Buff Skiers Cruise To Win At 2011 NCAA Championships

Saturday, March 12

Stowe, Vt. (Stowe)

All Day

Colorado

Slalom

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

March 14, 2011 | Skiing

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

STOWE, Vt. - Goal and tribute accomplished. The University of Colorado ski team honored its fallen team member, Spencer Nelson, just as it had set out to, by winning the school's 18th national title in the sport with a solid showing in the slalom Saturday, cruising to victory in the 58th Annual NCAA Skiing Championships.

It was only fitting that the Buffaloes iced the title by closing with a men's team win in the slalom, a race no doubt Nelson would have participated in after having done so as a freshman last year in Steamboat Springs before a hiking accident took the 20-year-old's life last August 15.

"It was our goal to do this for Spencer from the beginning, and we were consistently accomplishing that goal throughout the season," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "Every single run, every single meet, everybody kept it in their minds. In the end, we accomplished it and it was the biggest satisfaction to follow through. It was a high goal from the start to want to do this for him and his family." Nelson's father, Peter, was in Stowe to witness it first-hand.

CU head coach Richard Rokos (left) holds the NCAA championship trophy with Peter Nelson, Spencer's father.

Colorado amassed 831 team points, the most in the current scoring format which has been applied the last three years; it was a top five scoring performance dating back 29 winters when prorating is taken into consideration. The Buffaloes defeated runner-up Utah by 80.5 points, the fifth biggest winning margin in NCAA ski history: the four larger were by Utah (by 131 in 2003), Vermont (100 in 1990), Denver (99 in 2000) and the CU (98 in 2006).

Utah piled up 750.5 points to easily grab runner-up honors, which CU had earned the previous three winters, with Dartmouth (643), New Mexico (632) and former three-time defending champion Denver (592) rounding out the top five. Vermont, which came into these championships ranked No. 1 ahead of the Buffs, was sixth (575.5). For the 19th consecutive year, western schools secured three of the top four spots.

This is CU's sixth title in skiing since the sport went coed in 1983, all under Rokos, as the Buffaloes previously won titles in 1991, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2006; Colorado had won 11 NCAA men's and one AIAW women's titles before the genders merged. Overall, it is the school's 24th national championship, including three in men's cross country (2001, 2004, 2006), two in women's cross country (2000, 2004) and one in football (1990).

Colorado led from wire-to-wire, the first time the Buffaloes accomplished that since a "double" in 1982; that year, the men led throughout in Lake Placid, N.Y., while the women did the same, ironically also in Stowe. Schools leading after three days (six events) have now won 15 of the last 17 titles, and there was no comeback in the works by any of CU's pursuers Saturday due to a strong but conservative Buffalo approach to the slalom.

CU entered the day with an 84?-point lead over Utah, with the men's slalom up first. With extremely icy conditions on Spruce Peak, the slalom was even more dangerous than usual, but the three Buff skiers held the fourth, sixth and 13th position after the first run with the coaches' advice permeating their thoughts: just finish, finish, finish.

Senior Gabriel Rivas went out in style, working from fourth into second with a two-run time of 1:40.60; Vermont's Tim Kelley skied his second run right after Rivas' and would win in 1:39.42, with the other two skiers that posted faster times in the first run both being disqualified, leaving the pair to finish 1-2.

"The conditions were rough, Rivas said. "We saw all the guys going down and skiing out, and the snow wasn't getting better at all, we just said we have to open our eyes and concentrate and make it down, keep to the basics. I wasn't expecting to podium today, it's a great way to top off my career.

"We've been second the two years that I've been here, this feels great, there's not much else to say, winning a national championship is indescribable."

"I believe Gabriel has a long way to go in the sport of skiing," Rokos said of his star alpiner. "When he comes to the normal format of races and the expectation on him will be to finish 50 percent of those, he can go full out and ski really fast. For him this was three years of experience with something he learned how to be consistent, and now that he doesn't have to be as consistent, he will be more confident because of his time here."

Sophomore Max Lamb, who replaced injured junior Eric Davis (concussion) the day before CU left for Vermont, really came through for the Buffaloes. He followed up a 12th place finish in Wednesday's giant slalom with a 10th place effort in the slalom, with his 1:44.26 time earning him second-team All-American honors.

Freshman Andreas Haug was 20th in 1:52.51; he was in sixth after the first run, but fell and had to hike a little bit his second time down and finished in 1:52.51. Rokos thought he was skiing well enough for a top five finish had he not had the blip in the second run.

"This was definitely the toughest race of the season," said Haug, the west's Alpine MVP skier this past winter. "With the rain, it was icy before we got here, and then it snowed hard, it made it tough. Not many teams finished three guys in any event, you could see it in the GS too. It was more important for us to get to the finish and score points for the team than go all out and get a higher placement for ourselves.

"It's awesome being a part of a team like this with this much team spirit," Haug added. "Everybody on the team, for Spencer, it meant something big for everybody."

After the solid men's performance, the Buffs built a 100?-point lead over Utah heading into the women's slalom, basically having the title clinched barring total disaster. Regardless, the Buffaloes took few if any risks and the CU women all came in one after the other in finishing 10th, 11th and 12, with the trio timed just 7/100ths of a second apart.

Sophomore Erika Ghent led the way with a two-run time of 1:58.09, followed by senior Carolina Nordh (1:58.13) and junior Sara Hjertman (1:58.16). Denver's Sterling Grant, who was dominant in the slalom in the west all winter, remained on a roll in winning in 1:54.27, almost a full second (.98) ahead of teammate Lindsay Cone.

"This feels really good. We've worked really hard," Ghent said. "As everybody knows, we dedicated this season to Spencer and we did it for him, so it's really cool to have all the hard work pay off.

"On the first run, the conditions were really, really tough, there wasn't a hard surface. The second run it got cold, so it froze up a little and the conditions were better in general.

"All of our approaches going into today were to be pretty conservative and make sure we got to the bottom," Ghent added regarding the CU strategy. "We knew we needed to be solid and fast, but the most important thing was to get to the bottom intact."

"I'm so happy, this was everything I wanted this year," Nordh said after completing her CU career. "I'm going to start crying, every time I think about it. I tried not to think about it at the start, but it crossed my mind and then when I crossed the finish line and saw everybody standing there, it was such a great moment.

"We've gone through a lot this year," she added. "First Spencer, and then the bad car accident, some of my teammates got hurt. And then being a senior, last year, you want to accomplish so much and we did." (Two ski vans were in an accident in February while heading to Eldora to train; two skiers suffered concussions though they did not feel the effects immediately.)

"Ending with slalom is still new for us, having a cushion that the Nordics built for us yesterday," Rokos said. "I prefer to be the underdog and not be chased. Utah chased us today, they didn't have anything to lose, they couldn't lose second place but we could easily lose our lead. The main thing was an extreme level of discipline on the alpine side. It's not easy to do what we did today. There are 60 sticks in your way.

"A couple of years ago, we were talking about it, we decided we can't ski that way, we have to go out and ski a normal race. A normal race for alpine is you finish 50 percent of your starts. We can't do that here. Our goal this year was to ski 110 percent in the season and come to NCAAs and finish skiing 90 percent or so, so we have a cushion and room for error. Everybody accomplished that goal. We didn't get as many podiums, so lost a battle here and there, but we won the war."

The CU attack here was as balanced as it could possibly be. The Buffaloes scored over 100 points in four races and over 90 in seven of the eight; only in the women's slalom did CU not reach 90, but the team had no problem settling for 87 when all CU needed to clinch the win were 42. Utah was the only other school to score as many as 60 in all eight races.

In addition, 10 of Colorado's 12 skiers here garnered some kind of All-American honor, including eight first-team performers, three of whom earned the nod twice for top five finishes in both their events. This is CU's most All-Americans since having 12 in 1995 (when schools were allowed 16 skiers instead of the current 12), and the most first-teamers since nine were recognized in 1991, Rokos' first year as head coach.

"It wasn't just depth, it was also the strength of our teams," Rokos said of the balance. "Nordic was extremely strong and did a great job, and Alpine did an equally great job to complement it. It was probably one of the toughest conditions for waxing as could be (on Friday), so it took a Master's degree in chemistry to figure out the wax and Bruce (Cranmer, Nordic coach) did just that. And with the changing conditions during the race, it was nothing short of a masterpiece on their part."

Rokos spoke about what this season meant to him.

"This is a milestone win. After five years of drought, with DU's dominance, and everything that happened to this team," he lamented. "The last three championships we've been second and that's a great accomplishment but at the same time, it feels awful because it's not your goal. We put so much energy behind it every year that to finish just short of your goal. This is a reward for all of what those athletes put into it.

"Last night I couldn't sleep, not because of nervousness of the race, just revisiting the whole season," he said. "In my career personally, this is the most outstanding of my 21 years. Spencer's death put a cover on the season, we all felt awful and lots of people realized, it moved their spiritual thinking to a different level, this was an unbelievable experience for everybody. We dedicated the season to Spencer and we achieved that goal. So it's a lesson that if you work hard, you can achieve those goals.

"Then we went to World University Games (in Turkey) and had the most successful trip for an Alpine team for any U.S. team traveling abroad ever at any level (the team won five gold and two silver medals). While there, we lost Katie Hartman for the season, the high of winning a gold medal one day and being out for the season the next. She had a great perspective on it, and moved on.

"Then we had our accident in the vans," he continued. "In seven seconds, we depleted our fleet of vehicles. Coming out of there with no scratches is a miracle. That's another lesson on how delicate life is.

"All three of those things happen, but to happen to one team. The accident for me was a wakeup call, after 20 years you take a lot of things for granted, and I drive that canyon every day."

Rokos' six national titles has him one behind Bill Marolt, who coached the ski team to seven, all consecutive from 1972-78; he snapped a tie with current cross country coach Mark Wetmore, who has led the men's and women's team to five.

Marolt of course returned to CU and eventually hired Rokos as coach in the summer of 1990. "I told Bill that I wouldn't quit until I have at least seven titles, now I am right on his heels," Rokos joked. "It's been a good challenge."

"We had a tremendous season," Rokos concluded. "We won all our competitions except New Mexico when most of our alpine team was at the World University Games and Joanne (Reid, Nordic skier) was at the Junior World Championships. To accomplish what we did is a special thing."

NCAA Championship Team Scores (Final/Official; 8 events)-1. Colorado 831; 2. Utah 750.5; 3. Dartmouth 643; 4. New Mexico 632; 5. Denver 592; 6. Vermont 575.5; 7. Alaska-Anchorage 488.5; 8. New Hampshire 344; 9. Middlebury 246.5; 10. Montana State 230; 11. Bates 196; 12. Northern Michigan 185; 13. Alaska-Fairbanks 157; 15. Williams 149; 15. Colby 121; 16. St. Lawrence 95; 17. Harvard 58; 18. Michigan Tech 45; 19. Wisconsin-Green Bay 31; 20. Maine-Presque Isle 27; 21. Gustavus Adolphus 10.

Men's Slalom (27 finishers)-1. Tim Kelley, UVM, 1:39.42; 2. Gabriel Rivas, CU, 1:40.60; 3. Zach Clayton, UNH, 1:41.59; 4. Trevor Leafe, Dart., 1:41.90; 5. Torjus Krogdhahl, Utah, 1:42.70; 6. Andrew McNealus, Midd., 1:43.49; 7. Armin Triendl, UNM, 1:44.02; 8. Sam Coffey, UNH, 1:44.16; 9. Andreas Kilde, DU, 1:44.19; 10. Max Lamb, CU, 1:44.26. Other CU Finisher: 20. Andreas Haug, 1:52.51.

Women's Slalom (28 finishers)-1. Sterling Grant, DU, 1:54.27; 2. Lindsay Cone, DU, 1:55.25; 3. Ashley Durham, SLU, 1:55.61; 4. Kate Ryley, UVM, 1:55.92; 5. Tii-Maria Romar, Utah, 1:56.46; 6. Eva Huckova, UNM, 1:57.02; 7. Anne Brusletto, UNM, 1:57.06; 8. Lyndee Janowiak, UVM, 1:57.10; 9. Anna Kocken, Utah, 1:57.96; 10. Erika Ghent, CU, 1:58.09. Other CU Finishers: 11. Carolina Nordh, 1:58.13; 12. Sara Hjertman, 1:58.16.

CU SKIING / 2011 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

IN-THE-END: Listed below is how the 2011 championship broke down: Colorado was the overall Nordic champion for the fifth time in the last eight years and the overall Alpine champion for the first time since 1999; this marks the first time since jumping was eliminated (late 1970s) that the Buffs were the Alpine and Nordic champions in the same year. In addition, the Buffs were also the overall men's and women's point champions; the sixth time for the men and the seventh time for the women since the sport went coed in 1983, but the first time both have done so at the same championships.

MEN'S TEAM SCORING: Colorado 403, Utah 360, Dartmouth 337, New Mexico 309, Denver 287, Vermont 233, Alaska-Anchorage 220?, New Hampshire 178

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORING: Colorado 428, Utah 390?, Vermont 342?, New Mexico 323, Dartmouth 306, Denver 305, Alaska-Anchorage 268, New Hampshire 166

ALPINE POINT LEADERS: Colorado 380, Utah 350?, New Mexico 328, Denver 327, Vermont 292?, Dartmouth 265, New Hampshire 254, Alaska-Anchorage 218?

Men's Leader: Colorado 189 (2nd?Utah 166). Women's Leader: Denver 192 (2nd?Colorado 191).

NORDIC POINT LEADERS: Colorado 451, Utah 400, Denver 377, Montana State 316, New Mexico 288, Alaska-Anch. 267, Dartmouth 237, Vermont 194

Men's Leader: Colorado 214 (2nd?Utah 194). Women's Leader: Colorado 237 (2nd?Utah 206).

CRACKING THE TOP: NCAA West schools have now won 16 of the last 17 championships, as the skiing elite fraternity remains hard to crack; only seven different schools have claimed the title since the sport went coed in 1983: Utah (9 titles), Denver (7), Colorado (6), Vermont (4), Dartmouth (1), New Mexico (1) and Wyoming (1). But since the '67 title meet, Colorado (21 first or second place finishes, including 15 wins), Utah (20; 10, 10), Vermont (19; 5, 14) and Denver (16; 11, 5) have dominated college skiing over these 45 seasons. Only three other schools, Wyoming (two wins and four seconds), Dartmouth (two wins, two seconds) and New Mexico (one title and two seconds) have been able to crack the top two in this span (note: adds to 46 titles since CU and Dartmouth shared '76 crown).

CU ALL-TIME: The Buffaloes have won 18 national championships in skiing: 11 men's (1959-60-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-82), six coed (1991-95-98-99-2006-10) and one women's (1982, AIAW). The 17 NCAA titles by Colorado trail Denver by five, as the Pioneers caught and passed CU by winning three straight to open the 21st century and extended their lead with three more from 2008-10. After DU and CU (38 combined), Utah has won 10, Vermont 5, Dartmouth 3, Wyoming 2 and New Mexico 1 (CU and Dartmouth tied for the '76 crown).

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS: The Buffs had two individual NCAA champions this winter, and posted eight top five efforts overall, including one runner-up finish. Colorado leads all-time with 83 individual titles, topping Denver (79), Utah (65), Vermont (56), Dartmouth (35), Wyoming (19), New Mexico (12) and Middlebury (10); other individual winners in 2011 came from Denver (three), with one each also from Dartmouth, Utah and Vermont. The Buffs have had two or more individual champions 27 times (three or more 13 times), including four occasions when CU skiers topped the podium four times: 1960, John Dendahl (skimeister, nordic, cross country) and Dave Butts (downhill); in 1963, Buddy Werner (alpine combined, downhill), Bill Marolt (downhill) and Jimmie Heuga (slalom); in 2006, Jana Rehemaa (classical, freestyle), Kit Richmond (freestyle) and Lucie Zikova (downhill); and in 2008, Maria Grevsgaard (freestyle, classical) and Lucie Zikova (giant slalom, slalom). CU has had at least one individual champion 23 of the last 30 years.

NACDA DIRECTORS' CUP: Skiing was been eliminated last fall as a sport that counts toward the director's cup, so no reason to acknowledge this anymore; it's just a competition now between what will be the same 10-12 schools. Too bad, the skiers and the other sports who work just as hard as any other sport in college have been tossed aside.

HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS: Rokos wrapped up his 21st season as head coach of the Buffaloes (he is just the ninth person to coach 20 or more seasons in any sport at Colorado). He has guided the Buffaloes to national championships in 1991 (his first season), 1995, 1998, 1999, 2006 and 2010, to second place finishes in 2000, 2002, 2008, 2009 and 2010, third place efforts in 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2007, fourth place showings in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 2004, fifth place in 1992 and sixth in 2005. Under Rokos, the Buffaloes have won 55 of 129 meets they have skied in, including 49 of 108 in the west (with 11 RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regionals titles). In his tenure, CU has had 108 first-team All-Americans and 168 first- or second-team selections (Alpine and Nordic), all adding to 248 top 10 finishes in NCAA championship competition.

NORDIC COACH BRUCE CRANMER: Cranmer has done an equally excellent job with the Nordics. He has now coached CU skiers to 11 individual Nordic NCAA titles, and 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.

NOD TO BEATTIE: Rokos gave a shout out to former ski coach Bob Beattie, CU's first national championship coach (1959) and U.S. National Team coach. "We missed Bob here, he always comes to the NCAA's but he could not this year due to health reasons. We know he enjoyed this as much as we did."

ALL-AMERICANS: Ten Buffaloes earned All-America honors in the meet, seven gaining first-team status: Erika Ghent (giant slalom), Eliska Hajkova (freestyle and classical), Sara Hjertman (giant slalom), Vegard Kjoelhamar (freestyle and classical), Reid Pletcher (classical), Joanne Reid (freestyle and classical) and Gabriel Rivas (slalom). In addition, Ghent, Rivas and Turzian earned second-team All-America honors in their other disciplines, and were joined by Max Lamb (slalom), Jesper Ostensen (classical) and Alexa Turzian (classical). Top five finishes earn skiers the first-team accolade, while finishing sixth through 10th nets a second-team honor.

NCAA SKIING ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: CU placed 11 team members on the NCAA Skiing All-Academic Team (its version of Academic All-America), as the qualifications included owning a 3.50 or better grade point average and participation in the NCAA regionals (unless injured). Ashley Babcock, Kirsten Cooper, Eric Davis, Eliska Hajkova, Katie Hartman, Andreas Haug, Andreas Hoye, Spencer Lacy, Ian Mallams, Carolina Nordh and Katie Stege all made the prestigious team; Nordh and Stege have made the squad three times, with Davis and Mallams doing so twice. Babcock, Cooper and Haug all posted perfect 4.0 grade point averages in the fall 2010 semester.

LOOKING AHEAD: Seven, and possibly eight, of the 12 student-athletes who competed for Colorado in Stowe are scheduled to return for the 2011-12 school year, as CU graduates just six seniors, four of whom competed here, Carolina Nordh and Gabriel Rivas (Alpine) and Jesper Ostensen and Alexa Turzian (Nordic). Katie Hartman was a senior, but CU will petition for an extra year for her due to her knee injury, and Vegard Kjoelhamar, listed as a senior, might be granted an extra year as well. Also graduating are Alpine skiers, Ashley Babcock and Nordic performer Patrick Neel.

FUTURE SITES: Montana State University will host the 2012 NCAA Championships in Bozeman, the seventh time the town will host the event (last doing so in 2008). Middlebury will host the 2013 event, with future sites yet to be determined.

(Photos by Associate SID Curtis Snyder, who also contributed to this report.)