Colorado University Athletics
Skiers Open Season In Utah This Weekend
January 05, 2006 | Skiing
BOULDER - The University of Colorado submitted a bid for the 2006 NCAA Ski Championships three years ago. From the moment CU and Steamboat Springs were awarded the 53rd annual event, set for this March, Buffalo head coach Richard Rokos and his staff have been gearing for a title run.
That run begins this weekend at the Utah Invitational, as the Nordic skiers open the year with the classical format races on Saturday and the freestyle events Sunday in Soldier Hollow. The alpine portion of the meet at Park City follows next week, with the giant slalom on Wednesday and the slalom Thursday.
"Our ultimate and only goal is to always win the NCAA Championship, and we've targeted this since we were awarded the Championships three years ago," Rokos said. "It would be special to win (at Steamboat); sometimes the goals and reality are separated by a bigger margin, but this year, I think that margin is pretty tight. So with a little luck, which is always part of it, we might be right there. We never set a goal to finish in second place."
Denver is the defending NCAA champion, winning the 11th consecutive title captured by an NCAA Western region school last March in Stowe, Vt. 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. Utah finished third (545), followed by New Mexico (518), Dartmouth (486) and Colorado (436)
In finishing sixth, the Buffs scored their fewest number of points since the sport went coed in 1983 (its first time under the 500 mark), along with the first finish outside the top five. CU skied two skiers short of the maximum 12 for the first time in its history, qualifying just one men's alpine skier.
But rebounding from such a disappointing season is exactly the kind of challenge that drives Rokos, who is in his school record 16th season as head coach, the "dean" of all CU sport coaches.
"A long time ago, I made a goal to collect more NCAA Championships here than Bill Marolt," Rokos said in referring the former CU coach who won seven in a row between 1972 and 1978. "Maybe I've done that already since he didn't have a women's team," Rokos joked, "But to make it fair, I'd like to have eight, which is still a reasonably long ways to go.
"But I am enjoying coaching more now than ever before, because of the challenges we face in today's world, and challenges are what keeps me going. The easy years seem to be our worst ones; they just don't give you enough motivation to go and fight every day.
"It's hard to compare (this team to any of his previous 15), because personalities change, society changes. It's always time to pay respect to it and adapt to it, and provide the best environment for them to succeed, and that can sometimes be a daily challenge. But I enjoy that.
"I also have the most Czechs on the team (three) in my time here," added Rokos, a native Czech. "They are quality competitors but more importantly just great kids, so that is kind of exciting for me personally."
Colorado returns 12 letterwinners this winter, seven in alpine and five in Nordic. In 2005, the Buffs had strong women's alpine and men's Nordic units, but struggled in the other two disciplines (men's alpine, women's nordic) mainly because of depth. Rokos feels those issues have been more than addressed and the Buffaloes enter this campaign at least five quality competitors deep on all four squads.
The men's Nordic team is the most experienced unit, featuring three returning three-time lettermen in Erling Christiansen, Henrik Hoye and Nick Sterling, three of the only four seniors on the entire team. Hoye earned first-team All-America honors in both the classical and freestyle events at last year's NCAA's, while Christiansen did the same in the freestyle as the pair from Oslo, Norway, accounted for three of the four earned by CU skiers; Lucie Zikova had the fourth in the women's slalom.
"The Nordic team is strong, especially the men's with almost everyone back, plus the addition with some young, enthusiastic kids. Erling, Henrik and Nick are carrying the torch, and (newcomer) Kit Richmond has shown some promise in early season races."
Zikova leads CU's next most established group, as the women's alpine unit boasts five of the returning letter winners. Included in that group is Rachel Roosevelt, a second-team All-American in the giant slalom as a freshman last winter, and Kristin Taylor, who also participated at NCAA's and as a junior is the lone upperclassmen of all the alpine skiers, men or women. Catherine Brown and Jannicke Brusletto also lettered as true freshmen last year.
"The women are pretty steady and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish," Rokos said. "We've added Sabrina Mocellin (Tignes, France) to a team that was very strong last year with most of the ladies returning. They have overall good depth and keep on improving. At this point, it's hard to say who is better in slalom or giant slalom, and we can compare things in our first races against the remainder of the college field. But our girls were racing early season Nor-Ams and the rest of the colleges were not. We did very well in those races, with the competition we faced gearing for the World Cup. So it was a global measuring stick for us and we held our own."
Sophomore Joel Adams was the only CU men's alpine skier to make it to the NCAA's last year, and he "tuned" up in the off-season by walking on to the football team as a defensive back. He redshirted as a football player, but was the scout team player of the week three occasions, as he played a significant role in practices. As he heads back to the slopes, perhaps his football drills have helped hone in his quickness. The only other returning male skier is Miles Cooke, who had a decent freshman year.
"The men's alpine team is definitely larger than compared to last year," Rokos half-joked of a unit that had only four skiers at times in 2005. "We've increased the depth, and we're working on getting two others certified by the NCAA Clearinghouse ahead of the season (freshmen Tony Cesolini and Josh Bryan). Jonas Kryzl from the Czech Republic arrived here just after the new year, and he may very well be our best men's alpine skier. So we're now at five, hoping to increase to seven."
Senior Jana Rehemaa returns after sitting out last year due to an obscure NCAA eligibility rule, but was one of the nation's top Nordic women as both a sophomore and junior and is the anchor of CU's women's unit. Sophomore Mia Gaw is the only other returning skier, but Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer had a good recruiting year and likely has bolstered the unit from a year ago.
"The women are practically a brand new squad," Rokos said. "Jana is back and is refreshed and is looking to have a big year, not only for us, but for her native Estonia. Sort of unfortunately for us, this is also an Olympic year, and her goal is to make the Estonia National Team. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to qualify for the Olympics, and I personally promote it because it's a life's dream to make an Olympic team."
Rehemaa could miss two meets, but it wouldn't hurt her chances to qualify for NCAA's, as there is a rule on the books that any one who qualifies for an Olympic team automatically qualifies for the NCAA Championships.
"The rest of the (women's Nordic) team I feel is loaded with new, but young talent," Rokos said. "Kristin Sonstegard and Maria Grevsgard from Norway and Lenka Palanova from Czech Republic will really strengthen the squad."
The 10 western teams will have a trial run at the national championship site, as CU has moved its invitational from Eldora to Steamboat. The Nordic competition is set for January 27-28, with the alpine the following weekend (February 3-4). The 2006 NCAA meet marks the first time the event returns to Colorado since 1993, when CU and Steamboat last were awarded the championships.
"It should be considered home advantage for us over any other school, as many of our kids skied Steamboat in their grassroots programs and they are familiar with the mountain," Rokos noted.
He expects the main competition to come from the same schools as the past few years.
"DU, traditionally, will have another strong team, Utah, no question as well, along with New Mexico from the west will be strong, and the Eastern rivals again figure to be Vermont and Dartmouth, possible Middlebury."
As for what lies immediately ahead in Utah, and then January 12-14 at the Montana State Invitational in Bozeman, Rokos wants to see his team start fast.
"We want to start the season as strong as possible, and not to waste any time in the first qualifier," he said. "But we also want to size up the competition so we can set the strategy for the rest of the year."
