Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Utah Invitational (Alpine)
Skiers Finish Second At Alaska Invite
January 12, 2006 | Skiing
PARK CITY, Utah ? The University of Colorado ski team shaved points off top-ranked Denver's lead for the third consecutive day, but in the end, it wasn't enough to catch the Pioneers as the Buffaloes finished second here in the Alaska Invitational, the first meet of the college season.
The Buffs, ranked No. 2 in the Ski Racing Magazine coaches poll, were in fourth place and 42 points out of the lead after the first two Nordic races last Saturday, but closed the gap bit-by-bit after each of the next three days of competition, pulling to within 30 at the midway point and 20 heading into the final two alpine races Thursday. Thought CU outpointed DU in both the women's giant slalom and the men's slalom, the Buffs could knock only 10 more points off the lead as the defending NCAA champion Pioneers held on for 10-point win.
Denver won with 555 points, followed by CU (545), Utah (499), New Mexico (492) and “host” Alaska-Anchorage (458). Sites in Utah served as host for Alaska, as the state simultaneously held U.S. National competition in cross country and FIS alpine point races.
"Everybody feels a great deal of accomplishment after this,” CU head coach Richard Rokos said. “We may have come up a bit short, but it will make us even hungrier to go out there and get that first win, hopefully as soon as this weekend in Montana.
“It was a great effort to come back from 42 down after the first day,” he continued. “It's a very encouraging situation for us, since we were able to be right there with DU, and they appear to be as strong as they've always been. So it's a good way to start the year, and it gives us some confidence.”
Sophomore Sabrina Mocellin captured the women's giant slalom in a two-run time of 2:05.64 to give CU its second individual women's win here in as many days. She upended teammate and fellow sophomore Lucie Zikova, who won the slalom on Wednesday and who had led after the morning run with a 1:01.03 time. But Mocellin, who has excelled her entire career in her native France in the GS, blistered the course in the afternoon in a 1:04.38 clocking, a time that only three other skiers came within the better part of two seconds of the second time down the hill.
Freshman Lisa Perricone finished fourth in 2:07.32, with junior Kristin Taylor 12th (2:09.42) and sophomore Rachel Roosevelt 14th (2:09.76). For the second straight day, the Buffalo women posted a 1-2-4 finish.
It marked only the second time in school history that a female CU skier won the first two alpine events of the collegiate season; the only other occasion came in 1999, when Linda Wikstrom captured both the giant slalom and slalom at the Montana State meet. That was also the last year when CU opened with the top two finishers in the same race, but this year marks the first time CU has placed three in the top four in both the GS and slalom races to open a year.
“We've got some great internal competition going on, when you have three girls fighting for the first spot, it's hard to have a loser because the team can only win,” Rokos said.
“Sabrina has been waiting for this kind of performance for a while,” he added. “She is a GS specialist, and coming from France and having that extensively in her background, she was looking forward to competing here and it happened for her today.
“I know I said it yesterday, but winning can be very contagious, and so can be ganging up on the rest of the field. To open the season with three of the top four finishers in both disciplines (GS and slalom) is good news for us.”
Over two feet of fresh snow made things a little tougher for the men's slalom, but freshman Jean-Francois Ferreira rebounded from a DNF (did not finish) on his first run of Wednesday's giant slalom to finish seventh with a time of 1:33.42, exactly two seconds behind New Mexico's Tor Fodnesbergene, who won in 1:31.42. Two other pair of Buff freshmen were CU's next scorers, with Pat Duran finishing 19th in 1:35.79 and Jonas Kryzl 20th in 1:35.95. Yet another potential CU freshman, Josh Bryan, actually finished 11th (1:33.90), but he is skiing independently as a CU student until the NCAA Clearinghouse grants him eligibility.
“It was pretty rough,” Rokos said of the conditions for the men's slalom. “The new snow was relatively soft, and there were definitely some ruts that developed quickly. Everybody made mistakes, but we hung in pretty tough and made fewer mistakes than DU. They had a pretty good women's race as well, so it all came down to who could handle the slalom in the conditions.”
Action shifts the north this weekend, as the schools will caravan to Bozeman for the Montana State Invitational this Saturday and Sunday.
ALASKA INVITATIONAL TEAM SCORES?1. Denver 555; 2. Colorado 545; 3. Utah 499; 4. New Mexico 492; 5. Alaska-Anchorage 458; 6. Montana State 366; 7. Nevada 300; 8. Whitman 215; 9. Western State 191; 10. Boise State 69.
Men's Slalom?1. Tor Fodnesbergene UNM, 1:31.42; 2. Scott Veenis, Utah, 1:32.32; 3. Alex Mach, UNM, 1:32.42; 4. Luke Patterson, UN, 1:32.75; 5. Lars Loeseth, UNM, 1:33.11; 6. Cory Harris, MSU, 1:33.28; 7. Jean-Francois Ferreira, CU, 1:33.42; 8. Petter Roering, UNM, 1:33.51; 9. Todd Ligare, DU, 1:33.70; 10. Will McDonald, Utah, 1:33.87. Other Area Results: 11. *Josh Bryan, 1:33.90; 12. Ian Lochhead, DU, 1:33.97; 19. Pat Duran, 1:35.79; 20. Jonas Kryzl, 1:35.95; 30 (tie). Casey Riva, WSC and Brad Erikson, WSC, 1:42.65; 32. Sean Higgins, DU, 1:42.92; 33. Miles Cooke, 1:43.54; 34. Bo Maciejko, WSC, 1:44.19; 37. Ben Reeder, WSC, 1:45.79; 40. Andre Hokholt, WSC, 1:50.86; Francesco Ghedina, DU, DNF (second run), *Tony Cesolini, CU, DNF (second run), Joel Adams, CU, DNS (second run). *?skied independently, awaiting NCAA Clearinghouse ruling; results do not count for CU.
Women's Giant Slalom?1. Sabrina Mocellin, CU, 2:05.64; 2. Lucie Zikova, CU, 2:06.19; 3. Florence Roujas, DU, 2:06.38; 4. Lisa Perricone, CU, 2:07.32; 5. Lindsay McClure, DU, 2:07.42; 6. Spela Bertoncelj, MSU, 2:07.65; 7. Kimberly Stephens, Utah, 2:08.59; 8. Jennifer Tank, DU, 2:08.68; 9. Zuzana Charvatova, BSU, 2:08.83; 10. Chelsea Laswell, Utah, 2:09.25. Other Area Results: 12. Kristin Taylor, 2:09.42; 14. Rachel Roosevelt, 2:09.76; 23. Claire Abbe, DU, 2:12.26; 32. Keleana Thorsen, WSC, 2:21.61; 39. Elysse Kompaniez, WSC, 4:19.38; Angela Kettinger, WSC, DFN (first run); Jacqueline Marceau, DU, DNF (second run).
