Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
NCAA Championships
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Skiers Fifth After Day One At NCAA Championships
March 07, 2007 | Skiing
JACKSON, N.H. - They came from sixth place a year ago to win the title; if the defending national champion University of Colorado ski team is going to do the same this winter, it will have to rally from a fifth place hole as the Buffaloes had a disappointing day in Nordic competition here Wednesday at the 54th Annual NCAA Championships.
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Northern Michigan, behind four first-team All-America performances including a sweep of the medals in the women's freestyle race, jumped into the team lead with 189 points. Dartmouth, one of the co-favorites along with CU entering the meet, pinned down second with 166, followed by Denver (146), Utah (143) and Colorado (131).
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              However, NMU, a central region school, has no alpine program so it can't add to its point total Thursday when the giant slalom is on tap. Colorado zoomed from sixth into second last year at the midway point, but the events were flopped, as the GS led off the meet and was followed by the classic cross country races.
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"We've been in this position before, we're not losing sight on what we need to do," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "Some of the teams in front of us are not equipped as well, or at all, for alpine. There's no reason to overanalyze what happened today. Those things have happened before, and they'll happen in the future; that is really the beauty of this sport. So all we can do is go out and do better."
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Weather could be of a concern Thursday, as temperatures aren't expected to climb above 10 degrees, with gusting winds and expected light snowfall potentially making for whiteout conditions. The wind chill likely will remain under zero, as it did all day Wednesday when the start of the cross country competition was delayed by an hour.
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The men's 10-kilometer freestyle (skate) race opened these championship events, with Denver's Rene Reisshauer easily winning his third NCAA crown, as he covered the course in 24:52.2. Utah's Snorri Einarsson was a distant second in 25:21.6 in the race, which featured interval starts.Â
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CU freshman Matt Gelso finished sixth in 26:07.3, earning second-team All-America honors in the process. Junior Kit Richmond placed 14th in 26:30.7, with sophomore Karl Nygren 28th in 27:28.2. It was just the second time in 11 races this winter that Colorado failed to have two in the top 10, the other coming at New Mexico's meet when Richmond was too ill to ski.
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In the women's 5k, junior Maria Grevsgaard matched Gelso with a sixth place finish and second-team All-America nod, as she was clocked in 14:34.7. But the story of the day was the podium sweep by Northern Michigan, led by Lindsey Williams' wining time of 13:50.4; she bested teammates Morgan Smyth (14:06.6) and Lindsey Weier (14:08.3) as the Wildcats became the first school to post a 1-2-3 sweep in any of the eight annual events at the NCAA's since the Denver men accomplished the feat in the 10k classic in 2002 at Anchorage.
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After Grevsgaard, one had to go deep down the final results sheet to find the next Buff, as freshman Kristin Ronnestrand posted a 15:18.2 time, which placed her 25th. Sophomore Lenka Palanova saw her on-and-off struggles continue, as she finished 30th in 15:31.
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"This wasn't the kind of day we were hoping for," CU Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer said. "Terrible? No, not at all. But we didn't meet our expectations so we will have to regroup quickly and see what we can do Friday in the classical races. That's usually a little better event for us so I'm optimistic."
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 "I thought Kit and Matt could have been top five; Matt was right there in sixth," he added when asked of the men's race. "They did okay, but I thought they would both be top 10 for certain and that Karl would be top 20. The end result is that we gave up more points than I would have liked to some other schools but it's just the first event. We're still in the hunt, one alpine mistake (by any school ahead of CU) and boom, you're back up there. It's just the beginning so we're hopeful."
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 "I hadn't really given it much thought, but it's just weird being with all the other regions because all season we just race western," Gelso said. "You mix in the other regions and you don't really know how it's going to shake out. We've had plenty of cold races, but western cold is so much different than eastern cold because you mix in the humidity... and it's a huge difference. When we raced in Utah it was below zero for sure but it felt okay, not that bad. Here it's more of a wet, damp cold but it wasn't any big deal."
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"We feel like we can make up some points in the classic race because I'm pretty pumped," Gelso continued. "I'm historically a better classic racer and in a mass start I think I can hold it together. I think we'll be able to make up some points in classic for sure."
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"It was a tough day out there," Richmond said. "But I think as a team we're still improving and we can do better. I haven't felt good since I got sick in New Mexico and racing is difficult for your body. We are staying positive, and I think Friday will be a good race. With the mass start, there is a lot more motivation."
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 "This wasn't the race we were obviously hoping for either, looking at the results," Cranmer said of the women's race, "Especially when you factor in the potential for where we could have been and the reality of where we were. I think Maria had a good race, she's been up there in skating, not winning all the races in the west. But sixth, that's close to where she would be if you factored in the NMU girls; 1-2-3 sweeps in any event are rare at NCAA's. She's not that far off from where she's been skiing, so that's not exactly a disappointing effort.Â
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"But I think Kristin, Lenka and I all thought they would have been higher," Cranmer added. "Lenka has been struggling this year but she was coming around, and we were hoping she would be in the top 15 and Kristin would be in the top 10. This was not what we were hoping for but we are better in classic so hopefully we can make up some points later on."
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Grevsgaard remained positive despite her sixth place finish, as she came in with a western-best seven victories in 2007.
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 "Today was a good race, it was a good start to this championship," a glass-is-half-full Grevsgaard said. "My best event this year has been classic so I'm really looking forward to that and to the mass start on Friday. This race is basically at sea level, so it's different than when you ski at altitude. At altitude it's so much harder to breathe and harder to ski. Here it's easier to breathe and easier to ski, but you feel like you are skiing so fast and you really aren't skiing fast enough so you have to work much harder. I fell a little bit into that trap today."
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Alpine takes center stage on Thursday, as the giant slaloms will be run through completion: the women start at 7:00 a.m. mountain, followed by the men at 10:30. The classical cross country races will be on Friday, with the women's 15k at 7:00 a.m., followed by the men's 15k at 9:00. The slalom races will finish off the NCAA meet on Saturday: the first runs are at 7:00 a.m. (men) and 8:15 (women); second runs follow at 10:15 a.m. and 11:30, respectively.
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NCAA Championship Team Scores-1. Northern Michigan 189;Â 2. Dartmouth 166;Â 3. Denver 146;Â 4. Utah 143;Â 5. Colorado 131;Â 6. Alaska-Fairbanks 106;Â 7. Alaska-Anchorage 100;Â 8. Montana State 92;Â 9. Middlebury 87;Â 10. Vermont 83.5;Â 11. Nevada 68.5;Â 12. New Mexico 61;Â 13. Michigan Tech 42;Â 14. Colby 35;Â 15. Western State 32;Â 16. Bates 29;Â 17. St. Lawrence 23;Â 18. St. Olaf 6.
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Women's 5K Freestyle-1. Lindsey Williams, NMU, 13:50.4; 2. Morgan Smyth, NMU, 14:06.6; 3. Lindsey Weier, NMU, 14:08.3; 4. Annelise Bailly, DU, 14:23.8; 5. Sara Schweiger, Utah, 14:31.0; 6. Maria Grevsgaard, CU, 14:34.7;  7. Elsa Sargent, Dart., 14:39.8; 8. Sara Studebaker, Dart., 14:42.8; 9. Julia Coulter, UAF, 14:43.7; 10. Susan Dunklee, Dart., 14:49.1; 11. Claire Rennie, MSU, 14:49.3; 12. Paige Brady, UN, 14:52.3; 13. Anna Coulter, UAF, 14:57.6; 14. Polina Ermoshina, UNM, 14:57.8; 15. Kristina Owen, MTU, 14:59.6. Other CU Results: 25. Kristin Ronnestrand, 15:18.2; 30. Lenka Palanova, 15:31.5. Â
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Men's 10K Freestyle-1. Rene Reisshauer, DU, 24:52.2; 2. Snorri Einarsson, Utah, 25:21.6; 3. Marius Korthauer, UAF, 25:43.5; 4. Martin Banerud, NMU, 25:44.2; 5. John Stene, DU, 25:51.7; 6. Matt Gelso, CU, 26:07.3; 7. Simeon Hamilton, Midd., 26:08.2; 8. Benjamin True, Dart., 26:08.3; 9. Andy Liebner, UAA, 26:10.0; 10. Even Sletten, Utah, 26:16.7; 11. Sylvan Ellefson, Bates. 26:17.0; 12. Raphael Wunderle, UAA, 26:20.2; 13. Fabian Figi, Utah, 26:21.6; 14. Kit Richmond, CU, 26:30.7; 15. Bill Bowler, NMU, 26:33.9. Other CU Result: 28. Karl Nygren, 27:29.2.
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(Associate SID Lindsay Lew is with the ski team and contributed to this report)
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