Skiers Take Over Lead At NCAA Championships

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - The University of Colorado's strong suit all winter answered the call here Friday night, as a victory by sophomore Lucie Zikova in the women's slalom paved the way for the Buffaloes to take over the lead heading into the final day of the 53rd annual NCAA Skiing Championships.

CU's dominant women's alpine team racked up 103 points in the slalom, and the Buff men hung tough one skier short as Colorado enters the last two events with 447 team points, good for a slight lead over New Mexico (442), with defending NCAA champion Denver in third (420?). Vermont (410) and Dartmouth (382?) round out the top five in the 24-school field.

When applying the formula that calls for a maximum 21 team scores to count (DU and UNM must drop three and CU one due to the number of skiers they qualified), the Buffaloes have 438 net points, with Denver at 412? and New Mexico 410.

Colorado is now in the driver's seat for its first national championship since 1999, as the Buffaloes Nordic teams, which helped vault CU from sixth into second at the midway point, will be charged with closing the deal. History is also playing into CU's favor, as in the nine meets with the current scoring format, the school that led going into the final day won all nine titles.

CU is also on the verge of becoming the first school without a full 12-skier team to win the title, as the Buffs are competing here one skier short.

But that didn't matter Friday night, as the Buffs thrived in the first night slalom (or any event) in NCAA ski history. Zikova, who won a school record six races in the regular season, added CU's first individual alpine title since 1999 to her collection by blitzing the field on her first run by over three-fourths of a second. Aimee-Noel Hartley was CU's last individual champion, winning the giant slalom in 1999; Linda Wikstrom was CU's last slalom champ, claiming that crown in 1998.

Zikova skied smart but fast on her second time down Howelsen Hill for a two-run time of 1:22.77, topping Vermont's Jilyne McDonald by a quarter of a second. Middlebury's Megan Hughes was third in 1:23.15, with CU freshman and Steamboat native Lisa Perricone fourth in 1:23.41.

Junior Sabrina Mocellin capped CU's effort with a 12th place finish in 1:26.99.

In the men's slalom which opened the night, Dartmouth's Karl Johnson did what Zikova did, utilizing an overwhelming first run to the remainder of the field in coasting to the win in 1:13.85. His first time down the hill in 36.96 was almost seven-tenths ahead of the Nevada's Luke Patterson (who would finish fourth in 1:14.52). Alaska-Anchorage's Timothee Theaux captured second in 1:14.37, with New Mexico's Tor Fodnesbergene third in 1:14.49, as he overcame a nasty ankle sprain suffered in training Thursday night.

The men's slalom was key to Colorado, as the Buffs were the one skier short on the men's alpine side. For the Buffs to remain in contention for their 16th NCAA title, freshmen Josh Bryan and Jean-Francois Ferreira needed to finish the event that has produced many a disastrous result through the years.

Bryan finished 20th in 1:17.47 and Ferreira 23rd in 1:17.97, as history played into their favor; there were three disqualifications on the night, but every skier finished the slalom, something several coaches could not remember ever happening at an NCAA meet.

"It couldn't go better for us tonight," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "Slalom. It's always one team's luck and one's team's misfortune, and we seemed to have the bad breaks for so many years. But we had the skill and we had the performance, so everything was on our side."

It was the reigning NCAA champion Pioneers that had the bad luck, as two of their women, Florence Roujas and Karin Falck-Pederson, were disqualified following their first runs.

"The guys skied practically their best," Rokos added. "I know they can ski faster, but they had to be extremely disciplined, and the way they finished gave the girls a needed boost so they could ski fast and perform up to their best."

"Lucie's performance was outstanding, close to everything that she did during the season. It was great that she could capitalize on her season-long consistency and win the final race of the season. It was one of those races, Jed (Schuetze, assistant coach) and I, decided to let them do what they needed without giving them too much feedback. This was their show, in the end they knew what to do and they've done it many times before. We talk about those things during the season, so it was time for them to relax and do well."

"It's awesome. Throughout the season you race, and you think about the championship, and I made it," Zikova said.

"This is definitely the most exciting race I've won. I felt really good the first run. That course was better for me. I don't really like these kinds of courses (the second run setup). It was hard to concentrate and focus for me at the top because it was a really big thing for me to lead after the first run and I just really wanted to bring it down.

"I heard at the top that those girls were skiing really fast and really well (on the second run), and it's hard to keep focused and think about how you ski, and not to think about anyone else," she continued. "Because you're not beating those girls or anyone else, you're beating the hill. You want to be the fastest one.

"I talked to Lisa (Perricone) a lot about this hill," she added. "She is a nice girl so she helped me out and she definitely helped me figure out how to be fast on this hill. It looks easy, but it's not an easy hill. You have to know where to let your skis go and where you don't really race, you just have to ski down.

"Skiing in general is not a team sport and this is only my second season skiing for the team, for any team," Zikova said. "Everyone has just been getting used to it. I feel much more responsible when I'm skiing for the team whereas than just for myself, because when I don't do well, the team doesn't do very well. It's hard not to think about it when the whole team, and people come from wherever, and everyone is saying, ?You can do it... you just have to go fast.'"

A funny moment occurred when reporters asked the Czech Republic native about how she selected Colorado, coached by a Czech in Rokos. "Picking CU was easy. I sent out a bunch of emails, and only one came back in Czech."

"Oh my God, it was so cool," Perricone said of her team's effort. "Just the team as a whole did well."

Perricone, the hometown favorite, like the course. "The first run was definitely more my style," she said. "It had more gates, was a little quicker. But I skied a little stiff the first run, I think I was a little nervous or something. I don't normally get nervous but I skied like I was, so I was I guess. But I let it loose a little bit the second run.

"I'm so excited for tomorrow," she concluded. "Yesterday was my first ever Nordic race watching and it was so much fun. Especially when our team tomorrow has their best discipline. So it will be really fun."

"I just love the feel of this place," Johnson said. "It reminds me a lot of Calkins, which is where I grew up skiing back in Vermont. Once you have the right mentality of the place, it's easy to do well. I felt great all day. I had a rough day of training yesterday, but I got that out of my head and came today and just tried to have fun. Right before my second run, the guy behind me said, ?This is fun,' and I just looked out and thought, ?This is fun.'"

"Obviously we were sitting a couple of points off of first place behind DU," Bryan said. "We wanted to catch them and it was really hard for us in the first place with just two men, and we knew we just needed to put it through the finish line and hope they made some mistakes, too. We hoped that we skied well enough to make up some points and put ourselves in a good position so the Nordics don't have anything to worry about tomorrow and our girls could ski fast and win.

"The first run wasn't as dark, so you couldn't use the shadows as much so it kind of was hard," Bryan said of the evening slalom. "It was a little bit difficult to see the runs and the line that you are supposed to ski. The second run, once it got dark and the light was shining, you could see the ruts and the shadows and it made it a lot easier.

"We weren't happy after the GS, we didn't have as strong of a showing as we could have had," Bryan continued. "The Nordics put us in a lot better position after yesterday, and we got a little more space to work with, so we felt a little more comfortable skiing the way we wanted to with a little less pressure, and now they should be able to ski with a lot less pressure tomorrow."

"The girls definitely have a chance to do very well, but so do the guys," Rokos said of his Nordic side of the program. "Erling (Christiansen) is probably peaking right now, skiing the best he has all season, and Henrik (Hoye) and Kit (Richmond) are a little but under the weather, but I believe that with such strong motivation and the fact they the need to ski well to give us a chance to win, I believe they will overcome the discomfort."

"I don't tell them anything special before these things, they feel enough of pressure before a big event," CU Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer said. "We just have to focus on our tasks and control the things that we can, which is take care of the details and let the positions take care of themselves. Things can always change, but we've been skiing great, so we're just going to focus on what we've done well all year. That's being prepared, and our strategy wouldn't be any different if we?re up a bunch or down a bunch."

The cross country freestyle races close out the meet Saturday. The men ski 20K at 10 a.m., with the women to close the championships with their 15K race at Noon. Both competitions feature a mass start, often setting up sprint finishes which can key in close team races.

NCAA Championship Team Scores-1. Colorado 447; 2. New Mexico 442; 3. Denver 420.5; 4. Vermont 410; 5. Dartmouth 382.5; 6. Utah 336; 7. Middlebury 322; 8. New Hampshire 306; 9. Alaska-Anchorage 297; 10. Nevada 199; 11.Bates 156; 12. Williams 137.5; 13. Montana State 134; 14. Colby 130.5; 15. Alaska-Fairbanks 129; 16. Northern Michigan 108; 17. Western State 96.5; 18. Boise State 50; 19. Michigan Tech 37; 20. Whitman 26.5; 21. St. Olaf 12; 22. Wisconsin-Green Bay 10; 23. St. Lawrence 5; 24. Gustavus Adolphus 2.

Team Leaders (Net Points)-1. Colorado 438; 2. Denver 412.5; 3. New Mexico 410; 4. Vermont 388; 5. Dartmouth 382.5; 6. Middlebury 318; 7. Utah 314; 8. New Hampshire 306.

Men's Slalom-1. Karl Johnson, Dart., 1:13.85; 2. Timothee Theaux, UAA, 1:14.37; 3. Tor Fodnesbergene, UNM, 1:14.49; 4. Luke Patterson, UNR, 1:14.52; 5. Sean McNamara, UNH, 1:14.66; 6. Joe Dunn, UNH, 1:14.81; 7. Alex Mach, UNM, 1:15.13; 8. Zachary Brown, UVM, 1:15.31; 9. Charles Christianson, Will., 1:15.32; 10. Greg Hardy, UVM, 1:15.76; 11. Clayton Reed, Midd., 1:15.90; 12. Erik Johnson, Dart., 1:16.66; 13. Lars Loeseth, UNM, 1:16.89; 14. Todd Ligare, DU, 1:16.90; 15. Francesco Ghedina, DU, 1:16.96; 16. Jody Centauro, Colby, and Andre Hokholt, WSC, 1:17.07; 18. Will McDonald, Utah, 1:17.17; 19. Andrew Everett, Midd., 1:17.33; 20. Josh Bryan, CU, 1:17.47; 21. John Martz, UNH, 1:17.80; 22. Eric Mann, Will., 1:18:87; 23. Jean-Francois Ferreira, CU, 1:17.97; 24. Cory Harris, MSU, 1:18.03; 25. Charlie Reed, Colby, 1:19.01; 26. Scott Hume, UNR, 1:19.14; 27. Gaspar Perricone, Utah, 1:21.95; 28. Andrew Wagner, Midd., 1:31.47; 29. John Buchar, DU, 1:34.11; 30. Paul Epstein, UVM, 1:35.11; 31. Sean McKenna, Bates, 1:56.57; 32. David Chodunsky, Dart., 2:07.67; 33. Leo Menard, Bates, 2:17.59. 34. Scott Veenis, Utah, 3:00.50. Did Not Finish?Disqualified--Cameron Barnes, UNR (first run).

Women's Slalom-1. Lucie Zikova, CU, 1:22.77; 2. Jilyne McDonald, UVM, 1:23.02; 3. Megan Hughes, Midd., 1:23.15; 4. Lisa Perricone, CU, 1:23.41; 5. Karin Ohlin, UNM, 1:23.64; 6. Jamie Kingsbury, UVM, 1:23.71; 7. Abbi Lathrop, Colby, 1:23.83; 8. Michelanne Shields, Dart., 1:24:04; 9. Mattie Ford, Midd., 1:24.97; 10. Spela Bertoncelj, MSU, 1:26.52; 11. Kathrin Spendier, UNM, 1:26.64; 12. Sabrina Mocellin, CU, 1:26.99; 13. Amy Beresford, UNM, 1:28.09; 14. Zuzana Charvatova, BSU, 1:28.10; 15. Allison Empey, UAA, 1:28.60; 16. Cecily Lowenthal, Will., 1:28.81; 17. Kristen Poehling, Midd., 1:28.86; 18. Stephanie Vaughan, UNH, 1:29.25; 19. Jennifer Tank, DU, 1:29.41; 20. Sealy Livermore, Dart., 1:29.91; 21. Kimberly Stephens, Utah, 1:30.49; 22. Alexandra Fucigna, Dart., 1:31.51; 23. Kristina Repcinova, UAA, 1:37.35; 24. Sydney Mikkelson, UNH, 1:41.03; 25. Megan Papineau, Bates, 1:45.96; 26. Jaana-Marit Vaekimaeki, UNR, 1:47.71; 27. Hilary McCloy, UVM, 1:49.05; 28. Mikaela Grassl, Utah, 1:53.53; 29. Erika Hogan, Utah, 1:53.57; 30. Leanne Smith, UNH, 1:56.13; 31. Stefanie Klocker, UAA, 1:59.05; 32. Whitney Fahy, Bates, 2:01.96; 33. Elizabeth Thompson, Bates, 2:32.31. Disqualified? Florence Roujas, DU; Karine Falck-Pedersen, DU (first run).

Colorado University Athletics

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Jean-Francois Ferreira

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