Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
NCAA Championships
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Skiers Now Third At NCAA Championships
March 09, 2007 | Skiing
JACKSON, N.H. -Â The defending national champion University of Colorado ski team inched up the standings one more spot here Friday at the 54th Annual NCAA Championships, but with just two events remaining, the Buffaloes likely need a miracle to add another piece of title hardware into their trophy case.
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Dartmouth extended its lead to 38 points, as the Big Green entered the classic cross country races with just a one point advantage over second place Denver. By the end of the day's two events, Dartmouth had amassed 511 points through six of the eight races, while Denver had 473, Colorado 429 and Utah 426. No other team has a realistic chance at a top four finish.Â
The last time an eastern school won the national title was in 1994 when Vermont won at Sugarloaf, Maine. The Big Green is gunning for its third NCAA crown, having won in 1958 and sharing the crown with Colorado in 1976. Dartmouth also has some recent history on its side?the teams leading after three days (six events) the last 10 championships have all held on to win the title.Â
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As for Colorado, the Buffaloes never peaked as desired on the Nordic side, as even though healthy here as far illness goes, bouts with colds and flu last month took a toll on several performers and they never fully got back on track. As a result, CU didn't get the number of top 10 or 15 finishes it had hoped for coming in, further exacerbated by the excellent performance turned in by the Northern Michigan women's team.
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In the 15-kilometer women's classical race, NMU skiers again finished in all three medal spots, matching the 1-2-3 effort it posted Wednesday in the freestyle race. It was the first pair of medal sweeps in NCAA women's skiing history at the same meet (dating back to 1983), and just the seventh and eighth set of 1-2-3 finishes in the 25 championships since the sport went coed. The only other double sweep was by Denver's Nordic team in 2000; seven of the eight have been in cross country events.
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CU junior Maria Grevsgaard earned first-team All-America honors with a fourth place finish in the classic race, as she was closed in a 48:12.2 time for her three trips around the 5k loop. She was in third place after each of the first two laps. NMU's Lindsey Weier was the individual champ, winning in a 47:21.0 time to just edge teammate Lindsey Williams (47:22.0); the pair was out in front of the rest of the field by well over 100 meters the vast portion of the race. Morgan Smyth took the bronze in 48:11.4, winning a sprint over Grevsgaard in the end.
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"We expected NMU to be fast...we expected that performance," Grevsgaard said. "She (Smyth) was able to make a gap after the first lap, so she had a 10-meter lead on me. I caught her on the last lap when we were going downhill, and then she sat behind me for the last 5k. I tried to drop her during the last lap, but I couldn't. So then when it came to the finish she out-sprinted me. It was really close but that's how it went. The podium was what I wanted and I didn't get it."
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Grevsgaard completed a fantastic season with 10 top five finishes, including seven wins; she was sixth in the two other races.
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Freshman Kristin Ronnestrand finished 16th in a 51:01.8 time, basically holding the same position after each lap (14th after 5k, 15th after 10k), while sophomore Lenka Palanova was 30th in 53:12.6; she was 27th following one lap and had slipped to 32nd after two.
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In the men's 20-kilometer classic, CU freshman Matt Gelso also earned first-team All-America honors, as he finished fifth in 55:41.6. He was sixth after the first time around the course and sixth after the second and third laps. Utah's Snorri Einarsson won in a 55:06.0 time, just ahead of Denver's Rene Reisshauer, who was clocked in 55:08.1.Â
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In posting his 10th top five finish in 12 races this winter, Gelso became just the second male freshman at Colorado to earn first-team All-America honors in cross country, joining Egil Nilsen, who did it in 1981.
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Sophomore Karl Nygren was 15th in 57:06.7, with junior Kit Richmond right behind him in 16th in 57:12.3. Richmond was ninth after the first lap, otherwise the pair held 15th or 16th at the interval time positions throughout the race.Â
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"It was sad to see Maria not get a podium finish, but I guess that's part of the game," CU Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer said. "She had a good, solid race. As for Lenka and Kristin, they were in there but it was obviously again not what they are capable of. They're obviously a little disappointed, especially since we thought this was our stronger of the two events."
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"Matt had a solid race as well, and he could have been anywhere from first to where he was," Cranmer added. "That's where he's been all year, so I think he had a very good race to end the season with.  Kit tried his hardest, but he never really got back to 100 percent after getting sick. You could see that, but he fought hard. They all fought hard; team-wise, having everybody in the top 16 doesn't hurt you.   But top 10 is what we think of as our goal, and we weren't that far off especially for Karl.  That was a great race for him, and that was all we could have hoped for.Â
 "I'm disappointed overall, because I know we can ski faster and better, but it is what it is."
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"It was something I felt like I had under control the whole time," Gelso said. "I was looking for the guys from DU to pull something out, and Rene did on the second lap. I was ready for that one and I broke away too into a pack of four.  Then the guy from Dartmouth bridged the gap right at the end of the third lap and I got dropped on the fourth like a K from the top of the course and I was hurting.  Overall it was a pretty decent day, actually."
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 "I was able to pick off the Dartmouth guy at the end but not the Utah guy so that was good," said Nygren, who transferred to Colorado from St. Olaf after last season. "It's a lot different when you are part of the team atmosphere.  I like it a lot because you feel like you are skiing for so much more than yourself." Nygren was St. Olaf's lone participant in the 2006 championships.Â
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 "It was kind of an average day, and we really just maintained and couldn't make much of a move," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "We picked up a little ground on Denver and just edged ahead of Utah, but Dartmouth appears to be in the driver's seat. But we're not throwing in the towel"
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"The way I see it, Dartmouth won't want DU to catch them, so they can't just sit back and be conservative," he added. "So maybe with all the attention on the two ahead of us, we can relax and see if we can come from behind.  Slalom is always a great equalizer, something unexpected always happens. We don't have any room for anything bad to happen to us, so we'll have to ski to our strength in the slalom. It was consistently our best event in alpine all season, and everybody felt really good after training today."Â
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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) mountain time; second runs follow at 10:15 a.m. and 11:30, respectively.
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NCAA Championship Team Scores-1. Dartmouth 511;Â 2. Denver 473;Â 3. Colorado 429;Â 4. Utah 426;Â 5. Northern Michigan 380;Â 6. Vermont 297.5;Â 7. Middlebury 264;Â 8. New Mexico 253;Â 9. Alaska-Anchorage 237;Â 10. Montana State 229;Â 11. Alaska-Fairbanks 217;Â 12. Nevada 206.5;Â 13. Bates 131;Â 14. Michigan Tech 128;Â 15. New Hampshire 107;Â 16. Colby 96;Â 17. Williams 84;Â 18. Western State 78;Â 19. St. Olaf 25;Â 20. St. Lawrence 23.
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Women's 15K Classical-1. Lindsey Weier, NMU, 47:21.0; 2. Lindsey Williams, NMU, 47:22.0; 3. Morgan Smyth, NMU, 48:11.4;  4. Maria Grevsgaard, CU, 48:12.2; 5. Aurelia Korthauer, UAF, 49:19.0; 6. Polina Ermoshina, UNM, 49:27.2; 7. Susan Dunklee, Dart., 49:27.5; 8. Kristina Owen, MTU, 49:33.8; 9. Kasandra Rice, UAA, 49:59.4; 10. Sara Schweiger, Utah, 50:20.1; 11. Sara Studebaker, Dart., 50:33.3; 12. Elsa Sargent, Dart.,, 50:40.1; 13. Annelise Bailly, DU, 50:40.6; 14. Carina Hamel, UVM, 50:42.5; 15. Jenny Hamilton, Midd., 50:44.6. Other CU Results: 16. Kristin Ronnestrand, 51:01.8; 30. Lenka Palanova, 53:12.6. Â
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Men's 20K Classical-1. Snorri Einarsson, Utah, 55:06.0; 2. Rene Reisshauer, DU, 55:08.1; 3. Marius Korthauer, UAF, 55:15.9; 4. Benjamin True, Dart., 55:19.8; 5. Matt Gelso, CU, 55:41.6;  6. John Stene, DU, 55:50.7; 7. Martin Banerud, NMU, 55:58.5; 8. Michael Sinnott, Dart., 56:06.8; 9. Juergen Uhl, UVM, 56:07.8; 10. Raphael Wunderle, UAA, 56:09.3; 11. Fabian Figi, Utah, 56:23.2; 12. Phillip Violett, NMU, 56:26.8; 13. Erlend Saetre, UNM, 56:26.9;  14. Even Sletten, Utah, 57:04.4; 15. Karl Nygren, CU, 57:06.7. Other CU Result: 16. Kit Richmond, 57:12.3.
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(Associate SID Lindsay Lew is with the ski team and contributed to this report)
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