Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
NCAA Championships
CU SKIING NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!
March 11, 2006 | Skiing
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - The University of Colorado is back on top of the collegiate skiing world, as after another dominant Nordic performance on Saturday, the Buffaloes cruised to the fourth largest margin of victory in history in claiming the 53rd annual NCAA Championship.
Colorado won its first national championship since 1999 and the school's 16th NCAA title in the sport. Overall, it's the 17th national ski championship for the school counting an AIAW one for the women in 1982 before the men's and women's programs were combined the following year.
As for the university overall, it was the 22nd, to go with four in cross country (two men's, two women's) and one in football. CU's last national titles had come in 2004, when the men and women both claimed cross country crowns.
It was the fifth by the Buffaloes under head coach Richard Rokos, second only to former ski coach Bill Marolt, who led CU to seven championships. Rokos snapped a tie with Mark Wetmore, CU's current cross country and track coach who has coached all four cross country titles.
Colorado won with 654 team points, marking the 12th straight crown claimed by an NCAA West Region school. New Mexico finished second with 556, followed by Dartmouth (537?), defending champion Denver (522?) and Vermont (516). The Buffs, who had moved from sixth (after Wednesday's giant slalom) to second (following Thursday's classic races) to first after Friday night's slalom events, entered the day with a five point lead on the Lobos.
It was a day, and week, of accomplishments as well as some impressive firsts for the Buffaloes, the list mounting as the championship progressed:
u CU became the first school without a full 12-skier team to win the title, as the Buffs competed here one skier short; Vermont was one short in 2001 and had the previous best effort with a runner-up showing, otherwise, schools that did not field a full team had finished as high as fourth just three other times.
u In the current scoring format, CU's sixth-place standing after the first day marked the biggest comeback to win the title, surpassing Denver in 2000, when the Pioneers were fifth after day one. In this scoring structure, the Buffs were the 10th school in as many years to win the title after going into the final day with the lead.
u Since the sport went coed in 1983, no school had rallied from worse than a fifth place finish the previous winter to win, and that had happened just once. CU bested that, as the Buffaloes were sixth in the 2005 event at Stowe; in 1985, Wyoming won after placing fifth in '84. And only two have jumped to the top from fourth place finishes: in 1995, when CU won and in 2004, when New Mexico was crowned, both schools were fourth the previous season. And only one time in the 53 years has a school performed a better turnaround, that coming in 1976, when Dartmouth rebounded from an eighth place finish in '75 to tie Colorado for the title.
u The Buffs had four individual champions, the 12th time in its history it has had three or more, but only the third occasion the school had four, along with 1960 (when John Dendahl won three elements, skimeister, nordic, cross country, and Dave Butts captured the downhill), and in 1963 (when Buddy Werner won the alpine combined, and shared downhill honors with Bill Marolt, while Jimmie Heuga won the slalom).
u Colorado's 98-point margin of victory was the fourth largest in NCAA ski history; the three larger were by Utah (by 131 in 2003), Vermont (100 in 1990) and Denver (99 in 2000).
"You dream about it for seven years, and then you execute it in four days," Rokos said. "We proved something that was unprecedented and in theory only, that you could in fact win with a partial team. Everyone knew it was mathematically possible, but we needed to prove it physically. It goes to the credit of all those kids who came in and wanted to prove just that, even though we were underdogs."
Though Colorado was the host school, it didn't necessarily have a built-in advantage other schools have had when they have hosted, according to Rokos.
"Hosting can really help if it is your home environment, but (Steamboat) isn't really our home, since we train at Eldora," he said. "But with five kids of the team being Steamboat local club members all within the last couple of years, it was in many ways a great advantage."
Still, the CU contingent had plenty of support both in-person and from afar. Former CU head coach Bob Beattie witnessed most of the week's events in person, as did over 20 former skiers. CU skiing legend Jimmie Heuga attended Saturday's Nordic races and posed with the team for pictures afterwards. Rokos' first congratulatory call came just minutes after the CU secured the title... from CU president Hank Brown. Calls from athletic director Mike Bohn and former Buff coach and AD Bill Marolt soon followed.
"There's seldom one reason that makes things happen, but I always look for an emotional reason (why CU came together), and Patrick was a big part of it," Rokos said, referring to freshman alpine skier Patrick Duran, who suffered a spiral fracture of his left femur on his first training run for the giant slalom last Sunday. He had surgery and remained in a Steamboat hospital through the week.
"I think we went from anxiety before we came here, to anger after what happened to Pat, and finally converted to joy the final three days," reflected Rokos. "I personally see this as something those kids discover in themselves, and the coaches are helping them to figure out. These are experiences they will carry for the rest of their lives, and they will always remember it as one of the biggest feelings of accomplishment you can ever earn."
There were three other significant occurrences in the meet: Vermont had finished as the top eastern school every year since 1978; Dartmouth snapped that 28-year run with its third place effort; the Big Green also posted their best finish ever in the coed format. Utah's eighth place finish marked the first time the Utes finished lower than fourth for the first time since a fifth place finish, ironically also in 1978.
In the men's 20-kilometer freestyle race, the Buffaloes earned just two points under the maximum with its second best effort in school history. Sophomore Kit Richmond, who fell ill on Tuesday and skied sick Thursday in the 10k classic, rebounded to win in a 55:14.7 time, CU's first men's Nordic individual champ since 1999, when Ove Erik Tronvoll won the same event in Maine. Seniors Erling Christiansen and Henrik Hoye closed out their careers earning first-team All-America status, finishing third and fourth respectively in 55:20.1 and 55:39.1.
The 1-3-4 finish, which earned 112 team points, was second only to a 1-2-4 effort by Bjorn Svensson, Jeff Graves and Bjorn Laukli in the 10K classic in 1991, Rokos' first championship team.
The Buffaloes dominated from practically the start. After the first of the four 5K laps, Colorado had its three skiers among the top 12. By the halfway mark of the 12.4-mile trek, the Buff skiers were running 1-2-3, with Richmond just ahead of Christiansen and Hoye, an order that held at the three-quarter mark of the race.
Alaska-Anchorage's Benjaman Sonntag cracked the Buff trio in the final lap to earn runner-up honors in a 55:16.4 time, while Dartmouth freshman Glenn Randall, who hails from Collbran, Colo., took fifth in 55:39.6.
Richmond was surprised by his win. "I would say unequivocally, yes," he said when quizzed about it. "I was sick on Thursday, really bad flu, and had to race good for the team. I didn't really know how I was going to feel today, I just got on solid food about 24 hours ago, so I wasn't expecting this. I was expecting at best a top ten (finish) so this is phenomenal for me." Richmond fought through the illness to finish 19th in the classic.
"I took a really short warm-up just to see how much energy I was going to have, so I went out conservative," Richmond said. "My legs are on the threshold of blowing up on me, so I made sure that my teammates were helping out to lead a bit, switching off. All came together for me at the end and I had enough to make it count. We don't usually have a set plan, but we usually all kind of try to be in the top ten to make sure we react to the moves in the front. You don't want to be too far behind because of reaction time. If somebody goes in the front you may never catch up ever again.
"Last race, I'm very happy," Hoye said. "We didn't plan anything out; we just started out hard. Kit had been a little bit sick. We just started out as hard as we could because we knew a lot of people are strong in the finish. So we wanted to split the pack and see what happened. Fortunately we were able to hang in there. It was awesome. I loved it.
Hoye was especially pleased with what the CU men did to set the Buffs up for the title. "It's great, especially, when we end it this way to finish three in the top four, it's just great."
Colorado senior Jana Rehemaa recorded the "double-double" as she won the women's 15K race in 46:27.4, a full 10 seconds ahead of Alaska-Fairbanks Johanna Turunen, who finished in 46:37.4. Rehemaa, who entered her senior season with several second place showings, broke through last month and concluded her career with six consecutive wins, which included Thursday's title in the 5K classic.
"I felt kind of tired today so I couldn't break away before the last kilometer," Rehemaa said. "I came here definitely wanting to win both of the titles. I like skating better."
Rehemaa eventually emerged with the lead pack of three women. "I think that happened on the second lap somewhere," she recalled. "I think we just kept skiing and the other girls couldn't keep us with us. Johanna was setting the pace. There eventually was just the three of us, and I couldn't ski away from them. So on the last k-and-a-half, I just decided to make the break and it worked.
Rehemaa, who will remain in the United States for another year to ski before returning home to her native Estonia, loved the collegiate team skiing concept. "I love that we ski for a team, not only for ourselves, and it's great to win," she said. "I've never been hoisted in the air before. That was really fun and very special. And very cool."
Middlebury's Evelyn Dong was third (46:38.6), while teammates supported Rehemaa's effort, as freshman Lenka Palanova took sixth in 47:55.4 and sophomore Maria Grevsgaard ninth in 48:06.2 to make CU the only school with three top 10 finishers.
CU's cross country teams thus accounted for 414 points, easily outdistancing the nearest competitor, Dartmouth, with 289?. All six of CU's skiers posted top nine finishes Saturday, with 11 top nine efforts for the week. Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer was even surprised by his team's performance.
"It's pretty unbelievable, but pretty exciting, and it was a great day," Cranmer said. "We knew the girls were strong and expected them to do well. But on the men's side, I just didn't see that coming, especially with Kit who had some kind of stomach flu most of the week. And Henrik was a little bit on the shaky side health-wise, too.
"Erling was fairly healthy and had a good classic race, so I thought he could be in the top three or four," he continued. "I was hoping Henrik would be top 10 and Kit could bounce back, especially with the longer distance, and still somehow make the top 15. But getting everyone in the top 10 today, and almost for both events, is something you just can't ask for. But they did it."
As to why for the success, Cranmer had a simple explanation.
"I think we've been skiing well, and the seniors were really psyched and focused to win as a team, not as much individually," he said. "I also think they all got pumped up last night at the slalom and watching them do well, so they were ready to go. In cross country, a lot times you want to be positive and be focused, but you some times don't know until the day of the race and see how your body feels. Sometimes you can go out and push real easy, other times for some inexplicable reason, you just feel like you come out flat. Endurance sports just have a different feel. But the guys wanted to give absolutely everything they could regardless of their health, and weren't going to have anything left in the end."
Rokos did credit team chemistry and senior leadership as being an integral part of the win, CU's fourth straight, which began with a win in its own meet, held on the same slopes and courses a little over a month ago.
"It's always very motivating (feeding off each other), especially for the alpine freshman to come for the first time to see a Nordic event, when they realize how much hard work they put into the competition, and vice-versa," he noted. "Yesterday, with the slalom, which was well attended by the Nordic team, there was definitely a great sense of accomplishment when they saw how well the girls and guys skied.
"We depended a lot on our seniors, Jana, Henrik and Erling," Rokos said. "They had the major weight of the experiences, and the rest of the kids were exposed to those. In some sense, we have also the youngest possible team, especially in men's alpine, where only two guys were older than freshman, so they learned invaluable lessons from watching how the seniors went about their business."
Rokos couldn't place where this championship stood among the five his teams have won.
"It's hard to say which was harder, or more difficult, or even most satisfying because each team is special to me," he said. "But this one was probably the most in question because of our last year's standing and effort for recovery. I was hoping but I didn't expect that we could recover to this degree.
"A lot of things aligned for us this year, this week, and we were fortunate to be called up to the podium last to take our place as the champion."
NCAA Championship Team Scores-1. Colorado 654; 2. New Mexico 556; 3. Dartmouth 537?; 4. Denver 522?; 5. Vermont 516; 6. Alaska-Anchorage 451; 7. Middlebury 412; 8. Utah 400; 9. New Hampshire 309; 10. Alaska-Fairbanks 271; 11. Nevada 259; 12. Bates 189; 13. Montana State 185; 14. Northern Michigan 154; 15. Williams 137?; 16. Colby 130?; 17. Western State 126?; 18. Whitman 62?; 19. Michigan Tech 62; 20. Boise State 50; 21. St. Lawrence 25; 22. Wisconsin-Green Bay 22; 23. St. Olaf 17; 24. Gustavus Adolphus 9.
Men's 20K Freestyle-1. Kit Richmond, CU, 55:14.7; 2. Benjamin Sonntag, UAA, 55:16.4; 3. Erling Christiansen, CU, 55:20.1; 4. Henrik Hoye, CU, 55:39.1; 5. Glenn Randall, Dart., 55:39.6; 6. Brian Gregg, UAA, 55:40.0; 7. Marius Korthauer, UAF, 56:11.7; 8. Bart Dengel, UAF, 56:18.9; 9. Kjetil Dammen, UAA, 56:44.4; 10. John Stene, DU, 56:56.3; 11. Rene Reisshauer, DU, 56:58.5; 12. Anders Osthus, UVM, 57:03.5; 13. Michael Sinnott, Dart., 57:04.6; 14. Geir-Endre Rogn, UNM, 57:10.2; 15. Garrott Kuzzy, Mid., 57:21.3; 16. Josh Dayton,WSC, 57:38.2; 17. Erik Wikstrom, UAF, 57:38.4; 18. Jedd Young, UNM, 58:05.1; 19. Ryan Foster, UVM, 58:05.4; 20. Hunter Karnedy, SLU, 58:23.1; 21. Juergen Uhl, UVM, 58:40.9; 22. Dirk Grimm, UNM, 58:44.8; 23. Bryan Cook, NMU, 59:07.8; 24. Seth Hubbard, Bates, 59:18.6; 25. Mark Iverson, MSU, 59:19.0; 26. Erik Gjoemle, Utah, 59:30.5; 27. Lutz Preussler, UNR, 59:31.7; 28. Benjamin True, Dart., 59:41.4; 29. Sylvan Ellefson, Bates, 59:53.9; 30. Haavard Selseng, DU, 59:54.8; 31. Jess Kiesel, Utah, 1:00:15.3; 32. Fabian Figi, Utah, 1:00:22.0; 33. Andrew Richmond, WSC, 1:00:23.2; 34. Christian Coe, MSU, 1:01:34.6; 35. Karl Nygren, St. Olaf, 1:01:43.0; 36. Jacob Whitcomb, Mid., 1:02:35.2; 37. Tim Reynolds, Mid., 1:03:06.6; 38. Aaron Ditty, MTU, 1:04:09.3; 39. David Kurtz, WSC, 1:06:28.9.
Women's 15K Freestyle-1. Jana Rehemaa, CU, 46:27.4; 2. Johanna Turunen, UAF, 46:37.4; 3. Evelyn Dong, Midd., 46:38.6; 4. Laura Valaas, Whit., 47:39.5; 5. Alison Crocker, Dart., 47:54.3; 6. Lenka Palanova, CU, 47:55.4; 7. Marit Rognmo, UNM, 47:59.6; 8. Kate Crawford, UVM, 48:00.6; 9. Maria Grevsgaard, CU, 48:06.2; 10. Laura Van Alst, UNM, 48:16.6; 11. Tami Kochen, NMU, 48:33.5; 12. Susan Dunklee, Dart., 48:39.5; 13. Ashley McQueen, Utah, 48:57.7; 14. Kasandra Rice, UAA, 49:02.5; 15. Nicole DeYong, UAA, 49:02.9; 16. Chelsea Holmes, UNR, 49:20.4; 17. Kristina Owen, MTU, 49:35.4; 18. Anna-Karin Maeki, DU, 49:50.1; 19. Cassidy Edwards, Midd., 49:52.4; 20. Mandy Bowden, MSU, 49:59.5; 21. Sara Schweiger, Utah, 50:01.0; 22. Kris Trysgstad-Saari, Dart., 50:06.2; 23. Crystin Jaques, UNM, 50:07.2; 24. Pavla Havlova, UAF, 50:12.0; 25. Anja Jokela, UVM, 50:24.1; 26. Eva Bohmova, UNR, 50:36.7; 27. Carina Hamel, UVM, 50:45.2; 28. Johanna Winters, UWGB, 50:51.0; 29. Ingvild Engesland, DU, 50:54.6; 30. Claire Rennie, MSU, 51:31.7; 31. Sally Johnson, UNR, 52:15.7; 32. Ashley Quiggle, WSC, 52:31.1; 33. Chandra Daw, GAC, 52:39.7; 34. Kaitlyn McElroy, Bates, 52:48.4; 35. Nicole Naef, Utah, 53:02.8; 36. Jenny Hamilton, Midd., 53:28.7; 37. Joanna Kinsman, UNH, 53:50.3. Did Not Finish?Karin Nilsson, DU; Lindsey Weier, NMU.
CU SKIING / 2006 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
CRACKING THE TOP: NCAA West schools have now won 12 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 (16; 14 wins and two seconds) and Denver (6, four wins, two runner-up) have dominated college skiing over these 35 seasons. Only three other schools, Wyoming (one win and four seconds), Dartmouth (one co-title) and New Mexico (one title and two seconds) have been able to crack the top two in this span.
ALL-TIME: CU rebounded from a sixth place finish in 2005, its lowest since the sport went coed in 1983. The Buffaloes have won 17 national championships in skiing: 11 men's (1959-60-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-82), five coed (1991-95-98-99) and one women's (1982, AIAW). The 16 NCAA titles by Colorado trail Denver by two, as the Pioneers caught and passed CU by winning three straight to open the 21st century. After DU and CU (34 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: The Buffs snapped a string of three straight years without an individual NCAA champion in grand style, as they had four skiers claim titles for only the third time in their history. Colorado leads all-time with 74 individual titles, topping Denver (66), Utah (62), Vermont (52) and Dartmouth (33). The Buffs have had three or more individual champions 12 times; the two times with four: in 1960, John Dendahl won three elements (skimeister, nordic, cross country) and Dave Butts captured the downhill; in 1963, Buddy Werner won the alpine combined, and shared downhill honors with Bill Marolt, while Jimmie Heuga won the slalom. CU has had at least one individual winner 19 of the last 25 seasons.
NACDA DIRECTORS' CUP: Colorado's victory earned the Buffaloes 100 points in the NACDA Directors' Cup Standings, as skiing is the first of nine NCAA winter titles decided for 2005-06 (track will be decided tonight). CU was tied for eighth place in the final fall standings with 240 points (Notre Dame led with 412), and has temporarily moved into the No. 2 position with 340 points. New Mexico, with 90 points for second, vaulted into 17th place with 180 points, having also finished as the national runner-up in men's soccer. The Buffs were second among Big 12 schools in the standings in the fall, just behind No. 7 Texas (244); Nebraska (No. 23, 166 points) was the only other league school in the top 25.
HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS: Richard Rokos wrapped up his 16th season as head coach of the Buffaloes. He has guided the Buffaloes to national championships in 1991 (his first season), 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2006, 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 39 of 98 meets they have skied in, including 34 of 82 in the west and eight NCAA West Regionals (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006). In his tenure, CU has had 80 first-team All-Americans and 130 first- or second-team selections (alpine and Nordic), all adding to 189 top 10 finishes in NCAA championship competition.
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, CU, had one score thrown out). This was designed to allow for one or two falls not to devastate a team when the NCAA, citing expenses, cut back the number of participants from 16 to 12 in 1997. In the gross scoring, Colorado had 663, New Mexico 588, Vermont 538, Dartmouth 537? and Denver 522?.
MEN'S TEAM SCORING: Denver 321, New Mexico 314, Dartmouth 294, Colorado 262, Vermont 245, Alaska-Anchorage 229, Utah 199, Alaska-Fairbanks 173, Middlebury 170, Nevada 169.
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORING: Colorado 401, Vermont 293, New Mexico 274, Middlebury 246, Dartmouth 243?, Alaska-Anchorage 222, Utah 219, Denver 201.
ALPINE POINT LEADERS: New Mexico 314, New Hampshire 297, Vermont 287, Middlebury 262, Colorado 249, Dartmouth 248, Denver 242?, Utah 231. Men's Leader: New Mexico 177 (2nd-New Hampshire 161). Women's Leader: Colorado 187 (2nd-Vermont 165).
NORDIC POINT LEADERS: Colorado 414, Dartmouth 289?, Denver 280, New Mexico 274, Alaska-Fairbanks 271, Alaska-Anchorage 270, Vermont 251. Men's Leader: Colorado 200 (2nd-UAA 179). Women's Leader: Colorado 214 (2nd-New Mexico 137).
ALL-AMERICANS: Eight Buffaloes earned All-America honors in the meet, seven gaining first-team status: Lucie Zikova (giant slalom, slalom); Lisa Perricone (giant slalom, slalom), Jana Rehemaa (classical, freestyle), Kit Richmond (freestyle), Erling Christiansen (freestyle), Henrik Hoye (freestyle) and Maria Grevsgaard (classical); Lenka Palanova earned second-team honors (classic and freestyle). Zikova, Perricone and Rehemaa were three of only four athletes here to post top five finishes in two events. In addition, Christiansen, Hoye and Grevsgaard earned second-team All-America honors in their other disciplines, as CU logged a meet-high 15 top 10 finishes (Vermont was next with nine). Top five finishes earn skiers the first-team honor, while finishing sixth through 10th nets a second-team honor. Christiansen had four top five and eight top 10 NCAA finishes in as many NCAA races in his career, while Hoye had three top five and seven top 10 finishes in his eight.
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. Jean-Francois Ferreira, Sabrina Mocellin, Jana Rehemaa, Kit Richmond, Rachel Roosevelt, Kristin Soenstegaard and Lucie Zikova were named to the prestigious squad.
LOOKING AHEAD: Eight of the 11 athletes who competed here for Colorado are scheduled to return for the 2006-07 school year, as the Buffs lose three Nordic team members: Erling Christiansen, Henrik Hoye and Jana Rehemaa. The only other seniors on the entire team were Nick Sterling, who was CU's fourth seeded Nordic skier as he had a fine season, and reserve alpine skier Joleen Mossoni; otherwise CU will return as many as 22 letterwinners for next winter (12 alpine, 10 Nordic).
FUTURE SITES: The University of New Hampshire will host the 2007 NCAA Championships in Jackson and Attitash, N.H. The west hosts in 2008, and no school has officially submitted a bid, but after the success of the 2006 championships in Steamboat, Colorado will seriously consider bidding to host two years from now.
