Skiers In Third In Utah Invitational

January 11, 2008 | Skiing

By: David Plati, Assistant AD/Sports Information

#articleRelated { display: none; }

PARK CITY, Utah - The University of Colorado ski team had a dominant day on the cross country course but struggled on the alpine hills as the Buffaloes are in third place after four events of the Utah Invitational.

Host Utah leads at the midway point, as the Utes have 297 points, good for a 15-point edge over Denver (282). Colorado is in third with 264, and Alaska-Anchorage is a distant fourth with 235. Utah is trying to win its first meet since it claimed the 2003 NCAA Championships.

The cross country teams had their first action of the young season Friday, as the alpine teams competed last weekend in CU's Invitational at Steamboat Springs. The Buffaloes came out blazing, earning 164 points in winning the overall competition in the classical races, topping Utah (146) and Denver (130). The CU men scored 82 points and won their first race as a unit since claiming the freestyle race at the 2006 NCAA Championships, also at Steamboat, while the women posted 82 as well, but were edged by one point by Utah.

In the women's 15-kilometer classic race, Colorado senior Maria Grevsgaard cruised to her ninth career victory, as she won by well over three minutes in posting a 51:49.8 time around the Soldier Hollow course layout. Utah's Kjersti Boe was a distant second in 55:10.4, but led a 2-3-5 finish which enabled the Utes to edge the Buffs as a team.

Sophomore Karoline Borgnes, who joined CU from the Norwegian Junior Team, finished fourth in 56:04.5, with junior Lenka Palanova sixth in 56:27.0. Sophomore Kristin Ronnestrand was 11th (58:24.1) and senior Mia Gaw 17th (59:40.6). Another CU senior, Jenny Hamilton, finished 16th in 59:22.0, but had to ski independently. The transfer from Middlebury is not eligible to represent Colorado until the first day of classes, which is Monday. But she wanted to compete and had to pay her own way out to Utah to do so, as she also could not take any coaching in the meet from the CU staff.

In the men's 20km race, Denver's Rene Reisshauer didn't have it as easy as Grevsgaard but still won comfortably with a clocking of 1 hour, 1 minute and 28.4 seconds. That was good for a 37-second win over Buff senior Kit Richmond, who was timed in 1:02:05.5, with CU sophomore Matt Gelso third in 1:02:49.0. Freshman Jesper Ostensen was sixth in his first collegiate race, completing the course in 1:03:21.4.

Junior Karl Nygren was 12th (1:04:03.6), with sophomores Josh Smith 25th (1:07:31.9) and Joaquin Goodpaster 30th (1:08:54.9).

"It was a nice way to start the season," CU Nordic Coordinator Bruce Cranmer said. "I felt like we had the talent and we have quite a bit of depth, and we had good fall training and so I thought we were on track to ski well. But I was still pleasantly surprised at the overall results, six finishers in the top 12 between the two races is not something you'd expect on the first day. And I didn't expect Maria to win by three-and-a-half minutes. It was like it was just her own race and she basically destroyed the field. She was 45 seconds ahead at the first split and I said, ?Oh my God.' That's practically unheard of, but she was on a rampage today and it was nice to see.

"Kit and Matt were where I expected and hoped they would be," Cranmer added. "Kit won an earlier competition and is psyched for a big senior year, and Matt just returned from nationals where he did well. The new guys aren't totally tested yet in the United States and at altitude, but for Karoline to be fourth and Jesper sixth, I thought it was very good for them."

The weather presented several challenges to the alpine skiers, as the women competed in the slalom and the men in the giant slalom. Snowfall was constant and ruts developed fast in the soft snow, as several skiers did not finish and some suffered serious injury. CU skiers all finished and escaped injury, but struggled particularly in the men's giant slalom, with just one finisher in the top 20.

The bright spot was senior Lucie Zikova claiming her second straight slalom in as many races this winter, as she used the fastest second run time of the day to post a 1:33.35 two-run time for a nearly second-and-a-half win over Alaska's Stefanie Klocker (1:34.76).

The win was the 12th of Zikova's career, which now ties her for both the second all-time wins by a CU skier and for the top spot in alpine victories. Per Kare Jakobsen won 13 men's cross country titles in the late 1980s to lead all Buff skiers, with John Skajem next on the list with 12 wins when he skied at Colorado in the mid-1980s. It was Zikova's ninth slalom win, breaking a tie with Skajem, and she has now tied Jakobsen for the most wins in any discipline; he captured nine freestyle cross country races in his career.

Utah skiers finished 4-5-6 in the race to propel the Utes to a team win with 78 points. CU's next finisher was senior Rachel Roosevelt, who finished eighth in 1:37.55, but the third scorer for the Buffs was all the way back in 24th place, as sophomore Heidi Hillenbrand had some second run troubles and closed with a 1:44.23 time; she was tied for 11th after the morning run. Two CU freshmen were right behind her, Katie Hartman (25th, 1:44.68) and Ashley Babcock (26th, 1:46.08). Hartman was seventh after the first run and had trouble the second time down the hill. Junior Lisa Perricone was 34th in 1:56.80, as she skied off the course and had to hike on her first run.

Denver junior John Buchar captured his third straight race this season, claiming the men's giant slalom in 2:04.99; even though he posted the fastest times in both runs, his win was tempered by the fact that teammate Adam Cole suffered a broken leg on his first run. The Pioneers still won the GS as a team with 82 points, topping Utah (73) and Nevada (67).

Colorado was led by sophomores Armen Serebrakian, who finished 18th in 2:09.34, and Stefan Hughes, who placed 23rd in 2:10.65. Junior Josh Bryan was CU's next finisher, as his 2:12.06 time was good for 30th. Thus, CU scored just 34 points for the race, one of its lowest totals in its history for a race where it had three scorers finish.

CU junior Miles Cooke was injured in a FIS race on Wednesday and compress fracture of the tibia plateau. He is out anywhere from four to six weeks and will be re-examined by CU doctors when the team returns to Colorado.

"I think the injury to Miles affected the way the guys skied today, being a little more cautious perhaps, but they made a number of mistakes," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "This was probably one of our worst days ever in alpine, but we will take that as a challenge and are looking for a better day tomorrow.

"We had hoped to have four women in the top 10 in the slalom after the first run shook out, but a number of factors led to that not happening," he continued. "But the girls are okay and we feel this result is an aberration. Lucie is skiing her best and put together two outstanding runs, and her winning by a full second just shows her class and where she is right now. It is exciting because every time she puts on her skis, she has a chance to make her mark in the record book. She doesn't overly care about that, but it will be something she can look back on when her college career is over."

The Nordic freestyle races, the men's slalom and women's giant slalom will conclude the invitational Saturday.

Utah Invitational Team Scores-1. Utah 297; 2. Denver 282; 3. Colorado 264; 4. Alaska-Anchorage 235; 5. Nevada 196; 6. Montana State 193; 7. New Mexico 171; 8. Whitman 89; 9. Western State 83; 10. Wyoming 30.