Skiers Win RMISA Championship

February 23, 2008 | Skiing

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

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BOZEMAN, Mont. - The University of Colorado ski team, behind three individual victories here Saturday and five overall this weekend, cruised to the 2008 Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Championships.

This meet also doubled as the NCAA West Regional/Montana State Invitational, and was held on the same exact courses that will host this year's NCAA Championships in less than two weeks.

Colorado won the 9-team meet with 555 points, pulling away from Utah in winning by 28 as the Utes had 527; Denver snared third with 497, with Alaska-Anchorage (458) and New Mexico (445) rounding out the top five. The Buffs held a 17-point edge over DU at the midway point Friday, with Utah 21 back.

It was the Buffaloes ninth regional title under head coach Richard Rokos, their first since 2006 on their way to the national title. Colorado now has 22 RMISA titles, 11 men's, one women's and 10 coed.

On the down side, Colorado did not qualify a full team for the NCAA's. The maximum is 12 per team, three in each discipline (men's and women's alpine, men's and women's Nordic); CU came up one short on the men's alpine side. Only Utah from the west qualified a full team, and usually only a couple from the east do so as well; CU won the 2006 NCAA title with 11 skiers, the first and only occasion the national champion did not have a full 12-skier squad. CU and DU qualified 11 this time around.

Colorado NCAA Championship Seeds

Men's Alpine (18 allocated to the west): 13. Drew Roberts; 18. Josh Bryan.

Alternate positions: 2. Tony Cesolini; 3. Stefan Hughes.

Women's Alpine (17): 1. Lucie Zikova; 10. Katie Hartman; 11. Rachel Roosevelt;

12. Lisa Perricone (24. Ashley Babcock).

Men's Nordic (18): 1. Kit Richmond; 7. Jesper Ostensen; 12. Matt Gelso;

15. Josh Smith; 16. Karl Nygren.

Women's Nordic (16): 1. Maria Grevsgaard; 2. Lenka Palanova; 9. Karoline

Borgnes; 14. Jenny Hamilton; 16. Kristin Ronnestrand (18. Mia Gaw)

"It's not that threatening not to have a full team, even though they have changed the scoring rules," Rokos said. "Slalom is always the great equalizer, so those of us who are short on the alpine side can overcome it with some strategy if the usual number of falls occurs." The NCAA used to count a maximum 21 scorers at nationals to equal things out for schools that did not qualify full teams, but the coaches voted during the off season for all scores to count. So those schools with 12-skier squads can count 24, with 11-skier teams counting 22.

"The Nordics are peaking big time and we were fighting a different animal regarding the alpine side, and we didn't fully meet our goals," Rokos said. "But we got two guys in there after having all but one on the bubble.

"For the rest of the team, we qualified four women in alpine and five in both Nordics, sneaking Josh (Smith) in there after he had a fantastic last two meets," he continued. "And we were two spots shy of a sixth girl qualifying in cross. So we'll have some decisions to make between now and Monday as to who we bring back here, but it's really good to have such depth and to have these kinds of tough choices to make."

Coaches have until late Monday afternoon to identify which skiers they will bring; if a team qualifies more than the maximum three, they have their choice among that pool of athletes.

In the women's slalom, senior Lucie Zikova won thanks to a dominant second run performance. She stood in second after the first run, seven-tenths of a second behind New Mexico's Malin Hemmingsson, but smoked the field the second time down and she won in a two-run time of 1:32.51; Hemmingsson was second in 1:33.32. It was Zikova's 14th career win, as she moved into second place by herself on CU's all-time list.

"Lucie could go for it because she had a guaranteed lock on the No. 1 alpine seed, and she's skiing so well it's good to have someone like this on your side," Rokos said.

Senior Rachel Roosevelt finished seventh (1:36.12) and freshman Ashley Babcock 18th (1:38.42) for CU's three scorers on the day. With all the jockeying done in starting positions to improve seeds, combined with CU being down a top skier, it all helped end the Buffs three meet winning streak by the women's alpine team with an uncharacteristic fourth place finish.

Junior Lisa Perricone finished 30th in 1:43.51, as she had some trouble on her second run after standing in fourth place in the morning standings. Freshman Katie Hartman did not compete this weekend, as she joined the United States team competing in the World Junior Championships in Formigal Spain. She did not finish her first run in the Super-G Saturday and will start in the 44th position in Sunday's downhill.

The CU men's alpine had its best weekend of the season, but could not get over the hump to get three skiers qualified for the NCAA's. Colorado leaves here with sophomore Drew Roberts and junior Josh Bryan earning qualifying seeds, and do have the second and third alternates in junior Tony Cesolini and sophomore Stefan Hughes.

Cesolini finished eighth for the second straight day, completing his two slalom runs in 1:47.88; Nevada's Gregory Berger reached the top of the podium for both events here, adding the slalom to his GS title in a 1:46.09 time. Bryan finished 11th in 1:47.88, with Hughes 14th (1:48.88); Roberts did not finish his first run.

"I have to complement the guys," Rokos noted. "They tried really hard to put everything together. It was a little too late, but they still did a really good job and I was proud of them to try until the very end."

In cross country, senior Maria Grevsgaard banked another victory, claiming the women's 15-kilometer classical race, her ninth win this season and 17th overall in her career, as she continues to add to her all-time CU record. She basically led from wire-to-wire in winning in a 53:42.61 time, as she got the jump on the field on the first lap of the course, Her initial split was 46 seconds faster than New Mexico's Ermoshina Polina, who was the eventual runner-up in 54:31.69.

Grevsgaard held her three-win lead over Zikova, and with only two races remaining this winter, is assured of owning the top spot for the foreseeable future. However, the pair is tied for the most wins in a single event, as Grevsgaard has 11 classical wins and Zikova the same number in the slalom.

ALL-TIME INDIVIDUAL WINS BY CU SKIERS

17 Maria Grevsgaard, 2006-08 (11 CL, 6 FS) 11 Anette Skjolden, 1991-93 (7 CL, 4 FS)

14 Lucie Zikova, 2005-08 (11 SL, 3 GS) 11 Line Selnes, 1998 (6 FS, 5 CL)

13 Per Kare Jakobsen, 1988-90 (9 FS/XC, 4 CL) 10 Bjorn Svensson, 1990-93 (6 FS, 4 CL)

12 John Skajem, 1985-87 (8 SL, 4 GS)

Junior Lenka Palanova finished third for a second straight day, completing the course in 56:27.70, the second of four CU skiers in the top 10 for the second day here. Freshman Karoline Borgnes was seventh in 58:02.45, with senior Jenny Hamilton ninth in 58:48.69. Rounding out the CU effort were sophomore Kristin Ronnestrand (12th, 59:48.27) and senior Mia Gaw (16th, 1:00:20.37). As Rokos noted on the team's depth, it was the fifth time this winter all six Buff skiers placed in the top 17, and the fourth race in succession to confirm his peaking statement. Gaw is the skier who just missed qualifying.

In the men's 20K classical, Buff senior Kit Richmond continued on his recent roll, winning for the third consecutive race in covering the four legs of the course in one hour, three minutes and 24.69 seconds. In edging Utah's Snorri Einarsson by 1.8 seconds, Richmond posted his sixth straight top five finish since illness forced him to miss the classic race in CU's own invitational. It was also his sixth career win, but just his second triumph in the classic discipline; his other came in the 2006 Western State meet, which was the first career collegiate victory.

CU had just three Nordic men here this weekend, though five Buffs earned qualifying seeds for the NCAA's. CU placed all three in the top eight Friday and had the trio among the top 12 Saturday, with freshman Jesper Ostensen third in the classic in 1:04:10.72. Sophomore Josh Smith placed 12th in 1:07:33.29.

"It was a good two days and we're happy with it," CU Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer said. "I think we skied well, we're pretty strong, and I'm optimistic, though am cautious about it. But we accomplished what we wanted to do here, we're familiar with the courses and overall we all feel real good about how the weekend went. This is a great group of athletes, they work hard and they deserve to do well. It shows in their results."

One of CU's top Nordic performers, sophomore Matt Gelso remained in Boulder, as the sophomore if trying to back to 100 percent after battling a month-long illness and the coaches did not want to take any chances. Junior Karl Nygren, who likely won't be among CU's top three for NCAA's though he has qualified, also was not here as he is helping to represent the United States this weekend at the U-23 World Championships in Malles, Italy.

Individually, Colorado claimed the most individual race titles in the west for the third straight winter, with Buffalo skiers winning 17 of the 42 events. Denver had the next most wins with 11, followed by Utah (8), Nevada (4) and New Mexico (2).

The 17 wins tied the school mark for the most in a season, joining the 1991, 1998 and 2006 squads; all three went on to win the national championship. Since the sport went coed in 1983, Colorado has won 204 races, as the Buffaloes topped the 200 plateau with five wins here this weekend.

The western skiers will return to Bozeman in less than two weeks and will be joined by their eastern and central region counterparts as the 55th NCAA Championships, which will run from March 5-8.

RMISA Championship/NCAA West Regional Team Scores? . Colorado 555; 2. Utah 527; 3. Denver 497; 4. Alaska-Anchorage 458; 5. New Mexico 445; 6. Nevada 422; 7. Montana State 368; 8. Western State 199; 9. Whitman 185.