Skiers Extend Lead At MSU Invitational

January 19, 2007 | Skiing

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

BOZEMAN, Mont. ? Freestyle wins by juniors Maria Grevsgaard and Kit Richmond Friday helped pave the way for the defending national champion University of Colorado ski team to extend its lead in the Montana State Invitational.

The first portion of the meet began two weeks ago, though weather allowed for only the slalom to be run. Thus, through two of four events, Colorado leads the meet with 306.5 points, with Denver a distant second at the midway mark with 259. Utah holds third, well back with 223.5 points, with four teams within 28 points of the Utes in a tight race for third at this point.

The Buffaloes are shooting for their sixth straight win, which would tie the school record set in 1995, when CU won all six ski races that season. The western record is 11, set by Utah over the 1988-89 seasons.

In the women's 5K freestyle, Grevsgaard won in convincing fashion, posting a time of 14:16.52 to defeat runner-up Annelise Bailly of Denver by over 24 seconds. It was her second win of the young season, as she opened the year with an 18-second victory in the 5k classical in Utah last weekend, and the third of her career.

Sophomore Lenka Palanova finished fifth in 14:56.83, with freshman Kristin Ronnestrand eighth in 15:01.55. An added bonus was junior Mia Gaw continuing her steady improvement, as she posted a career-best 11th place effort in 15:14.07.

In the men's 10k version, Richmond, the defending NCAA freestyle individual champion, recorded a 25:40.45 time to defeat Utah's Snorri Einarsson by 10 seconds. It was also his third career victory and his 13th top six finish in 15 career races. Freshman Matt Gelso claimed seventh in 26:38.44, with sophomore Karl Nygren posting his first career top 10 effort, finishing 10th in 26:57.81. Sophomore Josh Smith was the third CU skier to record a career best Friday, as he finished 12th in 27:08.99.

“Seven in the top 11 with a couple of career best finishes made it a very good day for us,” said Bruce Cranmer, CU's Nordic coordinator. “It was good to see Lenka moving up and John and Mia having their best career races. I also feel good about Kit being back on top, and also this being the best skate race for Karl so far.

“Most important, we posted some good finishes for national qualifying, as anything in the top 12 or better is usually good enough,” Cranmer continued. “We almost have a full team qualified already, and a couple of kids need one more good result. That's really sort of the first big thing... get people qualified and then winning about winning meets outright, and of course, we want to win. But hopefully we'll have another good day (Saturday) and then we won't feel pressure as much to qualify a full team. Then we can concentrate on improving seeds.”

Friday's sweep of the Nordic races gave Colorado skiers six wins in the 12 races so far this season in the west, but Cranmer takes it with a grain of salt (or per haps a flake of snow).

“Doing well early isn't always best recipe for doing good later,” he said. “You need to stay up and of course peak at the right time, and it's really hard to be on top all season. Some can ski well all year, and come NCAA time, they fall off a little bit. I?d rather see people improve gradually through the year, build confidence and then peak for the national meet.”

The classical races will take place Saturday morning, with the final alpine event of the MSU invite, the giant slalom to be made up February 4 in Eldora, Colo., one day after the completion of Denver's meet in Winter Park.

WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES (at Bardonecchia, Italy) ? The women's giant slalom at the 2007 World University Games was postponed Friday, with the possibility of it being canceled in its entirety. Strong winds forced the early end to the competition just after the women finished their first run. According to FISU regulations, the completed results must be forfeited and the entire competition be restarted.

Colorado junior Lucie Zikova was in 15th place after the first run, posting a two-run time of 1:02.96, while sophomore Lisa Perricone was tied for 27th with a clocking of 1:04.28. Austria's Stefanie Koehle had nearly a half-second lead after recording a 1:00.67 time.

The final decision regarding the status of the women's Giant Slalom event will be made Sunday evening (January 21).

The men's slalom is still scheduled Saturday, with two CU freshmen set to compete. Drew Roberts earned the top draw and will ski first in the 113-man field, while Stefan Hughes will start 21st. In Thursday's giant slalom, Hughes finished 32nd and Roberts 35th, the fifth and sixth American finishers in the field of 116.

Montana State Invitational Team Scores?1. Colorado 306.5; 2. Denver 259; 3. Utah 223.5; 4. Alaska-Anchorage 214.5; 5. Nevada 214; 6. Montana State 204.5; 7. New Mexico 196; 8. Western State 132; 9. Whitman 86; 10. Wyoming 14.