Skiers Host 53rd NCAA Championships In Steamboat

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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - One of the great things about college skiing is that it is the way the World Series used to be: schools from different conferences don't see each other until the NCAA Championships, and this year is no exception, with no definitive favorite for the sport's 53rd national title.

The national championships return to Colorado for the first time since 1993, when Steamboat also hosted. The men's and women's giant slalom kicks things off on Wednesday, followed by three more days of competition, culminating mid-day Saturday. The resort also hosted the previous time before that, in 1979, and is playing host for the fifth time overall. The University of Colorado is the official host of the event, which will feature the first-ever night competition in the championships when the slalom takes places under the lights on Friday.

The University of Denver comes in as the defending champion, and it won the first two western meets this winter, but rival Colorado won the last three. In fact, the Pioneers were the first school to win at least one meet the season after claiming the national crown since they did so in 2002. But as many as seven schools could make legitimate runs at leaving Steamboat with the trophy in 2006.

A year ago, Denver rolled to a 47? point win over Vermont in Stowe, as the Pioneers won their fourth title in six years; UVM led by 30 over Colby after the first day (giant slalom), but a strong DU showing in the classical cross country races gave it a 21-point lead at the midway point, which it extended to 25? after the slalom. Western schools had three of the top four finishes in 2005, owned the top four in 2004, occupied four of the top five in 2003, and had the top four (and five of the top six) in 2002; that was the first time one region could claim a one-through-four sweep since 1966 and the west repeated it again in 2004.

Colorado emerged as the dominant team in the west by season's end, twice flirting with the rare 600-point mark in the west, but the Buffaloes did not qualify a full team for the championships. If CU is to win its first title since 1999, the Buffs will have to become the first school with less than the full compliment of 12 skiers since the current scoring format was adopted in 1997. Colorado is racing one short, and already has averted potential disaster as when it lost Patrick Duran to a broken leg in training on Sunday, next up on the alternate list happened to be another Buffalo, Jean-Francois Ferreira.

Granted, if there is a team that could do it, it is these Buffaloes. While CU's weakest link might be it's young men's alpine team, CU had three (or more) skiers in the top seven of the other three disciplines. The best finish by a school without the maximum was by Vermont, which skied one short in finishing second in 2001; otherwise, three fourth and three fifth places have been the best.

"It's a challenge, no question about it," CU head coach Richard Rokos said about skiing one athlete under the maximum. "It's not so strange, a few years ago in Dartmouth, UVM finished second with a partial team. So to win, mathematically it's possible, but physically we want to prove it. You can't waste anything, and every detail will count... hopefully other schools might lose their focus on a couple of details and we'll have a chance to make up some points. For us, we will be very intense with our preparation and in everything we do."

Not skiing aggressive is not an option, according to Rokos, who may very well have his best women's alpine team as well as both Nordic teams in his 16 seasons as Colorado's coach.

"I don't think we can afford to ski conservative," he said. "We will still have to go for it, having what we have right now, the kids we qualified, they all proved to be most consistent skiers throughout the season. So consistency is not much of a concern. But we can't afford any DNF's (did not finishes), and if we're in that position, they will have to scramble, hike and get back to where they started."

In the east, Vermont won all six carnivals, overcoming one of the strangest winters in recent memory that saw rain, wind, thunder and lightning ? almost anything but snow ? wreaking havoc with race schedules and even causing some cancellations. Middlebury played bridesmaid to the Catamounts in five of the competitions, with Dartmouth second in the other; the Big Green finished third five times as the order of finish in the east didn't see much fluctuation among the top six. UVM won the six by a total of 201 points, closer than it may seem with a larger scoring base in the east. If an eastern school is going to win for the first time since 1994 (and for only the second time since 1976, as Vermont was the last eastern titleholder), it will come from among these three schools with the Catamounts the likely favorite.

In addition to Denver and CU, New Mexico has lurked within striking distance all winter as the Lobos, the 2004 national champs, would like to return to the top of the podium and win their ? and the school's in all sports ? second national crown. And Utah, the owner of nine titles since the sport went coed in 1983, the most in the nation, always has done well at the NCAA's, only finishing outside of the top two six times and never lower than fourth in the last 23 years.

Six Central Region schools are also sending skiers to Steamboat, but they won't compete for the overall national title, as all six field Nordic-only teams. That doesn't mean they won't make some noise; Northern Michigan finished eighth in 2001, and comes in as a perennial force along with this winter's Central champ, Alaska-Fairbanks.

Vermont's Greg Hardy won the most races in any region this winter, as the Catamount alpiner claimed seven wins, besting Colorado's Lucie Zikova (six, women's alpine); Hardy had the two extra races in the east to get one-up on his western counterpart. Middlebury's Megan Hughes (women's alpine), New Mexico's Tor Fodnesbergene (men's alpine) and CU's Jana Rehemaa (women's Nordic) all won four races.

Colorado led the west with 17 individual wins, nine Nordic and eight alpine.

The current scoring format was adopted for the 1997 NCAA Championships. To tabulate the final standings, a school's low three scores will be thrown out; thus, a team with 10 or fewer skiers is already counting four or more zeroes toward its team total and is thus unaffected. Teams with full 12-skier rosters drop its lowest three scores, while teams with 11 must drop one score. While every champion since the format was adopted in 1997 has skied with a full team, mathematically it is possible for a team with 11 or even 10 to win.

A record total of 24 schools will be participating in Steamboat, but only six qualified the NCAA maximum 12-skier teams: Dartmouth, Denver, Middlebury, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont. Colorado qualified 11 with Alaska-Anchorage sending nine. The previous high count of schools competing in the NCAA's was 23 in 1996, 2002 and 2004.

The giant slalom races open the NCAA Championships on Wednesday, March 8, with the women first up at 9:00 a.m. MST (first run; second will follow at 10:30), with the men going at 12:30 and 2:15 p.m. The classical cross country races take center stage on Thursday, March 9, with the women's 5k at 10:30, followed by the men's 10k at 11:30. The slalom races are set for Friday, March 10, and they will be run in the evening for the first time in NCAA history; the first runs are at 5:15 p.m. (men) and then at 6:30 (women); second runs follow at 8:15 and 9:15, respectively. The competition wraps up Saturday, March 11, with the freestyle cross country races: the men's 20K at 10 a.m. and the women's 15K at Noon. Awards follow at 1:30 p.m. (All times are Mountain and all events are being held in the Mountain Time Zone.)

THE NCAA'S IN COLORADO

This is the fourth time Steamboat is hosting the title meet, having done so in 1968, 1969 and 1979; it's the 11th time for the state of Colorado (Winter Park, Crested Butte and Durango have also hosted the affair). The previous 10 gatherings in the Centennial State have bode well for state schools, as CU has won five of its titles within the state and Denver three of its crowns. The other two were claimed by neighboring state schools, Wyoming and Utah; eastern schools have cracked the top two just four times (Dartmouth in 1956 and 1969, Vermont in 1975 and 1993). A closer look at the NCAA's in Colorado:

Year Site Teams Champion Points Runner-Up Points