Gelso Wins Classic; Skiers In Second At NCAA Championships

Thursday, March 11

Steamboat Springs, Colo.

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Photo by: CUBuffs.com

Gelso Wins Classic; Skiers In Second At NCAA Championships

March 11, 2010 | Skiing

Day 2 Results

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS- Senior Matt Gelso captured the individual NCAA classic title here Thursday and in the process led a huge comeback, helping the University of Colorado ski team jump from sixth into second place at the midway point of the 57th NCAA Skiing Championships.

Two-time defending champion Denver continues to lead with 420 points, ahead of top-ranked Colorado, which closed the day with 351; the Pioneers actually held a 119.5 point lead over Vermont after Thursday's first race, with CU in third, just a half-point back of the Catamounts at that point. Vermont eventually dropped into fifth with 287.5 points, passed by New Mexico (319) and Utah (300.5).

Through two days and four races, things are eerily similar to 2006, when the Buffaloes also hosted the championships here in Steamboat. Colorado was sixth after the first day, 52 points back of Denver, and after a solid day of cross country racing, jumped into second, 30.5 points back; the Buffs then took a slight lead after the slalom races and then cruised to a 98-point win. This time around, the Buffs are some 69 points back heading into Friday's slalom races.

"The whole Nordic performance gives the team a second chance," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "I think we're in the hunt. The girls maintained for the most part, and the guys brought us back into the race. Coming from sixth to second is a huge confidence booster. It really puts everything on the line for the slalom; it's a make-it or break-it day. It'll be a rodeo tomorrow."

Gelso was in third at the halfway mark of the men's 10-kilometer classical race, but turned on the jets and finished in 29:25.5, just over 24 seconds better than runner-up Franz Bernstein from Vermont (29:49.7). Nevada's Charlie Smith was a surprising third in 29:54.0.

"Obviously, when you get a win, it's great," CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. "I was super nervous, as nervous as I have ever been, about the waxing for the guys. I know how badly Matt wanted to win, and I really didn't know if we did the right thing on the wax, so I was nervous. I think we did as well as could be expected. There wasn't some magic wax out there, we did what we did and the rest was up to him."

Gelso became just the second American-born skier to win the NCAA classical race, joining Northern Michigan's Christopher Cook who won in 2003; Gelso is from Truckee, Calif., with Cook from Green Bay, Wis. They are two of just four American skiers to win an NCAA Nordic event?classic and freestyle?dating back to 1976.

He is also just the second Buff to win the classic race at nationals, joining Ove Erik Tronvoll, who accomplished the feat in 1999. Gelso's title was the 14th individual Nordic and 81st overall all-time won by a Colorado skier, the latter count ahead of Denver's 76, as the Pioneers have captured the other three individual crowns here.

"I was super nervous before the race about the wax, because I warmed up essentially what we raced on and it was sketchy," Gelso said. "I told Bruce that, but we tested a bunch of other things but nothing was doing it for me, so I was a little nervous going out, but I figured if I just relax and made them kick, everybody else would have the same issues.

"It felt really good to win four races in a row, that meant I was in good shape and as I won more and more, my confidence kept rising, and I just stayed in good shape and I was able to roll that over into NCAA's."

In winning his fifth straight race, Gelso earned first-team All-America honors for the first time since his freshman year, when he finished fifth in the classic in Attitash, N.H. He tied the school record for the most consecutive wins, matching Tronvoll's five wins out of the blocks in '99.

Junior Vegard Kjoelhamar grabbed fourth in 29:54.5, just a half-second from a podium finish, but still earned first-team All-America honors. He improved on his sixth place finish a year ago, and now can set his sights on defending his freestyle title Saturday.

"Vegard was fighting for a top three, that's a really good race for him," Cranmer said. "He tends to be better in skating, and he struggled a little at regions, so I think he's happy about a fourth place.

Rounding out the CU action for the men was junior Jesper Ostensen, who was 20th in 30:49.8. He previously had finished third and sixth in the classic at the NCAA's, but this time had some waxing issues that gave him trouble throughout the race. With freshly fallen snow but with winds whipping up to 15 miles per hour making for an 18-degree wind chill, "hitting the wax" as the skiers call it was more of a challenge than usual.

A light but steady snowfall, along with 24 degree temperatures (16 wind chill) greeted the women's competitors at 9:30 a.m. for the 5-kilometer classic race, in which Denver junior Antje Maempel defended her 2009 title. She basically blew away the field with a time of 16:03.4, nearly 47 seconds ahead of Dartmouth's Rosie Brennan.

The Buffs were led by freshman Joanne Reid, who finished fourth in 17:09.9, enabling her to earn first-team All-America status. It was the best finish by a CU freshman in the classic at the NCAA's since Maria Grevsgaard claimed second in 2006, along with the fourth best effort ever by an American-born Buff woman in the race - Kristen Petty had three top three individual finishes from 1985-87.

"I wasn't really thinking about place, I just went out there to try my best, and do what I could for my team," Reid said. "The conditions were fine. It looked like it was snowy out, but once you got out on the course, it was fine.

"I like skating (freestyle) better, so I was kind of surprised when I ended up in fourth ... pleasantly surprised," she added. "I'm looking forward to the 15K, and it's a mass start, it'll be more fun. We're definitely heavily weighted toward skate races, and mass starts, and distance. All around, it'll be better Saturday."

Sophomore Eliska Hajkova was seventh (17:17.4), earning second-team All-America honors. In her first year as a collegian, she has finished in the top nine in all 11 of her career races.

Junior Alexa Turzian was 19th in 18:10.4, about where the coaches expected her to finish. She is stronger in the freestyle, which is on the docket for Saturday.

"I thought the women did well," Cranmer said. "I always have high expectations. I knew Joanne had the ability to be there, but in a classic race I was thinking top 10, but top four, I was super psyched about that. Eliska, I certainly think she can ski better. She was seventh, which was good. Obviously, Alexa had a harder day, but overall I thought it was reasonable for the conditions and we did okay on waxing for the girls, we were in the ball park anyway.

"I'm just thinking about having fast skis, and keeping the troops relaxed between now and Saturday," he added. "It'll be super important to have fast skis (for the longer freestyle races), so we'll focus on that."

The attention now turns back to alpine action, with the always exciting yet risky slalom competition. For the second time at the NCAA's, they will be run at night, following a popular and successful debut at Steamboat in 2006. The men's first run is at 6:30 p.m. followed by the women's first run at 7:20; second runs follow at 8:55 (men) and 9:30 (women). The freestyle cross country races will finish off the NCAA meet on Saturday, March 13: the men's 20-kilometer is now set for a 9 a.m. start, with the women's 15K to follow at 11 a.m.; both races were moved up an hour due to potentially warm weather as the day progresses.

NOTES: Deb Armstrong, who won he gold medal in the giant slalom in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, will serve as one of the officials for Friday's slalom races; she now resides in the Steamboat area ... Thursday's races featured 30-second interval starts; Saturday's will be a mass start, which will take place in the stadium at Howelsen Hill.

NCAA Championship Team Scores (4 of 8 events)-1. Denver 420; 2. Colorado 351; 3. New Mexico 319; 4. Utah 300.5; 5. Vermont 287.5; 6. Dartmouth 275; 7. Alaska-Anchorage 233; 8. Montana State 185; 9. New Hampshire 155; 10. Middlebury 137.5; 11. Nevada 126; 12. Northern Michigan 88; 13. Alaska-Fairbanks 87; 14. Williams 73; 15. Colby 66.5; 16. Bates 52; 17. Wisconsin-Green Bay 35; 18. St. Lawrence 32, 19. Michigan Tech 23, 20. Wellesley 10; 21 (tie). St. Michael's and Gustavus Adolphus 6.

Women's 5-Kilometer Classic-1. Antje Maempel, DU, 16:03.4; 2. Rosie Brennan, DAR, 16:50.1; 3. Mari Elden, DU, 17:07.1; 4. Joanne Reid, CU, 17:09.9; 5. Kaelin Kiesel, MSU, 17:11.8; 6. Polina Ermoshina, UNM, 17:14.3; 7. Eliska Hajkova, CU, 17:17.4; 8. Laura DeWitt, NMU, 17:19.4; 9. Caitlin Patterson, UVM, 17:25.6; 10. Maria Graefnings, UN, 17:25.8; 11. Aurelia Korthauer, UAF, 17:30.3; 12. Laura Rombach, UAA, 17:37.0; 13. Kate Dolan, DU, 17:38.5; 14. Stephanie Hiemer, UAA, 17:38.9; 15.Theresia Schnurr, UAF, 17:42.5; 16. Casey Kutz, MSU, 17:42.9; 17. Katie Bono, DAR, 17:58.5; 18. Natalie Ruppertsberger, BAT, 18:02.4; 19. Alexa Turzian, CU, 18:10.4; 20. Ida Sargent, DAR, 18:15.6; 21. Natasha Kullas. UNH, 18:18.9; 22. Kristin Ronnestrand, UN, 18:23.5; 23. Jennie Bender, UVM, 18:27.4; 24. Monica Marksvarden, NMU, 18:27.5; 25. Jaime Bronga, UAA, 18:41.5; 26. Caitlin Curran, UVM, 18:44.9; 27. Zoe Roy, UU, 18:48.0; 28. Henna Riikonen-Purtsi, MTU, 19:00.9; 29. Lucy Garrec, CBC, 19:21.4; 30. Claire Egan, WC, 19:22.3; 31. Lauren Fritz, MID, 19:22.9; 32. Carolyn Freeman, UWG, 19:29.2; 33. Lnn Klaesson, UNM, 19:34.9; 34. Rose Kemp, UU, 19:36.3; 35. Sarah MacCarthy, UU, 19:38.6; 36. Alice Nelson, WIL, 19:40.1; 37. Christina Gillis, NMU, 19:44.0; 38. Anya Bean, UNH, 20:19.3; 39. Mellie Park, MSU, 20:23.1.

Men's 10-kilometer Classic-1. Matt Gelso, CU, 29:25.5; 2. Franz Bernstein, UVM, 29:49.7; 3. Charlie Smith, UN, 29:54.0; 4. Vegard Kjoelhamar, CU, 29:54.5; 5. Martin Kaas, UNM, 29:57.1; 6. Bernhard Roenning, MSU, 30:01.6; 7. Pierre Niess, UNM, 30:03.6; 8. Miles Havlick, UU, 30:09.3; 9. Michael Schallinger, UAA, 30:11.0; 10. Dylan McGuffin, UNH, 30:17.9; 11. Patrick Johnson, MID, 30:32.2; 12. Tor-Hakon Hellebostad, UNM, 30:38.0; 13. Santiago Ocariz, UWG, 30:40.0; 14. Ryan Scott, MSU, 30:41.0; 15. Dimitri Luthi, WIL, 30:41.9; 16. Martin Liljemark, UU, 30:47.1; 17. Didrik Smith, UU, 30:47.4; 18. Kristian Soerlund, DU, 30:47.4; 19. Andrew Dougherty, DU, 30:49.1; 20. Jesper Ostensen, CU, 30:49.8; 21. Lex Treinen, UAA, 30:49.9; 22. John Parry, UAF, 30:52.7; 23. Harald Loevenskiold, DU, 30:59.2; 24. Patrick O'Brien, DAR, 30:59.5; 25. Tyler Kornfield, UAF, 31:00.0; 26. Kevin Cutts, NMU, 31:01.1; 27. Nils Koons, DAR, 31:01.3; 28. George Cartwright, NMU, 31:16.1; 29. Oskar Lund, MTU, 31:22.8; 30. Chris Bowler, NMU, 31:24.2; 31. Elias Bucher, UN, 31:24.7; 32. Eric Packer, DAR, 31:42.2; 33. Benjamin Knowles, SLU, 31:55.1; 34. Jens Brabbit, GAC, 31:57.6; 35. Tyler Reinking, MSU, 32:13.3; 36. Wyatt Fereday, CBC, 32:24.1; 37. Tor Christopherson, UAA, 32:24.3; 38. Eric Wolcott, SLU, 32:32.8; 39. Zachary Wetherell, SLU, 32:58.4.