Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Utah Invitational (CL 10/15K-TBA)
Oedegaard Wins, Buffs Cruise To Victory At Utah Invite
January 12, 2015 | Skiing
MIDWAY, Utah—The men's Nordic duo of Rune Oedegaard and Mads Stroem went 1-2 for the second straight day and six Buffs earned top six finishes as the University of Colorado ski team cruised to victory here at the 2015 Utah Invitational.
CU won both the 15K men's and 10K women's classic races as a team and in the end won the meet by more than 70 points, coming in with a final point total of 694.5. Host Utah scored 613 points, edging out Denver (612) by a single point for second place. New Mexico finished fourth with 465.5 points while Alaska Anchorage (411) took fifth and Montana State (394) sixth. Associate RMISA members Westminster College (249), Wyoming (162) and Colorado Mountain College (52) rounded out the team scoring.
“It's good to wrap up the meet and see that in general, we are equal across the board with the strength of our team,” CU coach Richard Rokos said. “It's good to see the Nordic team so superior, going 1-2 in both races. The first meet often times proves the outcome of the season, so hopefully we see that through.”
The men's race started at 9:30 a.m. and about a half hour before the race, it was apparent that the weather was changing, completing throwing a wrench into the process of preparing the skis for coaches Bruce Cranmer and Jana Weinberger.
“It was a good day, but it was pretty hectic,” Cranmer said. “We were ready for it to be klister (a type of ski wax) day and those skis take a lot of time to prep. When it started dumping snow, we had to scramble and prepare our no-wax skis. We quacking got them together, we didn't have much time to fine tune, and that made it crazy.”
Whatever the process, it worked for the Buffs and with Oedegaard winning the race and both Stroem and senior Emil Johansson basically winning sprints in different packs that developed, the Buffs racked up 106 team points and won the race by 31 points over Denver.
Oedegaard, the two-time defending NCAA Champion in the classical discipline, dominated the race, winning by 42.6 seconds over Stroem in a time of 47:28.6. Stroem then finished second by less than a half-second over Denver's Mortiz Madlener, edging him out in a sprint in a time of 48:14.8.
“The three of them were tight and then Rune picked up a bit of a gap,” Cranmer said. “At that point, Mads and Moritz really fought against each other. There was some strategy involved, Mads was striding and Mortiz was double poling, but it was a full-on sprint to the finish. It wasn't a full lunge at the end, Mads eased up on his last stride and won by about a meter.”
For Oedegaard and Stroem, it's the fifth time they have finished a race 1-2 in 10 career races since Stroem came to Boulder last season, and the first time they accomplished the feat twice in the same meet. Oedegaard won his 15th career race for the Buffaloes, the most by a male skier in CU history and third most overall. He trails only Maria Grevsgaard, who won 24 women's Nordic races and Lucie Zikova claimed 16 race victories in women's alpine action.
Oedegaard's win also gave the Buffs four individual race winners in the meet from four different skiers. Stroem won the men's freestyle race Sunday when Thea Grosvold also won the slalom race and Brooke Wales Granstrom won the giant slalom race on Saturday. It's the first time the Buffs have had four race winners, and four different race winners, in one meet since the 2009 season.
Johansson's performance is especially impressive given the fact he rejoined the team less than a week ago and had not trained with the Buffs all fall. He also won a sprint to the finish as the difference between his fifth place time of 49:11.7 and the 14th place skier (49:22.4) was less than 10 seconds.
“Emil's forte is sprinting,” Cranmer said. “He was near the front of that tight group and got around one guy and they were in a full sprint to the finish, as well.”
Freshman Jackson Hill was also in that pack and finished 13th in a time of 49:19.7, freshman Ian Boucher was 18th in 50:15.8 and sophomore Max Scrimgeour was 20th in 51:02.4.
The women's race then took place about 90 minutes after the start of the men's and the conditions had worsened. The Buffs trio of freshmen Ane Johnson (37:43.0) and Petra Hyncicova (37:46.4) and sophomore Maja Solbakken (38:01.0) all recorded their second top 10 finishes of the season, skiing as a pack and finishing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
“It's great to get three girls in the top six, we haven't done that in a while,” Cranmer said. “Petra was skiing with Sloan (Storey from Utah who finished third) for a while but lost contact. Ane caught up to her and they basically sprinted it out the last 100 or so meters. Maja couldn't quite bridge the gap to them but stayed about the same relative distance behind them and ahead of those behind her the entire race.”
That trio picked up 87 team points for the Buffs, edging out the host Utes (85), who finished second, third and 18th. Sophomore Camilla Brautaset finished 11th for the Buffaloes in a time of 39:15.9 while freshman Jesse Knori finished 20th in 40:00.9 and sophomore Lucy Newman 22nd in 40:27.5.
“This was a nice start to the season, especially when I think we can still improve,” Cranmer said. “My expectations weren't that high coming to altitude again and with a bunch of travel issues. We've often times started a little slow because of those factors, so I'm hoping we can keep getting better and continue what we started here.”
Next up the Buffs will host their own Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational, set for January 23-27. The Nordic teams this time will get things started in Steamboat Springs on January 23-24 and then the alpine teams will be in action at Eldora on January 25-27. There will be three alpine races with an extra giant slalom qualifier tacked on to the end of the meet.
Team Scores—1. Colorado 694.5; 2. Utah 613; 3. Denver 612; 4. New Mexico 465.5; 5. Alaska Anchorage 411; 6. Montana State 394; 7. Westminster 249; 8. Wyoming 162; 9. Colorado Mountain College 52.
Men's 15K Classical (34 Collegiate Finishers)—1. Rune Oedegaard, CU, 47:28.6; 2. Mads Stroem, CU, 48:14.8; 3. Moritz Madlener, DU, 48:15.2; 4. Aljaz Praznik, UNM, 49:05.4; 5. Emil Johansson, CU, 49:11.7; 6. Erik Axelsson, MSU, 49:12.4; 7. Joergen Brevik, DU, 49:12.8; 8. Christian Otto, UNM, 49:13.8; 9. Noe Bellet, UU, 49:14.9; 10. Kevin Bolger, UU, 49:16.4. Other Colorado Finishers: 13. Jackson Hill, 49:19.7; 18. Ian Boucher, 50:15.8; 20. Max Scrimgeour, 51:02.4.
Women's 10K Classical (27 Collegiate Finishers)—1. Sylvia Nordskar, DU, 35:31.0; 2. Veronika Mayerhofer, UU, 35:48.7; 3. Sloan Storey, UU, 37:23.8; 4. Ane Johnsen, CU, 37:43.0; 5. Petra Hyncicova, CU, 37:46.4; 6. Maja Solbakken, CU, 38:01.0; 7. Elisa Sulser, WYO, 38:26.4; 8. Cambria McDermott, MSU, 38:40.3; 9. Heleen Tambet, UNM, 38:53.8; 10. Mackenzie Kanady, UAA, 39:02.2. Other Colorado Finishers: 11. Camilla Brautaset, 39:15.9; 20. Jesse Knori, 40:09.9; 22. Lucy Newman, 40:27.5.
