Skiers Set To Defend NCAA Championship

BOZEMAN, Mont. - The 59th Annual NCAA Skiing Championships are set to begin here Wednesday, and the University of Colorado ski team is fully prepared and charged to defend the national title it claimed one year ago in Vermont.

The Buffaloes qualified a full 12-skier roster for the meet, thanks to some last race heroics in the regional by junior Mary Rose. Her fifth place finish in the classical positioned her higher in the rankings and enabled Colorado to bring a full contingent here.

CU finished second four times on the season, including in last month's regional, and was third its other time out. However, the Buffaloes are healthy and have an experienced team set to compete, with eight skier having skied previously in the NCAA's.

Colorado is seeking its 19th title in skiing, as it has won six coed, 11 men's and one women's (an AIAW crown in 1982). The school has won 24 overall national championships representing four sports (three men's cross country, two women's cross country and one football in addition to the ski titles) and is thus seeking its 25th national title.

Utah, winners of all five meets in the west this winter, enters the meet ranked No. 1 by Ski Racing Magazine, with the Buffaloes right behind in No. 2. The Utes won five of the first six titles after the sport went coed in 1983, but haven't claimed the crown since 2003.

The two newest members of the Pac-12 Conference (though the ski teams are Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association members) are the co-favorites, and ironically the schools will do battle three times this week. In the Pac-12 basketball tournaments, first round games between CU and Utah will be played Wednesday evening.

Vermont and Dartmouth are the strongest teams out of the east, but it has been 23 years since an eastern school has won a championship that was held in the west - UVM in 1989 at Jackson Hole. Dartmouth has the only title by an east program in the last 17 events, winning in 2007 in Attitash, N.H. That is the only blemish against an impressive run by western schools, with Denver (seven), Colorado (five), Utah (three) and New Mexico (one) winning 16 of the 17 titles since UVM won four times from 1989-94.

CU, Utah, UVM, Dartmouth and Alaska-Anchorage qualified the maximum 12 skiers, host Montana State and New Mexico will have 11 competing, with Denver and New Hampshire sending 10. Colorado was the first to win the title with less than a full squad, doing so with 11 skiers in 2006; Denver is the only other to pull it off, also with 11 in 2008. No team with 10 or fewer competitors has ever finished higher than fifth.

Unlike last year, when an expected winter storm forced the rearrangement of the meet into three days, with four races to open the championship, this year, the temperatures could reach into the upper 50s by Saturday, when the slalom races will finish things off.

The Buffaloes will have five seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen competing here, including two skiing in the NCAA's for the fourth time and five for a third occasion, with four making their debuts in the event. The latter quartet should benefit by the same courses hosting the NCAA West Regional less than two weeks ago.

"That is always an advantage for teams in either the east or west and a confidence builder for everybody to race extensively on the same courses we will compete on just two weeks later," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "Not even two weeks, more like 11 days. We have four skiers, two being freshmen, who have never skied in an NCAA championship before, and it is extremely valuable for them to have competed on the same courses and terrain."

"The Nordics were consistent throughout the season, alpine had some ups and downs, mainly the men," Rokos added. "Overall, we feel satisfied and prepared for NCAA's."

CU's women's alpine squad consists entirely of seniors, Erika Ghent, Katie Hartman and Carolina Nordh. Hartman is completing a fantastic if not amazing comeback, returning to the NCAA Championships just 13 months after tearing her ACL in the World University Games in Turkey. She opened up the winter with a giant slalom win in an alpine qualifier Eldora, and went on to finish in the top five three times and in the top 10 on 10 occasions. The trio combined for two wins, 14 top five finishes and 26 top 10 efforts this winter.

The men's alpine racers here are junior Max Lamb, sophomore Andreas Haug and freshman Adam Zika. Zika, the younger brother of former CU NCAA champion Lucie Zikova, won the only race by a Buff this year (GS in an alpine qualifier two weeks ago in Bozeman), but the three have combined for nine top five and 15 top 10 finishes.

The Nordic unit was more often than not CU's bread-N-butter, and has realistically be the top cross country program in the nation under Nordic Coach Bruce Cranmer the last four years. The Buffs bring an incredible streak into the 2012 NCAA's of 14 straight meets where the Nordic team has accounted for over 400 points; it racked up 451 last year in helping CU to the title.

The men's squad includes senior Vegard Kjoelhamar, who petitioned successfully for an extra year of eligibility last summer, sophomore Andreas Hoye and freshman Rune Oedegaard. Oedegaard won more races - five - than any skier in any discipline in the west this winter, and had nine podium efforts in 10 races overall. The three combined for 12 top five and 20 top 10 finishes out of a possible 25 races (five were missed due to illness); the unit is so strong that senior Reid Pletcher, the defending national champion in the classic, will not be competing though he is the west's first alternate.

Senior Eliska Hajkova is back to defend her title in the women's classic, and she'll be joined by juniors Joanne Reid and Mary Rose. Hajkova has three wins and Reid one, with 12 top five and 17 top 10 finishes between them in 19 races. Rose had been fairly steady finishing in the mid-teens until rallying with the race of her career in taking fifth in the classic (a 15-kilometer trek) here 11 days ago.

The freestyle cross country races will open the NCAA Championships on Wednesday, March 7, with the women's 5-kilometer race at 9 a.m. MST, and the men's 10k set for 11 a.m. The giant slalom takes center stage on Thursday, March 8, with the women's first run at 9:30 a.m. MST, with the second run to follow; the men's first run is set for 1 p.m., followed by its second run as the races will be run to completion. On Friday, March 9, the classical cross country races are on tap, with the men's 20-kilometer up first at 9 a.m., and the women's 15k to follow at 11 a.m. The slalom races will finish off the NCAA meet on Saturday, March 10: the women's first run is at 9:30 a.m., followed by the men's first run at 10:30; second runs follow at 11:45 (women) and 1:00 (men). Flower ceremonies follow each event, and the awards presentation is set for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

"The goal is always the same, it never changes, and that is to win it," Rokos concluded. "We are here to go after the trophy. Mary Rose was the star for us at regionals, her effort to finish in the top five and enable us to qualify the maximum number of skiers and thus to come at full strength to NCAA's added to everybody's confidence.

"We know as well as anyone that in the four days at NCAA's anything can happen, and finishing with the slalom always adds elements of challenge and risk to things. We won in 2006 without a full squad, so it is unpredictable."