Skiers Rally To Win RMISA Championship

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Buoyed by two individual wins and nine finishes in the top eight across four events here Saturday, the University of Colorado ski team rallied to win the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) Championships, which also doubled as the NCAA West Regional.

It was Colorado's 27th conference title, and marked the 10th straight year the Buffaloes have finished either first (six times) or second, which CU has accomplished 48 times since 1950, when it started a varsity program.

Utah entered the day with a slight 8-point edge over the Buffaloes, but in the end, CU blew past its longtime rival, finishing with 651 team points to the Utes' 609. New Mexico was a distant third (550), with Denver (542) and Montana State (513) rounding out the top five.

It was as tight as things could be heading into the final runs of Saturday's slalom races: through six events, the Buffaloes and Utes were dead even with 476 points. CU had a slight edge in performances in the first runs, with three women in the top seven (one for Utah), while each had three men in the top 14. A dominant showing in the women' slalom gave CU control of the meet.

"It feels good, it's not the first time we've won, but it's always good to win it and bring it home," CU head coach Richard Rokos said. "I just like to keep the history alive, it's something we have the ability to do. Today I was hoping this is how it would happen, and the (alpine) ladies were phenomenal, and the guys were right where they were supposed to be, mingling with the World Cup guys."

"We knew ahead of time where we stood after the Nordic races, we had caught Utah and it was even," he continued. "We wanted to return to where we had performed for years in the slalom, and we looked at our positions and felt confident. All we had to do was perform to get it."

"I talk about surface a lot, but it's like training on a dirt bike and racing Moto GP and trying to win, it just doesn't happen," Rokos said. "You have to get used to it, a surface like this, and we got better every race."

In the men's 20-kilometer classical race, sophomore Mads Stroem won in a sprint at the finish over senior teammate Rune Oedegaard, as the Colorado pair finished 1-2 in a race for the ninth time in 10 races this season. Stroem won in 50 minutes, 20 and 2/10ths seconds, three-tenths of a second ahead of Oedegaard in a very competitive race overall: just 14 seconds separated the top seven finishers over the course of 12-plus miles. New Mexico's Aku Nikander was lurking in third, ending with a 50:22.9 time.

"I had really good kick on my skis, so I tried to use my legs as much as possible to save my arms for the last lap," Stroem said. ""Everybody skied really fast from the gun. I stayed at the back of the lead pack the whole way, it started with 15 guys, 10 guys, eight guys, I just stayed there. Suddenly on the fifth lap I was in the lead, and then in the last lap it was just to go as fast as I could. There were only two or three guys left, I knew it would come down to the finish, it was all about maintaining speed down the home stretch.

Since skiing went coed in 1983, this was the sixth time a Buff has swept the men's regional Nordic races - the fifth time in the last nine years - as Stroem also won Friday's 15k freestyle. He joins Oedegaard (2012, 2014), Matt Gelso (2010), Kit Richmond (2008) and Bjorn Svensson (1992) in earning the regional double.

"It feels pretty cool to win both regional races," Stroem said. "I'm finally feeling like I am back to my level of fitness that I had before Christmas before I got sick. I got some good training in the last few weeks, and it feels good to ski at sea level, that's how it is in Norway. Hopefully we can repeat this in two weeks, we need to get back to Boulder, ski easy, stay in low elevation and avoid getting sick and maintaining our good shape."

He did acknowledge that there isn't a lot of difference between himself and CU's star senior.

"It's really tight at this point between me and Rune," he noted. "It's really cool, I looked at him and I didn't feel 100 percent today, I looked at him, but on the last lap I was really determined to win. We broke away (at the end) from some really good skiers, so to be able to do that is pretty great. The best skiers are in the west, though there are some good skiers in the east. But everything is mixed up, some people you're not even thinking about can have a great day and beat you, so we need to go out and give it our all."

Oedegaard still made history with his finish: it was his 34th "podium" effort in his career, or the combined total of wins, second and third place finishes. He has 19 victories, one shy of becoming just the second skier in CU history to win 20, 12 runner-up showings and three thirds in 42 career races.

ALL-TIME PODIUM FINISHES / CU SKIERS
34 Maria Grevsgaard, Nordic, 2006-09	(24 wins; 7 seconds; 3 thirds)
34 Lucie Zikova, Alpine, 2005-08	(16-11-7)
34 Rune Oedegaard, Nordic, 2012-15	(19-12-3)
32 Eliska Hajkova, Nordic, 2010-13	(8-18-6)
25 Per Kare Jakobsen, Nordic, 1988-90	(13-6-6)

"It was a good race, but it was tough," Oedegaard said. "It was high pace from the beginning to the end, a lot of people trying to get gaps on the field, but the course is so flat and easy that you'll never gain too much from laying in front. I tried on the last lap to gap the field, and I got about 20 meters on the uphill, but then everybody caught me, so I figured it was better to save it from the end. I thought I felt strong at the end, but Mads was just a little stronger today. I'd rather win, but he's not a bad person to finish second to.

"It's more about having fun and racing, neither of us are thinking too much about these races, we are focusing on NCAA's and that's when we want to peak," he added. "I feel confident that I'll be in good shape for NCAAs, I've been training well since Christmas, more than ever since I was coming off injuries and illness in the fall. There will be harder courses at NCAA's and I'm looking forward to that."

Oedegaard is the two-time defending national champion in the classic, and while CU has had several skiers win two titles in the same event, he is bidding to become the first Buff to win three in the same discipline.

"I'll take one race at the time, first I want to win the skate race and after I win that, I'll want to win the classic race. Both races will be tight, I will strive to win both of them."

Senior Emil Johansson had a 52:13.9 time to finish in 12th, followed by sophomores Jackson Hill (18th, 53:03.7) and Max Scrimgeour (24th, 55:33.9) and freshman Ian Boucher (30th, 57:51.7).

In the women's 15k classical, freshman Petra Hyncicova once again led the Buffaloes, as she finished fourth in a 43:14.6 time. It was the sixth time this year she had the top finish for CU, as well as her sixth top-five effort this winter. New Mexico's Emilie Cedervaern captured her second straight race to go with her freestyle win on Friday, skiing the course in 42:35.3, nearly 24 seconds ahead of Utah's Veronika Mayerhoffer.

"I was surprised because it was the fastest 15K in my life, it was really good," Hyncicova said. "At the finish, I lost the sprint so I'm a little sad about that, but overall, third and fourth place this weekend, I'm satisfied."

"In the second loop, I tried to lead on the uphills, but that was the point I lost some energy," she said. "In the third and fourth loop, I knew I wanted to fight for third and I had to go hard the whole time, I couldn't wait for the finish, it was a chase pack of four-to-five."

Sophomore Maja Solbakken grabbed 10th place in 45:07.2, as she continues to improve from being sick over the last couple of weeks, posting her seventh top 10 effort this season. Freshman Jesse Knori was again CU's third scorer, finishing 14th in 45:53.7, with sophomore Camilla Brautaset, still battling some injuries, placing 23rd in 51:08.6. Freshman Ane Johnsen missed her third straight race due to illness.

In the women's slalom, junior Jessica Honkonen used a dominant first run to cruise to her first win of the season in posting a time of 1:25.93, easily defeating New Mexico's Mateja Robnik (1:26.77). In winning her second career race, she had a 41.86 clocking on her first run, 1.21 seconds faster than the rest of the field. It was also CU's third women's alpine win in 2015.

"I was so nervous on the second run to bring it down, but it feels good to know I can still do it," Honkonen said. "The course was really fun, I love skiing on snow like this, wet during the day and freezes overnight, it's like that in (her native) Finland. I hope this is what we continue to see and if it's like this in Lake Placid."

Honkonen had plenty of teammates join her in the top eight: junior Thea Grosvold bounced back from a second run mistake in Friday's giant slalom to finish fifth in 1:28.06, with junior Brooke Wales Granstrom right behind her in sixth in 1:28.37. Senior Shane McLean rounded out that quartet with an eighth-place effort in 1:29.20.

"Jessica got back into her groove, to the level she was at the end of last year," Rokos said. "It's great to have competition like this on the same team. Between Jessica, Thea, Brooke and Shane, it will be tough to make the right decision (as to which three to take) for the NCAA Championship. It's a luxury to play with it and have it, you don't always have it."

Sophomore Katie Hostetler (28th, 1:37.65), freshman Dani Patty-Brownell (32nd, 1:48.93) and junior Clare Wise (33rd, 2:58.97, she skied off the course and had to hike) rounded out the CU women's performances here.

With the women giving CU a 40-point lead heading into the final run of the men's slalom, the Buffs had a big enough cushion to ski with confidence and a little less pressure. The result was two skiers in the top six (for just the second time this year) and three in the top 11.

Junior Adam Zika joined his colleagues in making it four-for-four, as Stroem, Hyncicova and Honkonen all had the top performances in their disciplines Friday as well. Zika, sixth in the GS, took fourth in the in the slalom in a two-run time of 1:22.45; he was sixth after the morning run and moved up two notches to finish a bit behind Montana State's Garrett Driller, who won in 1:21.77; Driller smoked the field in the afternoon with the fastest run to zoom from seventh into first.

It was Zika's best finish of the year, and matched his top placemen since missing all of the 2013 season following knee surgery. He was the 2012 national champion in the giant slalom but was derailed a full year after suffering the injury in training.

"It felt good, I'm finally feeling like I'm getting back after surgery two years ago," Zika said. "I feel more confident and I'm happy with our whole team. The girls did such a great job, the guys did well, we won the meet, so that's awesome."

"I knew it was close, I had overheard that we were tied with Utah after Nordic, I didn't tell anybody but I knew about it," he said. "The course was good, the snow held up well for everybody. It was a good surface, a good race. It will be snow like this in Lake Placid and if it is, we have a good chance to go for it."

Junior Kasper Hietanen bolstered Zika's effort with a sixth place finish in 1:22.94; it was his second-best finish of the year to his third place in the slalom in CU's own invitational, as well as tying for his third-best in his career.

Another Buff junior, Henrik Gunnarsson, skied well to finish in 11th (1:23.43), his best effort in the last seven races. Sophomore Roger Carry (tie for 15th, 1:24.95) and junior Cameron Smith (23rd, 1:30.00) completed CU's performances on the day.

CU has qualified a full 12-skier team for the NCAA Championships, set for March 11-14 at Lake Placid, N.Y., site of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Lake Placid last hosted the NCAA's in 1982.

"We will train in Colorado, hopefully we will have hard snow, the plan will be to get three training sessions before we leave," Rokos said. "But if we only get two, we'll take it. We always reserve Sunday in case we have to postpone an event, so everybody made an arrangement to stay another day so we will train here tomorrow and hopefully benefit out of it in Lake Placid."

RMISA Championship/NCAA West Regional (Final; 8 events) - 1. Colorado 651; 2. Utah 609; 3. New Mexico 550; 4. Denver 542; 5. Montana State 513; 6. Alaska-Anchorage 474; 7. Colorado Mountain College 73.

Women's 15K Classical (23 finishers) - 1. Emilie Cedervaern, UNM, 42:35.3; 2. Veronika Mayerhoffer, Utah, 42:59.0; 3. Manon Locatelli, UAA, 43:10.8; 4. Petra Hyncicova, CU, 43:14.6; 5. Josefin Nilsson, Utah, 43:22.1; 6. Eva Severrus, UNM, 43:22.6; 7. Sloan Storey, Utah, 43:31.1; 8. Kathrin Schratt, UAA, 44:39.8; 9. Anna-Lena Heynen, Utah, 44:47.1; 10. Maja Solbakken, CU, 45:07.2. Other CU Finishers: 14. Jesse Knori, 45:53.7; 23. Camilla Brautaset, 51:08.6. DNS: Ane Johnsen.

Men's 20K Classical (32 finishers) - 1. Mads Stroem, CU, 50:20.2; 2. Rune Oedegaard, CU, 50:20.5; 3. Aku Nikander, UNM, 50:22.9; 4. Niklas Persson, Utah, 50:30.6; 5. Dag Frode Trolleboe, DU, 50:31.6; 6. Moritz Madlener, DU, 50:34.0; 7. Clement Molliet, UAA, 50:34.5; 8. Christian Otto, UNM, 50:56.8; 9. Mats Resaland, UNM, 51:04.0; 10. Kevin Bolger, Utah, 51:06.7. Other CU Finishers: 12. Emil Johansson, 52:13.9; 18. Jackson Hill, 53:03.7; 24. Max Scrimgeour, 55:33.9; 30. Ian Boucher, 57:51.7.

Women's Slalom (33 finishers) - 1. Jessica Honkonen, CU, 1:25.93; 2. Mateja Robnik, UNM, 1:26.77; 3. Monica Huebner, DU, 1:27.22; 4. Devin Delaney, DU, 1:27.78; 5. Thea Grosvold, CU, 1:28.06; 6. Brooke Wales Granstrom, CU, 1:28.37; 7. Sara Ottosson, UNM, 1:29.03; 8. Shane McLean, CU, 1:29.20; 9. Benedicte Lyche, MSU, 1:29.27; 10. Tianda Carroll, DU, 1:29.33. Other CU Finishers: 28. Katie Hostetler, 1:37.65; 32. Dani Brownell-Patty, 1:48.93; 33. Clare Wise, 2:58.97.

Men's Slalom (27 finishers) - 1. Garret Driller, MSU, 1:21.77; 2. Endre Bjertness, Utah, 1:21.95; 3. Sebastian Brigovic, DU, 1:22.31; 4. Adam Zika, CU, 1:22.45; 5. Trevor Philp, DU, 1:22.66; 6. Kasper Hietanen, CU, 1:22.94; 7. Alex Leever, DU, 1:23.06; 8. Sean Alexander, UAA, 1:23.10; 9. Max Marno, DU, 1:23.32; 10. Joergen Brath, Utah, 1:23.39. Other CU Finishers: 11. Henrik Gunnarsson, 1:23.43; T15. Roger Carry, 1:24.95; 23. Cameron Smith, 1:30.00.

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Players Mentioned

Ian Boucher

Camilla Brautaset

Dani Brownell-Patty

Roger Carry

Brooke Wales Granstrom

Thea Grosvold

Henrik Gunnarsson

Kasper Hietanen

Jackson Hill

Jessica Honkonen

Katie Hostetler

Petra Hyncicova

Emil Johansson

Ane Johnsen

Jesse Knori

Shane McLean

Rune Oedegaard

Max Scrimgeour

Cameron Smith

Maja Solbakken

Mads Stroem

Clare Wise

Adam Zika