;Â 3. Denver 173;Â 4. Utah 154;Â 5. Dartmouth 150;Â 6. Middlebury 122;Â 7. Williams 117;Â 8. New Mexico 111;Â 9. Colorado 86;Â 10. Nevada 85;Â 11. New Hampshire 84;Â 12. Montana State 45;Â 13. Boise State 44;Â 14. Alaska-Anchorage 39;Â 15. Western State 29.
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Men's Giant Slalom-1. Greg Hardy, UVM, 1:45.49; 2. Warner Nickerson, Colby, 1:45.51; 3. Charles Christianson, Will., 1:46.02; 4. John Rusten, Midd., 1:46.08; 5. Lars Loeseth Sunde, UNM, 1:46.09; 6. Robert Saunders, Colby, 1:46.18; 7. Luke Patterson, UNR, 1:46.31; 8. Evan Weiss, Dart., 1:46.47; 9. Ben Thornhill, Utah, 1:46.59; 10. Paul Epstein, UVM, 1:46.94. CU Finisher: 22. Joel Adams, 1:49.80.
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Women's Giant Slalom-1. Jamie Kingsbury, UVM, 1:55.03; 2. Abbi Lathrop, Colby, 1:57.53; 3. Courtney Calise, Dart., 1:57.56; 4. Florence Roujas, DU, 1:57.94; 5. April Mancuso, Utah, 1:58.00; 6. Jilyne McDonald, UVM, 1:58.09; 7. Stephanie Vaughan, UNH, 1:58.34; 8. Amy Cochran, UVM, 1:59.13; 9. Pia Rivelsrud, DU, 1:59.77; 10. Rachel Roosevelt, CU, 2:00.34. Other CU Finisher: 11. Erika Hogan, 2:00.65. DNF?Lucie Zikova (first run).
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BUFFALO BITS
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?      CU sophomore Tim Damrow finished 12th in the 15-kliometer freestyle Wednesday in the 2005 Junior Olympic Nordic Ski Championships in Truckee, Calif. Damrow completed the course in a 38:09.6 time; Dylan Mogk, a member of the Bridger Ski Foundation team, won in 36:33.91. Two more events remain in the meet, the 10K classic Friday and the 3x5K classic relay Saturday. Damrow won the gold medal in the sprint competition Monday, as he covered the 1-kilometer course in 1 minute and 57.03 seconds.Â
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(Associate SID Colleen Reilly Krueger contributed to this report.)Â
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