Colorado University Athletics
Saturday, January 13
Salt Lake City
All Day
Colorado
at
Utah Invitational
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
Skiers In Lead At Utah Invitational
January 13, 2007 | Skiing
PARK CITY, Utah ? The defending national champion University of Colorado ski team is leading the first full meet of the season at the midway point, as the Buffaloes own an 11-point lead over host Utah after four events here Saturday in the Utah Invitational.
Colorado has 292 team points, earning 146 each in the two alpine and two cross country races. Utah is second with 281, followed by Denver (256), Alaska-Anchorage (221) and New Mexico (194) in the top five.
The story of the day from the CU angle was not the fact that the Buffaloes had eleven performers record top 10 finishes, including one win. It was the 10th place tie in the men's giant slalom by sophomore Tony Cesolini, in itself not a jaw-dropper until noting that his starting position for the first run was 66th.
“This was one of the best races I've ever seen because the conditions were good, and you cannot ski faster from that far back that Tony did today,” CU head coach Richard Rokos said of Cesolini's effort. “If I've ever seen something like this before, it's been a long, long time, if at all. I can't recall a higher finish coming from where he started the day.”
“It was a good overall effort,” Rokos added of the entire team performance. “We collected pretty much everything we could on the men's side in alpine, and it was a very balanced performance in all four events. We had 11 top 10 finishes, and that is great for this early in the season. We're skiing well, not necessarily our best, which is really all right because no team wants to peak in January with the championships eight weeks away.”
Cesolini, who was fairly humble about his accomplishment, moved up 40 spots between runs, after starting the day in the 66th position, he skied 26th for the second run. His two-run time was 1:56.67, with his 57.82 clocking the second time down the mountain the fourth fastest in the afternoon to jump him the final 16 spots.
“I tried to stay relaxed, and my skis have been feeling pretty fast all year,” Cesolini said. “I just felt good, and (assistant coach) Jed (Schuetze) told me to have fun with it, so I went out and tried to. The course held up really well, so it was easier to come back from there (the starting position) than usual. Visibility was great and it was really cold, but it was sunny. I felt like I got frostbite on my toes the first run.”
Freshman Stefan Hughes was CU's highest finisher in the race, grabbing third place in 1:55.60, with his effort almost parallel to Cesolini's as he started 43rd out of the gate. His second run time of 57.20 was he fastest in the field, propelling him into the third place finish. Junior Miles Cooke tied Cesolini in 10th, though he started 18th overall.
Junior Lucie Zikova finished second in the women's slalom, with her 1:30.30 time trailing only Alaska-Anchorage's Stefanie Klocker, who won in 1:29.97. Freshman Heidi Hillenbrand, a late addition to the roster from the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, finished fifth in her first collegiate race in 1:31.05, while sophomore Lisa Perricone grabbed ninth in 1:32.21.
CU junior Maria Grevsgaard won the first Nordic race of the 2007 season in impressive fashion, as her 15:57.6 time in the 5-kilometer classical event was good for an 18.2 second win over Utah's Sara Schweiger. Freshman Kristin Ronnestand supported the effort with a fourth place finish in 16:51.6. Junior Mia Gaw was CU's next finisher in 20th, with sophomore Lenka Palanova following in 23rd, a surprisingly low placing for the two-time second-team All-American her freshman season.
In the men's 10K, freshman Matt Gelso finished third in 29:08.9, with junior Kit Richmond fifth (29:41.5) and sophomore Karl Nygren ninth (30:21.3). Gelso's finish was the highest by an American in a western meet in at least a decade, while Nygren also raced for the first time for the Buffs after transferring from St. Olaf last summer.
“Having three in the top 10 on the men's side is a good start,” said Bruce Cranmer, CU's Nordic coordinator. “Sometimes, you get nervous if you have everyone ?killing' it at the get-go. The biggest thing we all want to do is to get people qualified (for nationals), as you breathe a lot easier; you'd obviously like to win the meet, but it's more important to get some good early individual finishes to set things up for later. Matt and Karl are both planning to go to Junior World Championships in Italy, and thus they'll miss a meet at the end of the month, so having them get in good performances before they take off for that would be ideal. Anything top 10 is a keeper. The rest of the guys did well today, too.”
“Maria was hungry to maintain her status as one of the top classic skiers, and she did,” Cranmer said. “Winning by nearly 20 seconds in a 5K is a solid win. She looked strong and skied great. Kristin finishing fourth was also a good effort; sometimes after a long break, people are up and down, but we'll certainly take a top four with her and she definitely can ski faster. Lenka's struggled a bit this season so far, and it's hard to say why, Maybe a little too much training, as she's a little off from where she's been, but we're hoping for better things down the road for her and I think she'll just get better. There's plenty of time for her to return to form, but she trained well. But overtraining can be worse than not training hard enough, and she did have some adjustments after first arriving here already conditioned a year ago. We're all confident she'll be fine.”
The meet concludes Sunday with the men's slalom, women's giant slalom and the Nordic freestyle races. Colorado will be gunning for its fifth straight team win, as the Buffaloes captured the final four competitions last winter.
The Buffs are actually leading two meets at the same time; Colorado owns the lead in the Montana State Invitational, which was shortened to just one alpine race last weekend; it will be completed over the course of the next three weeks, as the Nordic events are this weekend the alpine make-up race is set for February 4 it Eldora.
Utah Invitational Team Scores?1. Colorado 292; 2. Utah 281; 3. Denver 256; 4. Alaska-Anchorage 221; 5. New Mexico 194; 6. Montana State 187; 7. Nevada 177; 8. Western State 152; 9. Whitman 67; 10. Wyoming 17.
Men's Giant Slalom?1. Tague Thorson, Utah, 1:53.93; 2. Lars Loeseth, UNM, 1:55.02; 3. Stefan Hughes, CU, 1:55.60; 4. Francesco Ghedina, DU, 1:55.87; 5. Tor Fodnesbergene, UNM, 1:55.94; 6. John Buchar, DU, 1:55.97; 7. Scott Hume, UN, 1:56.07; 8. Ian Dunlop, DU, 1:56.42; 9. Andre Hokholt, MSU, 1:56.63; 10. Tony Cesolini, CU, and Miles Cooke, CU, 2:21.3. Other CU Skiers: 26. Josh Bryan, 1:58.77. Did Not Finish: Arman Serebrakian (second run). Disqualified: Drew Roberts (second run).
Women's Slalom?1. Stefanie Klocker, UAA, 1:29.97; 2. Lucie Zikova, CU, 1:30.30; 3. Katie Lyons, UN, 1:30.31; 4. Claire Abbe, DU, 1:30.63; 5. Heidi Hillenbrand, CU, 1:31.05; 6. Mikaela Grassl, Utah, 1:31.41; 7. Sarah Schaedler, WSC, 1:31.59; 8. Chirine Njeim, Utah, 1:32.17; 9. Lisa Perricone, CU, 1:32.21; 10. Kim Stephens, Utah, 1:32.59. Other CU Finishers: 12. Kristin Taylor, 1:32.91; 17. Rachel Roosevelt, 1:33.03; 26. Leslie Fox, 1:36.12.
Men's 10K Classical?1. Rene Reisshauer, DU, 28:21.2; 2. Snorri Einarsson, Utah, 28:43.8; 3. Matt Gelso, CU, 29:08.9; 4. John Stene, DU, 29:23.2; 5. Kit Richmond, CU, 29:41.5; 6. Andy Liebner, UAA, 29:53.7; 7. Ben Fick, Utah, 29:55.3; 8. Raphael Wunderle, UAA, 30:01.9; 9. Karl Nygren, CU, 30:21.3; 10. Christian Coe, MSU, 30:22.6. Other CU Finishers: 23. Josh Smith, 31:47.9; 26. Garrett Reid, 32:12.9; 30. Joaquin Goodpaster, 32:44.6.
Women's 5K Classical?1. Maria Grevsgaard, CU, 15:57.6; 2. Sara Schweiger, Utah, 16:15.8; 3. Kasandra Rice, UAA, 16:29.7; 4. Kristin Ronnestrand, CU, 16:51.6; 5. Annelies Cook, Utah, 16:54.1; 6. Jamie Woelk, MSU, 16:58.1; 7. Brittany Greer, UAA, 17:04.7; 8. Sarah MacCarthy, Utah, 17:05.4; 9. Claire Rennie, MSU, 17:09.7; 10. Crystin Jaques, UNM, 17:10.8. Other CU Finishers: 20. Mia Gaw, 17:45.1; 23. Lenka Palanova, 17:48.9; 34. Maisha Goodpaster, 18:58.4; 49. Megan Wilder, 23:17.1.
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