Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
RMISA Western Regionals (Nordic)
Skiers Finish Second in RMISA Championships
February 21, 2009 | Skiing
TRUCKEE, Calif. ? The University of Colorado ski team had five skiers place in the top six in the men's and women's freestyle races here Saturday, but it wasn't enough to overtake New Mexico as the Buffaloes finished second in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Championships, an event that doubled as the NCAA West Regional.
New Mexico led from wire-to-wire, its first victory since winning it all at the 2004 NCAA Championships. The Lobos took a 32-point lead into Saturday's final two events and finished with 565 points; Colorado chipped a little bit into the lead after scoring the most points in the freestyle events to end up with 539. Nevada jumped Denver and took third with 485 to the Pioneers' 483, while Alaska-Anchorage did the same to Utah for fifth, the Seawolves scoring 447 points to the Utes' 444.
Colorado was the defending champion and was looking to take over the lead in titles since the sport went coed in 1983, as CU and Utah are tied for the most RMISA crowns with 10. New Mexico's win was its second RMISA Championship, the other coming in 1992.
In these championships, the Buffs were the Nordic overall champions as well as the men's Nordic titlist, along with finishing second overall in alpine scoring, third in women's alpine and fourth in men's alpine and women's Nordic.
Junior Matt Gelso, who hails from Truckee, led a 2-4-6 Colorado finish in the men's 15-kilometer freestyle with the runner-up time of 35:49.3, trailing only UNM's Simon Reissman who won in 35:33.2.
“It's always fun being home because I'm staying at my house and there's a lot of people I know here, I know the courses and grew up skiing on them,” Gelso said. “But as far as making a huge difference, in all honesty it doesn't do much but it's still nice being at home.
“I felt really tired today, still fighting off a cold and I think my body is still working to fight something off,” he added. “I still managed to hang in there and I'm honestly surprised with how I did, I wasn't expecting that.”
Sophomore Jesper Ostensen finished fourth in 36:17.0 and freshman Reid Pletcher sixth in 36:18.0, as the duo was in a five-skier pack from third to seventh that crossed the finish line in a sprint just 1.7 seconds apart.
Rounding out the CU men were sophomore Patrick Neel, who was 14th in 37:06.0, senior Josh Smith (16th in 37:30.3) and junior Karl Nygren (35th, 40:18.1); freshman Vegard Kjoelhamar was held out of racing by the coaches due to some mild illness and they did not want to risk him for next month's NCAA Championships. Six skiers have qualified for the NCAA's (Gelso, Kjoelhamar, Neel, Ostensen, Pletcher and Smith) and the coaches must decide which three they want to take to Maine.
In the women's 10K race, sophomore Alexa Turzian posted her fifth top five finish of the winter, claiming fourth in 28:55.8. Denver's Antje Maempel won in a 28:34.6 time.
“I felt really good, with a lot of positive energy, the great weather. I felt strong,” Turzian said. “I was leading the race and got caught at very end. I tried to push, but it was so tight at the finish. This might not have been the best races for us (in the RMISA's), but as a team we're still strong and have been all season, and expect to be at nationals.”
Senior Maria Grevsgaard was fifth in 29:39.3, with freshman Katie Stege 28th in 33:16.5 to round out the CU action. Grevsgaard, featured in this week's Faces in the Crowd in Sports Illustrated, was looking to set the all-time Colorado record for the most podium (top three) finishes, but remained tied with former teammate Lucie Zikova with 34. She'll have two chances to do it at nationals, where she is the defending NCAA champion in both the freestyle and classical events. Her 24 wins is by far the school record.
ALL-TIME PODIUM (TOP THREE) FINISHES BY CU SKIERS
34 Maria Grevsgaard, Nordic, 2006-09 (24 wins; 7 seconds; 3 thirds)
34 Lucie Zikova, Alpine, 2005-08 (16-11-7)
25 Per Kare Jakobsen, Nordic, 1988-90 (13-6-6)
22 Unni Odegard, Nordic, 1998-2000 (1-8-13)
22 Andreja Rojs, Alpine, 1991-94 (5-9-8)
22 Anette Skjolden, Nordic, 1991-93 (11-7-5)
22 Bjorn Svensson, Nordic, 1990-93 (10-10-2)
19 John Skajem, Alpine, 1986-87 (12-5-2)
“We had a good day, but New Mexico had a better one, that's the nature of things,” head coach Richard Rokos said. “I am hopeful at nationals that we'll still prove to be the best team from the west which we displayed during the regular season. Both alpine and Nordic have the capacity to do a little better at nationals, and it appears NCAA's will be a continuation of how we have battled out west with Dartmouth and perhaps one or two others at most thrown into the mix. We'll be one skier short of a full team, but we've won before in that situation.”
Dartmouth has won all five meets to date in the east, winning again Saturday as it edged Vermont by 15 points in the Middlebury Carnival. The East Regional is this weekend at Sugarloaf, Maine.
“I thought that we had a good day as a team,” CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. “We skied really well and everybody that we hoped could be in there was in there. Josh had some asthma issues unfortunately towards the end, otherwise he would have been right up there with the top guys, but unfortunately he had a little attack when he was skiing. I am psyched though and thought that we had a great day. We were a couple behind in finishes that we would have liked but overall team-wise I don't think that it made a big difference on how the end results came out. I feel good going into the NCAA Championships, we're not 100 percent healthy right now but we have some time to get there.”
The regular season is now concluded in the west; CU was the regular season point champion in the RMISA with 2,700 while New Mexico was second (2,545) and Denver third (2,503?). Colorado and New Mexico individual skiers each won 14 races, with UAA skiers claiming seven, followed by Utah (6) and Denver (3).
The NCAA Championships are set for March 11-14 in Bethel and Rumford, Maine. It is an unusually long layoff between the two, mainly because of the World University Games beginning this weekend in China; however, the United States was not allowed to field a team due to some political red tape so the skiers will wind up being as well-rested as ever for the national meet.
Colorado qualified 11 for the NCAA's, coming up one short on the women's Nordic side. That could be offset somewhat by the fact the Grevsgaard and Turzian both earned high seeds.
RMISA Championship Final Team Scores?1. New Mexico 565; 2. Colorado 539; 3. Nevada 485; 4. Denver 483;
5. Alaska-Anchorage 447; 6. Utah 444; 7. Montana State 379; 8. Whitman 210.
Men's 15K Freestyle (40 finishers)?1. Simon Reissmann, UNM, 35:33.2; 2. Matt Gelso, CU, 35:49.5; 3. Tor-Hakon Hellebostad, UNM, 36:16.7; 4. Jesper Ostensen, CU, 36:17.0; 5. Martin Kaas, UNM, 36:17.4; 6. Red Pletcher, CU, 36:18.0; 7. Raphael Wunderle, UAA, 36:18.4; 8. Anders Folleraas, MSU, 36:42.7; 9. Bernhard Ronning, MSU, 36:43.2; 10. Gunnar Kristiansen, MSU, 36:43.5. Other CU Results: 14. Patrick Neel, 37:06.0; 16. Josh Smith, 37:30.3; 35, Karl Nygren, 40:18.1.
Women's 10K Freestyle (35 finishers)?1. Antje Maempel, DU, 28:34.5; 2. Annelise Bailly, DU, 28:39.1; 3. Polina Ermoshina, UNM, 28:49.1; 4. Alexa Turzian, CU, 28:55.8; 5. Maria Grevsgaard, CU, 29:39.3; 6. Ase Carlson, UN, 29:56.9; 7. Chelsea Holmes, UN, 30:09.8; 8. Kristin Ronnestrand, UN, 30:13.7; 9. Kaelin Kiesel, MSU, 30:22.0; 10. Claire Rennie, MSU, 30:34.6. Other CU Results: 28. Katie Stege, 33:16.5.
(Assistant SID Allie Musso contributed to this report.)
