Skiers Take Aim At 18th National Championship

STOWE, Vt. - The 58th Annual NCAA Skiing Championships are set to begin here Wednesday, but will be racing against the clock so-to-speak as a winter storm is predicted to blow through the area Thursday that is expected to deposit heavy snowfall followed by rain on Friday.

As a result, for the first time in recent memory, four events will be held on the opening day of competition, the Alpine giant slalom races and the Nordic freestyle races will all take place on Wednesday. In 1995 and 2009, the first day of events were cancelled and made up on the second day.

Vermont enters the meet ranked No. 1 by Ski Racing Magazine, the first eastern school to hold the top spot in well over a decade entering the championships. The Catamounts are looking for their first NCAA title since 1994, at the time their fourth in six seasons; only a Dartmouth win in 2007 is the only blemish against an impressive run by western schools, with Denver (seven), Colorado (four), Utah (three) and New Mexico (one) winning 15 of the 16 titles since UVM last reigned supreme.

Colorado won four of the five meets in the west this winter (New Mexico captured the other), while UVM won five of the six eastern competitions (losing to Dartmouth in its lone loss).

The aforementioned six schools all qualified full 12-skier teams for the 2011 NCAA's, in which 21 teams will participate, with UVM skiing on its home courses. Denver enters as the three-time defending champion, but the Pioneers are outside of Ski Racing's top five, as Utah, New Mexico and Dartmouth round out its latest rankings. However, DU is as much of a threat as anyone, as it has just one regular season win over the last three years, none in the last two, but still came away with the trophy when it counted most.

The weather Wednesday should be good, with clear skies and temperatures around 30 degrees, before the storm is expected to hit in the evening hours. Still, CU head coach Richard Rokos wasn't overly thrilled with the schedule changes.

"The committee decided to change things around, it's new and unprecedented in Alpine skiing," Rokos said. "In the past, we've always reacted to the weather and delayed things to the next day. Maybe this is the new way to coordinate safety, but I don't like it. It takes away from the adventures, you have to put up with it and take what nature gives you. It's new territory. It also takes away the elemental support of Alpine watching and supporting the Nordics during their races and vice-versa since we both now will race at the same time. That's really the part I don't like too much."

Colorado is seeking its 18th title in skiing, the sixth since the sport went coed in 1983. This one would be special for the Buffaloes, as they dedicated the season to fallen teammate Spencer Nelson, the CU sophomore who was killed after falling near the Maroon Bells, a popular hiking spot near Aspen, last August 14. Shortly thereafter, the team dedicated the season to the Alpine racer.

"We set that goal right after Spencer passed away and we've kept him in our minds the whole season," Rokos said. "As far as accomplishing it, we've done everything we've had to up until this point, and of course we have one piece, the biggest, left to do to meet that goal."

The skiers that CU has in Vermont are an experienced bunch, with nine participating in at least one NCAA championship (five with two on their resume). The alpine squad consists of seniors Carolina Nordh and Gabriel Rivas, sophomores Erika Ghent, Sara Hjertman and Max Lamb, and freshman Andreas Haug, the MVP for the Alpine men in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association this winter. Rivas (No. 2), Hjertman (No. 3) and Ghent (No. 7) received very favorable start positions for the GS after Tuesday's draw.

The Nordic unit includes two senior skiers who be racing in their fourth NCAA meet, Jesper Ostensen and Alexa Turzian, joined by a third senior, Vegard Kjoelhamar (who has petitioned for an extra year of eligibility that won't be determined until well after the season). Juniors Eliska Hajkova and Reid Pletcher and sophomore Joanne Reid complete the CU cross country performers, all six of whom have won at least one career collegiate race and likely are the most experienced Nordic team in the nation.

The Buffs also have had to overcome season-ending injuries to two other junior Alpine skiers, as Katie Hartman tore her ACL while participating in the World University Games in Turkey, and Eric Davis suffered a concussion that forced him to miss the regional and wasn't cleared in time to participate in Vermont.

Rokos feels the Buffaloes are ready to make a run at their first title since 2006.

"Alpine has been steady throughout the season. In Nordic, Bruce (Cranmer, Nordic Coach) was making the extra effort to make sure that everyone is peaking at the right time. It appears that illness has run its course with the Nordics. At this point, I am confident that everybody on that side is on a roll. I believe everyone has confidence after the long season. This was one of our deepest alpine teams we've had maybe since 1995 and 1996. We are leaving home some strong skiers and actually that's a pity."

That last comment was in reference to the Buffs qualifying over the 12-skier maximum, "Obviously a good headache to have," Rokos noted of his team's 16 qualifiers. "It's always better to have to select than to scramble for the last girl or guy. It's the one unfortunate thing if you have depth, with only three skiers from each discipline allowed to go to the NCAA's, someone's always going to be left out."

The women's giant slalom will open the championships Wednesday, with the first run set for 6:30 a.m. MST; that will be followed by the freestyle cross country races with the men's 10-kilometer race at 8 a.m. and the women's 5km set for 10 a.m.; in-between the latter two, the women's second run is scheduled for 8:45. The men's giant slalom will have its two runs at 11 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Thursday will now be a training day for both, provided the weather permits such, and then on Friday, the classical cross country races are on top, with the women's 15-kilometer up first at 7:30 a.m., with the men's 20km to follow at 9:30 a.m. The slalom races will finish off the NCAA meet on Saturday: the men's first run is at 7 a.m., followed by the women's first run at 8:15; second runs follow at 10:15 (men) and 11:30 (women).

"The goals are the same, they never change, and that is to win it," Rokos concluded. "The bottom line is like we say every year, our goal never changes, it's always the same, we are going after the trophy. It would be even more special this year because we are not only skiing for ourselves and the school, we are skiing for Spencer."