Colorado University Athletics
Skiers Off To Great Start In New Year
January 04, 2011
BOULDER - The University of Colorado ski team doesn't begin its official season until Saturday, but that didn't stop the team from getting off to a fast start in 2011. In the first three days of the new year, junior Eliska Hajkova took second place at the U. S. National Championships in the 1.4-km classic sprint in Rumford, Maine, while senior Gabriel Rivas won a slalom race on the Nor-Am Cup circuit in Val St. Come, Quebec.
Because of the National Championships on the Nordic side of things, when the official collegiate season gets underway this weekend with the Utah Invitational on January 8-9, it will only be the alpine skiers in action. The first meet with both alpine and Nordic skiers will take place at Montana State from January 14-16 and then the Nordic teams will finish out the Utah Invitational January 21-22.
Four other Buffs are in Maine this week with Hajkova, including freshman Briana Perkins, sophomore Joanne Reid and senior Alexa Turzian on the women's side and junior Reid Pletcher on the men's side. Pletcher took 13th in the men's 1.4-km classic sprint national championship while Reid took fourth in the juniors sprint and Perkins won her semifinal and then took sixth overall in the under-23 women's classic sprint.
Action continues at the Nordic National Championships on Wednesday with the women's 10-k classical and men's 15-k classical national championship races. All five Buffs are scheduled to compete along with former Buff Matt Gelso. The action continues Thursday with the 20-k women's and 30-k men's freestyle races and concludes Saturday with the 1.4-k women's and 1.6-k men's freestyle sprints.
Rivas continued his impressive pre-collegiate season racing with his fifth race win of the season. He has already raced 13 times this season with nine top 20, eight top 10 and six podium appearances including five wins in three disciplines. He has also won giant slalom races in Vail and Winter Park, a slalom race in Steamboat Springs and a Super G race in Winter Park. Newcomer Andreas Haug is also with Rivas in Val St. Come and took home a 16th place finish Monday followed by a 10th place finish Tuesday in the slalom races. Both Haug and Rivas will race in giant slalom races Wednesday and Thursday before heading to Salt Lake City Friday to meet up with the rest of the Buffs.
On the women's alpine side, senior Katie Hartman has been nearly as impressive, with 17 races to her credit, she has six top 10 finishes that include three podium appearances and two victories. She won a Super G race in Winter Park in an FIS race and in Panorama, British Columbia, in a Nor-Am Cup race. Hartman is in Sunday River, Maine, for Nor-Am Cup races through Thursday before heading to Salt Lake City on Friday ahead of the Utah Invitational.
Full Fall Ski Season Recap
BOULDER - Below is a recap of the rest of the fall for the Buffaloes skiers. Most of the Buffaloes skiers have been in action since early to mid-November. Below is a detail recap of what the Buffs have been up to on the slopes before the collegiate season gets underway.
ALPINE
CU's alpine skiers concluded a busy early winter schedule touring the state with stops that included Copper Mountain, Loveland, Vail, Aspen, Steamboat Springs and Winter Park in both FIS sanctioned race and Nor-Am Cup races.
Andreas Haug and Gabriel Rivas took part in a giant slalom race in Vail on Nov. 15, with Haug taking home 14th place while Rivas brought home a top 10 finish in seventh. The action continued in Copper Mountain, where junior Katie Hartman and sophomore Erika Ghent took part in a giant slalom and slalom races. Hartman took sixth in the giant slalom and didn't finish the slalom race while Ghent gook home 16th in the giant slalom and 17th in the slalom races.
More of the full squad then participated in Nor-Am Cup races in Loveland and Aspen on Nov. 29-Dec. 2. Nor-Am vets Ghent and Hartman were the only ones to participate in all four races, two each in giant slalom and slalom action, with most of the rest of the squad taking part in the slalom races. Hartman took home 13th in one giant slalom races and 19th in one slalom race and didn't finish the others. Ghent took home 21st and 23rd in the slalom races and a 22nd place in the giant slalom, not finishing the other race. Carolina Nordh took home 20th in one of the slalom races while Sara Hjertman took home 22nd and didn't finish the other race.
Ashley Babcock took home a 27th and a 28th place in the two giant slalom races in Vail while Kirsten Cooper took two DNF's in Vail and took a 26th in Aspen as she continues to rehab a broken wrist she suffered during CU's dry land training season. Sophomore Khyla Burrows, also recovering from injury, raced three times in Vail and Loveland but didn't finish any of the races. In Aspen, Haug took home a 24th and 28th place in a pair of giant slalom Nor-Am Cup races. Jenny Allen took home a 25th place in a Nor-Am Cup giant slalom in Aspen, as well.
On the men's side in Loveland all in slalom action, Rivas cracked the top 20 with a 15th place showing in one slalom and 27th in the other. Utah transfer Max Lamb took 39th in one race while Eric Davis and Taggart Spenst each took home a 47th place in the two races. Haug and Fletcher McDonald both participated and didn't finish either slalom race.
Action returned to Vail with more of a full squad with two giant slalom races on Nov. 30. In men's action, Rivas took home first and third, Lamb fourth and sixth and McDonald took home 25th and 26th place. Finishing one of two races, Spenst took home ninth and Davis 13th. Sara Hjertman took home seventh place in both races, while Nordh finished 16th and 17th and Cooper brought home an 11th place finish. Allen also took home ninth in one of the giant slalom races and 11th in the other.
Hartman then traveled to Panorama, British Columbia, Canada for five Nor-Am Cup races from Dec. 13-16 where she took first in the Super G race, seventh in the super combined, 10th in the slalom and 13th in the giant slalom.
The alpine squads then headed to Steamboat Springs for a pair of slalom races where Rivas won one of the races and took 20th in the other. Taggart Spenst turned in the best set of results, taking home a fourth and seventh place, while Lamb (eighth/60th), Davis (ninth/DNF) and McDonald (10th/33rd) all posted top 10 finishes. In women's action, Hartman took a fourth place, Ghent a sixth place, Babcock an eighth and Cooper took home a ninth and 16th place in the two races. Allen finished one of the two slalom races and took 29th.
Most of the alpine team finished up their pre-collegiate schedules in Winter Park Dec. 20-22. Rivas won two races there, one giant slalom and one Super G, and he took fourth in another Super G race. Lamb took seventh in his only giant slalom race, while Spenst continued his impressive season with a fifth and a ninth place finish in Super G races. He also took a 22nd place in a giant slalom race. McDonald took home 18th and 36th in the two giant slalom races while Davis didn't finish either race. Hartman led the women with a win and a runner-up performance in two Super G races. Ghent took home fourth in one Super G race and Cooper took seventh in the other.
Hjertman then took place in two FIS races while home in Sweden. She took two second place finishes in slalom races, the first in Nolby and second in Sundsvall, Sweden.
NORDIC
On the Nordic side, prior to the National Championships, several Buffs participated in the U.S. Super Tour in West Yellowstone on November 10-11. The Buffs performed well against many of their future opponents in upcoming RMISA races. On the men's side, Jesper Ostensen finished sixth in the 10-k freestyle race and 23rd in the 15-k classic race. Vegard Kjoelhamar took home a top 10 finish, taking 10th in the freestyle and also had a 28th-place in the classic race.
Reid Pletcher went through qualifying for both races and ended up taking an 18th in the classic race while newcomer Andreas Hoye did the same and finished 42nd in the classic race. Patrick Neel had an impressive run in the freestyle, taking 21st while he finished 33rd in the classic race and Ian Mallams rounded out the men's skiers with a 33rd in the freestyle and 35th in the classic race.
On the women's side, Eliska Hajkova took home fourth in the 5-k classic race after qualifying for that race in sixth place and qualifying for the freestyle race in second place, although she did not compete in the final for the freestyle.
Joanne Reid took home an eighth place finish in the freestyle race and a 19th in the classic race while Alexa Turzian finished 15th in the freestyle and 28th in the classic race. Katie Stege finished 31st in the freestyle and 34th in the classic races and Briana Perkins took home 18th in the classical and 19th in the freestyle race.
