Buffs Inch Closer To National Championship

Friday, March 11

Stowe, Vt. (Trapp Family Lodge)

All Day

Colorado

Classical

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

March 11, 2011 | Skiing

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

STOWE, Vt. - The University of Colorado ski team, on the strength of two individual wins and five top 10 finishes in a dominant rain-soaked Nordic performance Friday, is poised to claim its 18th national championship and first since 2006 heading into the final two events of the 58th Annual NCAA Skiing Championships.

Colorado, ranked No. 2 in the nation behind Vermont, owns a healthy 84-point lead with just the men's and women's slalom remaining. The Buffs have 647 points, ahead of No. 3 Utah (562.5), No. 5 Dartmouth (500) and No. 4 New Mexico (492). Host and top ranked Vermont is in fifth, almost 200 points back (451.5), and three-time defending champion Denver is in a fight for sixth place with 409 points, just a half-point ahead of Alaska-Anchorage. All six western schools are in the top nine, as Montana State holds that position with 190 points.

CU's 84 -point lead is the largest through six of eight events at the NCAA's since 2003, when Utah led by 99, and the fifth largest since the sport went coed in 1983. Schools leading after three days have won 14 of the last 16, including 13 straight years (1995-2007); the biggest comeback on the final day came in 1994, when Vermont rallied from third to win the title after trailing by 36 points; the Utes actually held a 31-point lead over New Mexico, which is the largest lead lost on the final day in the 28 years of coed skiing.

Of course in half of the championships, a safer Nordic race closed competition whereas in the other half, often the great equalizer, the slalom did so; though in '94, UVM rallied for a 21-point win with a dominant showing in the cross country freestyle races. If CU holds on, it would be its sixth coed national championship, to go with 11 men's titles and one women's crown in the old AIAW.

How balanced has the CU attack been here The Buffaloes have scored over 100 points in four events with 92 and 90 in the other two; Utah is the only other school to have scored at least 60 in all six races.

After Thursday's alpine events were moved ahead a day to Wednesday in anticipation of a heavy winter storm, that system brought rainfall to the region Friday, when it rained moderately during the most of women's race, causing some foggy conditions as well. It rained the hardest between the races, but still had a light rain falling during the greater portion of the men's race.

Colorado entered these championships with an NCAA record 81 individual championships, upping that total to 83 Friday with victories in the classical races by juniors Eliska Hajkova in the women's 15-kilometer and Reid Pletcher in the men's 20km version. Those efforts highlighted a 239-point day from the Nordic squads, with the men outpointing Utah 124-93 while the Utes held a slim 116-115 edge in the women's race.

Hajkova and Pletcher won their titles in unique fashion: they both wore the same exact pair of skis to race to their victories. It was just the second time that a CU male and female skier both won the same event, alpine or Nordic, on the same day in school history; Kit Richmond and Jana Rehemaa won their freestyle races to lead CU to the title in 2006.

Hajkova and Utah's Maria Graefnings separated from the pack early and traded the lead several times. Hajkova was in second after the first five kilometers, moved into first at the 10km mark, and the two then jostled for position until a sprint over the last half kilometer saw Hajkova break free for a four-plus second win. In becoming the sixth CU woman to be crowned the NCAA classical champion, she completed the course in 53:33.3, topping Graefning's 54:09.6 effort. It was Hajkova's third win of the season, adding to her sweep in the NCAA West Regional.

"I've raced with Maria for two years now, I know her closing style and she knows mine," Hajkova said. "She's really strong, and I was trying to just keep up with her. She jumps out at the beginning and always races with a high tempo. When I was drafting her on the first lap, I didn't feel very good, I have a little longer stride than she does. It felt better to go forward and do what I wanted to do than what she wanted to do.

"I do think I'm a little bit of a better sprinter, and was hoping I would be today, so it was important to stay up with her. I really left it up to Maria to make a move at the end of the race. When she did, I just gave it everything I had and got the win."

Hajkova joins Anette Skjolden (1993), Line Selnes (1998), Mari Storeng (2002), Jana Rehemaa (2006) and Maria Grevsgaard (2008) as CU's classic champions, though she is the first to win racing in the east; all other wins were at western host sites. Rehemaa is now Jana Rehemaa-Weinberger and is CU's assistant Nordic coach.

Sophomore Joanne Reid joined Hajkova in earning first-team All-America honors, skiing the three course loops in a time of 54:35.8; she was in third after the first two splits in her bid for a second straight podium finish after placing third in the freestyle. It was her third top five in four career NCAA championship races. Senior Alexa Turzian completed her collegiate career with a 14th place effort in 55:24.8 to round out the CU women.

"I'm really excited, I thought it was awesome," Reid exclaimed. "I knew I was going to do better on the down hills and struggle a little uphill to have trouble holding onto third place. I was excited to get fifth. The atmosphere was awesome it was great to have the alpine team here cheering us on, especially when you went by where they all were. It was a wall of sound and it inspires you to go that much faster."

In winning his second career race, Pletcher is the third CU male to claim an NCAA classic title, preceded by Ove Erik Tronvoll (1999 in Bethel, Maine) and Matt Gelso (last year in Steamboat Springs). Pletcher, who hails from Sun Valley, Idaho, also became just the third American-born skier to win the NCAA classical race, joining Gelso (Truckee, Calif.) and Northern Michigan's Christopher Cook (Green Bay, Wis.).

Furthermore, just six American skiers have won an NCAA Nordic event classic and freestyle dating back to 1976, with this marking the first time in this span that two Americans won in the same year: Dartmouth's Sam Tarling, of Cumberland, Maine, won the 10km freestyle on Wednesday.

"My skis were really, really fast. I figured if I conserved energy and hang in eighth, ninth or 10th, not crash and wait it out, I could make a move over the last couple of kilometers," Pletcher said. "It was a race of patience for me. I just had to wait it out until near the end and then give it my all."

Pletcher stuck to his plan and it paid off. He was back in the pack early, worked into third after the first split but was 11th at the midway point. He then slowly made his move and assumed the lead during in the final 1,000 yards and won in a time of 1 hour, 5 minutes and 31.4 seconds. That bested Alaska-Anchorage's Erik Bjornsen by 4.3 seconds (1:05:35.7), with senior teammate Vegard Kjoelhamar in third (1:05:37.0) to give the Buffs a pair on the podium. Kjoelhamar led after the first 5km trip around the course and then spent the remainder of the race in second or third.

"This is definitely a team thing," Pletcher said. "My first race wasn't up to my expectations, so I wanted to go out there today and do well for the team. We're having a really good and consistent year that was my main motivation. I wanted to give it all for my team today and I can't believe it worked out. Bruce told me with about 5k to go while he was running up the hill with me that this was just like a sprint, to position myself for the right time,' and it ringed true.

"There were seven of us for the last 10 kilometers in the lead pack and I sat on the back of that pack for the entire race. The last hill is about a kilometer long, right at the bottom of it, (New Mexico's) Tor-Hakon Hellebostad started hammering and going as hard as he could. He got in front of Vegard and moved over to the side and I had a clear run from there and didn't look back.

"The wax was really tricky today, we had three or four options," Pletcher noted. "I went on the same skis as Eliska went out on today, so that pair of skis won twice. They are definitely the skis of the day.' I spoke with my friend Matt Gelso, and we talked about what it would be like to win back-to-back for CU. Its clich , but it's perfect."

Kjoelhamar now has four top four finishes at the NCAA meet, including his title in the freestyle in the 2009 meet in Maine, and a second place effort in Wednesday's freestyle.

"Colorado has a huge ski history it's nice to be a part of that with two podium finishes at NCAA's," he said. "It was a little weird, there were 10 guys together in the front pack, it was hard to ski away, I tried to break away in the second lap but it was slower in front so that pack stayed together.

"Coming into the last hill, there was a bunch of us together, Didrik (Smith, Utah) and Tor-Hakon were in front, then Reid got a gap," Kjoelhamar continued. "It was a little bit of a tough situation Reid and I were both in the front coming into the final downhill. I didn't want to close the gap on my teammate, so I stayed with the others and then got out-sprinted a little right at the end (by UAA's Bjornsen)."

Senior Jesper Ostensen garnered second-team All-America honors with a 10th place finish in 1:06:21.9. He was in 11th after the first split and in sixth at the halfway point, but suffered a fall that cost him some time and places but still rallied to give the Buffs three in the top 10.

"On the first lap I didn't go too hard, I got to the lead and got out in front a little bit, on the third lap, as Richie said I went for a pee break," Ostensen said referring to his fall. "I tried not to stress after that, I wanted to have a strong finish in my last college race. I knew I was in 12th place with two kilometers left, and I passed a few guys at the end to get a top 10. I wanted top eight to get a trophy, but I'll take second-team All-America. It was a fun race."

"I'm sure it's happened on the World Cup, but for the same pair of skis to win twice in a day in college, I don't think it has ever happened," said CU Nordic Coach Bruce Cranmer. "I don't really know what other teams to, but part of it is that Reid didn't have a pair of no wax skis, and the ones for Eliska were close enough. It could be the first time, especially at NCAA championships. It has more to do with the fact that Eliska and Reid aren't too far apart in weight as opposed to gender."

Cranmer has now coached CU skiers to 11 individual Nordic NCAA titles. His Buffalo teams have been the Nordic point champions five times at the NCAA meet (all in the last eight years), with this year's team joining those in 2006 and 2008 which won both the men's and women's totals en route to the overall mark. Colorado scored 451 Nordic points this week (237 women, 214 men); Utah was the next closest with 400.

"It was certainly waxing, you had to have it right," Cranmer continued. "People were all over the place between no-wax skis and wax, you had to make the right choice there. Our guys on no wax felt more secure kicking. We gave them the choice between wax and no wax; based on the results, it was the right choice and I felt safer with it. There's less that goes wrong on no wax, especially if they feel the kick was good.

"We had a great day, you have to give it to Eliska and Reid for their wins, they had great days. I felt if it came down to a sprint, both Eliska and Reid would be tough to beat, they are great classic sprinters. Eliska's was kind of a sprint, but Reid pulled away and said he didn't feel tired and took off. I think Reid had a case of nerves Wednesday (when he finished 23rd in the freestyle). I told him just to take care of the little stuff, stay relaxed and it will be there. I was as surprised as anybody to see him come into the stadium with a gap, it was amazing."

Pletcher actually made some other CU history with his win. In rallying from 23rd in the freestyle to the win in classic, he bested the previous top turnaround by a Buff Nordic skier at the NCAA's: in 2006, Kit Richmond was 19th in the classical but came back two days later to win the freestyle.

"Absolutely it's a great day to be a Buff," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "We just demonstrated we have the strongest Nordic team. Now we will see what will happen in alpine slalom can be the big equalizer, though it was our stronger event throughout the year."

"This was an outstanding day for a couple of individuals," Rokos added. "Reid, to come from where he did, from fifth or sixth place to sprint uphill to the finish line, it was exceptional. Obviously he was motivated from not finishing as high as he wanted in freestyle. That was his race of his lifetime, coming from in the back and then having the juice left to finish and win convincingly. Eliska is a very strong skier and is exceptional. In this long of a race, to have enough to sprint at the end and finish the race in that kind of way is something special."

The slalom races finish off the meet Saturday, with the men's first run at 7 a.m., followed by the women's at 8:15; second runs follow at 10:15 (men) and 11:30 (women), respectively. With Friday's rainfall soaking Spruce Peak at the Snow Mountain Resort, the conditions Saturday are expected to be classic eastern ice.

"I don't like sliding down to finish, so we will ski our race," Rokos said. "We don't have that big of a lead, and slalom can keep everything in question. The weather and conditions will be a part of it and the same for everybody, so we will just wait and see what happens."

NCAA Championship Team Scores (6 of 8 events) 1. Colorado 647; 2. Utah 562.5; 3. Dartmouth 500; 4. New Mexico 492; 5. Vermont 451.5; 6. Denver 409; 7. Alaska-Anchorage 408.5; 8. New Hampshire 222; 9. Montana State 190; 10. Northern Michigan 185; 11. Alaska-Fairbanks 157; 12. Middlebury 154.5; 13. Bates 126; 14. Williams 115; 15. Colby 97; 16. St. Lawrence 51; 17. Michigan Tech 45; 18. Wisconsin-Green Bay 31; 19. Maine-Presque Isle 27; 20. Harvard 26; 21. Gustavus Adolphus 10.

Women's 15K Classical (39 finishers) 1. Eliska Hajkova, CU, 53:33.5; 2. Maria Graefnings, Utah, 53:37.5; 3. Jaime Bronga, UAA, 54:09.6; 4. Zoe Roy, Utah, 54:17.5; 5. Joanne Reid, CU, 54:35.8; 6. Amy Glen, UVM, 54:39.1; 7. Rosie Brennan, Dart., 54:50.2; 8. Sofie Jonsson, UNM, 54:58.0; 9. Laura Rombach, UAA, 55:00.6; 10. Martine Weng, UNM, 55:09.7. Other CU Finisher: 14. Alexa Turzian, 55:24.8.

Men's 20K Classical (39 finishers) 1. Reid Pletcher, CU, 1:05:31.4; 2. Erik Bjornsen, UAA, 1:05:35.7; 3. Vegard Kjoelhamar, CU, 1:05:37.0; 4. Tor-Hakon Hellebostad, UNM, 1:05:39.3; 5. Didrik Smith, Utah, 1:05:39.7; 6. Miles Havlick, Utah, 1:05:53.6; 7. Nils Koons, Dart., 1:06:04.4; 8. Andy Liebner, NMU, 1:06:11.2; 9. Martin Kaas, UNM, 1:06:14.8; 10. Jesper Ostensen, CU, 1:06:21.9.