Buffs Second As Oedegaard Sweeps Races At DU Invite

Saturday, January 21

Granby, Colo. (Devil's Thumb Ranch)

All Day

Colorado

Denver Invitational (FS)

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

January 21, 2012 | Skiing

By: Curtis Snyder, Associate SID

TABERNASH, Colo. — Sophomore newcomer Rune Oedegaard won his second race in as many days as the University of Colorado Ski Team had a solid final day here at Devil's Thumb Ranch in the final day of the 2012 University of Denver Invitational, but it was not enough to overcome Utah's lead as the Utes took their second meet of the young 2012 season.

Oedegaard's win along with senior Vegard Kjoelhamar's fifth place and senior Reid Pletcher's sixth place finish enabled the Buffs to win the men's 15K freestyle race. But Utah was almost as equally impressive, finishing second, third and seventh to finish just two points behind the Buffaloes, 126-124.

Paced by senior Eliska Hajkova's runner-up finish in the women's 10K freestyle race, the Buffaloes did outscore Utah by 13 points, 97-84, but it wasn't enough as the Utes had built up a 72 point lead entering the day and ended up winning by 57 points, compiling 902 points to CU's 854 when it was all said and done.

Alaska Anchorage scored an impressive 133 points in the women's race to overtake host Denver and finish third with 770 points. The Pioneers finished fourth with 752 points while New Mexico also hit the 700-point plateau with 705, good for fifth place.

“This was a good weekend,” CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. “Not killer. But not something that I feel like we're way out of contention, either. I feel like we're moving in the right direction, we see glimmers of really solid performances so hopefully those will be more consistent and come together nicely.”

Oedegaard won the men's race by a much narrower margin than Friday's 10K classic race, which he captured by 32.8 seconds. Saturday his winning time of 48:14.5 seconds was just 4.1 seconds ahead of Utah's Didrik Smith (48:18.6) and 4.7 ahead of the Utes Miles Havlick (48:19.2) as the podium finishers were all within five seconds. Montana State's Tyler Reinking finished fourth in a time of 48:27.8, ahead of Kjoelhamar's fifth-place time of 48:48.0.

“My body felt a lot better today than yesterday,” Oedegaard said. “I tried some techniques today, I wanted to be in second place and then on the first lap I let Reid go and made the others catch up to him. On the second lap I let Vegard go, the same thing, he got maybe a 20 second lead and the other guys had to work hard to catch him again. I knew when the pack caught Vegard on the last lap that the other guys were tired and I had just been cruising. I knew I had very good skis that when I made it to the top of the final hill that I would be the first one to the finish line.”

“I felt good about the men's race,” Cramner continued. “Obviously it was another great race for Rune. And it was a great race for Vegard; he led a good chunk of the race and finished fifth and like yesterday, another solid performance at altitude. I think he's coming into form and that's helping his confidence with where his fitness level is. For Reid, that was a solid race for him. I'm not expecting him to light it up completely yet. All of these solid performances that are in the top 10 are pluses for him. The other guys weren't that far behind.”

Pletcher's sixth place time stood at 48:01.7 while sophomore Andreas Hoye also had an impressive day, taking home 11th place in a time of 50:09.3. Hoye was the first racer across that wasn't part of the top three of their respective teams accumulating team points while Ian Mallams was the second such skier across the line in a time of 50:24.4, good for 17th place. Freshman Arnaud Du Pasquier, who finished the last part of the race with just one poll, managed a 23rd place finish in a time of 51:28.8.

“At the start of this race, I was leading the first 2K,” Pletcher said. “It wasn't my plan but there wasn't much I could do about it. Rune was in second and he was just sitting back and he was letting me go. I had a 15-20 meter lead which I wasn't planning on but my teammates wouldn't chase me and wouldn't catch me, they were making the other teams do the work. We've had some really good teamwork in the past I think we work well together and pace ourselves and use each other.”

“It was kind of how the raced worked out,” Kjoelhamar continued. “I was first, Rune was second. He left me a gap and I kept it and got bigger and the other teams understood they had to close it. When they closed it, I was tired, but held on. That's smart skiing; the other guys have to use energy instead of us.”

At the moment the pack caught Kjoelhamar and Oedegaard pushed on for his race victory, Pletcher also made a decision that enabled him to hold onto sixth place.

“I started fading at the end of the second lap and the top five guys had me by 5-10 seconds,” Pletcher explained. “My goal after that was to stay with them, because there were four or five guys that could've caught me if I didn't. I saw Vegard, he was leading and got caught. I spent a lot of the last lap trying to catch Vegard and I did right before a long hill and at that point my goal was just to stay with him so I settled in behind him and wouldn't let him go.”

Hoye was also the first finisher in a pack of five skiers. Just before the skiers made a nearly 180 degree turn into the finishing lines, Hoye stood in 15th place and picked off four racers down the final straight-away.

Oedegaard is the first Nordic skier in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association to pull off a double victory in one meet since the end of last year when Hajkova accomplished the feat on the women's side at the RMISA Championships. He is the first men's skier to do it since former Buff Matt Gelso accomplished the feat the previous season at the 2010 RMISA Championships in the midst of a five-race win streak.

“Rune is amazing,” Pletcher said. “I've been training with him all fall. Just watching him train and do the intervals; it's hard to keep up with him most days. I was pretty excited to see where he was going in the race season and I think the first weekend he just had to get into it and get used to it. He's figured it out, he knows how to pace himself, he's getting used to altitude, which is big for him he's used to sea level. He's definitely a top skier and I'm impressed to see how consistent he has been so far.”

“Last Saturday I knew I was good enough to win, but with my pole trouble, I really wanted to show this weekend that I would've been there last weekend,” Oedegaard explained.

In women's action, Alaska Anchorage's Jaime Brogna won the women's race in a sprint, overtaking Hajkova just before the final turn into the finishing lines, finishing the two laps in just under 37 minutes (36:59.5) who Hajkova's time of 37:05.1. For Hajkova, it was her first podium appearance since winning the classical race at NCAA Championships last season, as she hasn't had quite the start of the 2012 season as she had hoped.

“It was a better race for Eliska,” Cranmer said. “She was out in front for a long time and said she was feeling better, she just didn't have the final push there. In the high altitude races, she's never had a great one, so this was a good performance. Everybody wants to win, but it was a good race.”

“It was still pretty hard,” Hajkova said. “I have problems racing at this altitude when you compare my results here with lower altitude races. Especially without Joanne (Reid) this weekend, I had high expectations and I get tight. Today, I just tried to relax, the first lap I skied for my dad and the second lap for Bruce, it always helps me when I think about what I'm doing and not just ski like crazy.”

Hajkova's worst performance a season ago was a fourth place finish and Saturday's second place finish was her first result this year better than fourth.

“This helps my confidence for sure,” Hajkova said. “After yesterday, I wasn't sure if I could even ski as fast as last season. Yesterday I had bad luck with skis; I had no kick and was getting frustrated. At the end of the day when I was thinking about everything, I ended up just getting mad and that gave me energy for today's race, it helped me a lot and I feel a lot better now.”

En route to their dominant performance, the Seawolves also took home third and fifth place, third being Laura Rombach (37:23.6) while Steffi Hiemer (37:53.9) was edged out by New Mexico's Clara Chauvet (37:32.4) for fourth place.

Junior Mary Rose finished in 16th place in a time of 39:19.8, earning 25 team points for the Buffaloes while senior Katie Stege finished 24th in a time of 41:28.6. Freshman Marianne Madsen finished 29th in a time of 44:00.2.

“It was a good race for Mary with where she's been in the past,” Cranmer said. “She's still in the middle of the pack and I want her to bust through and make a race like today a top 10 finish. But it's not like she's just going to start finishing in the top five, it's a step-by-step process. We're certainly looking for her to be a qualifier, but I'm sure she will have to have some better finishes than around 15 to make that happen.”

Next up for all the RMISA skiers will be a pair of meets in Alaska over eight days from February 4-11. The Nordic teams will begin the action with a 5K interval start freestyle race for both genders on Feb. 4 at Kincaid Park in Anchorage. Nordic teams will also be in action Feb. 6, Feb. 10 and Feb. 11 while the alpine teams will race four straight days from Feb. 8-11. At that point the regular season will be finished, minus an RMISA Alpine Qualifier race on Feb. 23 the day before the start of the RMISA Championships.

The Buffs will look to get a good solid week of training in and then rest a bit in preparation for their trip to sea level in Anchorage. But for the most part the Buffs are looking forward to continue their season in Alaska.

“I raced in Alaska three years ago,” Hajkova said. “The trails are hard and there are a ton of ups and downs. At sea level, your muscles don't hurt, you can just go for it. Plus there's one place on the trails where you can see the ocean and if feels like you're skiing on the beach and I love that.”

“We need to stay healthy or get healthy and do some training, but not too hard,” Kjoelhamar said. “I usually get in better shape at lower altitude, so I want to use those races to get in better shape and then hopefully I'm peaking for the two races in Montana (at NCAA Championships) to end the season.”

“We need to rest and get some volume in and try not to peak right now performance wise,” Pletcher added. “It's January and we're looking for March. We'll keep training and resting and work our way into peaking hopefully in March.”

DU INVITATIONAL TEAM SCORING (FINAL)—1. Utah 902; 2. Colorado 845; 3. Alaska Anchorage 770; 4. Denver 752; 5. New Mexico 705; 6. Montana State 643; 7. Westminster College 346; 8. Wyoming 120; 9. Colorado Mountain College 87.

MEN'S 15K FREESTYLE (34 College Finishers)—1. Rune Oedegaard, CU, 48:14.5; 2. Didrik Smith, UU, 48:18.6; 3. Miles Havlick, UU, 48:19.2; 4. Tyler Reinking, MSU, 48:27.8; 5. Vegard Kjoelhamar, CU, 48:48.0; 6. Reid Pletcher, CU, 49:01.7; 7. Michael Schallinger, MSU, 49:16.7; 8. Tom Smith, UU, 49:34.0; 9. Andrew Dougherty, DU, 49:37.9; 10. Lukas Ebner, UAA, 49:43.5. Other CU Finishers: 11. Andreas Hoye, 50:09.3; 17. Ian Mallams, 50:42.4; 23. Arnaud Du Pasquier, 51:28.8.

WOMEN'S 10K FREESTYLE (30 College Finishers)—1. Jaime Brogna, UAA, 36:59.5; 2. Eliska Hajkova, CU, 37:05.1; 3. Laura Rombach, UAA, 37:23.6; 4. Clara Chauvet, UNM, 37:32.4; 5. Steffi Hiemer, UAA, 37:53.9; 6. Kate Dolan, DU, 37:58.4; 7. Rose Kemp, UU, 38:01.4; 8. Makayla Cappel, DU, 38:04.9; 9. Casey Kutz, MSU, 38:06.2; 10. Linn Klaesson, UNM, 38:19.0. Other CU Finishers: 16. Mary Rose, 39:19.8; 24. Katie Stege, 41:28.6; 29. Marianne Madsen, 44:00.2.