Skiers Primed For NCAA Title Run

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - The 62nd Annual NCAA Skiing Championships are set to begin here Wednesday, the first time the prestigious ski area is hosting the collegiate title meet in 33 years.

The University of Colorado, fresh off a victory in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) Championships, is looking for its 20th national crown in the sport - and technically to defend the 1982 title the Buffaloes captured here. That was the last year the men and women skied in separate championships, as the sport went coed the following year.

Colorado won three of the five western meets, had its skiers win 12 races and post 92 top finishes over the course of the winter. The team was very balanced between the alpine and Nordic squads. New Mexico and Utah won the other two meets, and along with defending champion Denver, are the other favorites from the west; Vermont won all six eastern "carnivals" and is the only school from the east to qualify a full 12-skier team (all six in the west did so).

"It's a place with so much charisma, history and obviously very important to the United States," CU head coach Richard Rokos said of Lake Placid. "For us, it's great to have the privilege to compete at a place with such great tradition. We haven't had the NCAA's here for a long time, so there's definitely some mystique to it."

Rokos feels good about what his team has accomplished and how they are likely peaking at the right time. The snow the team skied on in Alaska is also representative of the same kind of conditions the western skiers likely will see in New York, and the Buffs improved each day over the course of six days between Alaska-Anchorage's invitational and the RMISA's, which also doubled as the NCAA West Regional.

And it certainly helps that Colorado was buoyed all winter by a phenomenal duo in men's Nordic action. Senior Rune Oedegaard won five races and sophomore Mads Stroem four - and when they didn't win, they finished runner-up to the other. In short, nine times the Buff pair finished one-two, earning 77 points in those races, and most often, 154 each invitational with the exception of one, or accounting for about 25 percent of CU's team points.

"It looks like we are going there with a pretty good chance (to win it all) based on our season results," Rokos said. "We have a very balanced team - at the end of the season, everyone on all levels proved themselves and we are skiing to our potential. The last one that needed to do so was Jessica (Honkonen, an alpine skier); she was kind of fighting through it but at the end of the year she skied the slalom like we knows she is capable of. So it's a pretty good picture for us right now.

"Having anchors like Rune and Mads and the 1-2 punch they've provided for us all season, it's like having a good deposit in the bank," Rokos continued. "It's absolutely amazing. There's no precedent for it that I can really recall, it happens maybe once a millennium. You have instances where one skier has dominated throughout an entire season, but two doing so is extremely rare. They are great competitors, and Mads will go on to carry the torch of Rune after he graduates."

Oedegaard is on the brink of history. He is the two-time defending champion in the classical race; only seven athletes in CU history - all sports - have won three or more NCAA individual titles, with just one having done so in the same event (Jenny Barringer in the steeplechase last decade). He also is tied for the most podium finishes in CU annals, with Maria Grevsgaard (Nordic) and Lucie Zikova (alpine) previous posting 34 top three efforts in their careers.

"We have no injuries, and we've overcome some sickness, but nothing major, so everyone is in good spirits and shape," he added. "Everybody is coming to terms with where they are health-wise and I don't anticipate any problems. You always worry about the Nordics a little bit this time of year dealing with illness, but we've already battled through a wave of that and hopefully we're done."

Colorado won the 2013 NCAA crown with its youngest team it ever brought to the NCAA's, a team that included seven freshmen. This time around, the Buffs have headed east with a much more experienced team, with nine skiers who have previously appeared in the NCAA's, and just two freshmen.

"It helps mentally, you feel like you are going with a more experienced team with people who have been exposed to the pressure of the NCAA's," Rokos said. "Some have been there before and have competed well. But it's a whole different experience for those who have even skied in the World Cup, it's a different animal when coming at it from the team sport angle. But you really never know - we won the title two years ago with all those freshmen because they all performed well. But this group for the most part is familiar with the NCAA format and will know how to react to it."

"We have good overall depth," he said. "We don't have a Rune and Mads situation in the other disciplines, but we have others who have finished consistently just off the podium. So if you can get a couple in the top four or five and the majority of the rest in the top 10 like was have done, it's great balance and has shown that we don't have an obvious weakness anywhere. That's always a good sign."

That depth has produced 50 top five finishes and 92 in the top 10, the latter breaking down to 47 by CU's alpine performers and 45 by the Nordics.

The women's alpine unit will be represented for the third year in a row by Honkonen, the No. 10 seeded skier from the west, Thea Grosvold (No. 3), both juniors and senior Brooke Wales Granstrom (No. 7), with all winning one race this winter.

The men's alpine skiers are all juniors as well: Kasper Hietanen (No. 8 seed), Adam Zika (No. 9) and Henrik Gunnarsson (No.11); Zika, now fully recovered from a 2013 knee injury, won the NCAA giant slalom as a freshman.

Oedegaard, the west's No. 1 seed, and Stroem (No. 2) will be joined by sophomore Jackson Hill to complete the men's Nordic unit. He posted a pair of top 10 finishes and placed in the top 14 seven times.

CU women's Nordic team is led by newcomer Petra Hyncicova, a freshman who had nine top 10 finishes this winter, including six top five efforts; she enters as the No. 4 western seed. Sophomore Maja Solbakken skied in the NCAA's a year ago and had eight top 10s this year (three top five), and is seeded sixth. The unit is completed with freshman Ane Johnsen, who missed the last three races of the regular season due to illness. The No. 10 seed, she had four top seven finishes to start the year.

The Nordic freestyle races will open the NCAA Championships on Wednesday, March 11, with the men's 10-kilometer first up at 8:00 a.m. MDT; the women's 5-kilometer version follows at 10 a.m. The giant slalom races open the alpine events on Thursday, with the women's first run at 7 a.m. and the second run to follow as the event will run to completion; the men's first run is scheduled for 10 a.m. with its second run to follow. The classical races are set for Friday, with the women's 15-kilometer race at 8 a.m. and the men's 20k at 10 a.m. The slalom races will finish off the NCAA meet on Saturday: the men's first run is up first at 7 a.m., with the women's first run at 8 a.m.; the second runs follow at 10 a.m. (men) and 11 a.m. (women).

As for CU's overall goal here, it's exactly the same since Rokos took over the program in 1991.

"Winner takes it all, and that's why we are here. Our goal never changes, regardless of the makeup of the team, experienced or not at NCAA's. We want to leave here with a trophy. Any other finish is always a disappointment."

If Colorado should win the crown, Rokos would make some history himself. He is tied with Bill Marolt for coaching the most NCAA champion teams in skiing with seven; Marolt's squads won seven in a row from 1972-78. Cross country coach Mark Wetmore caught the pair last November when the men's team won its fifth title under Wetmore, giving him seven overall as well.

Rokos' Buffaloes have won titles in 1991, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2011 and 2013, the latter when CU recorded the largest final day rally in NCAA history. The last two titles were won in the east.

Colorado has won 11 men's and one women's (an AIAW crown in 1982) title in skiing in addition to the seven coed crowns under Rokos. The school has won 27 overall national championships representing four sports (five men's cross country, two women's cross country and one football in addition to the ski titles) and is thus seeking its 28th national title.

In addition, CU is looking to win a second national championship in an athletic year for just the fourth time in its history. In 1990-91, the Buffaloes claimed the consensus national football title and won the ski crown, in 2004, CU won both the NCAA men's and women's cross country championships, and in 2006, Colorado claimed the skiing and men's XC titles.

Colorado University Athletics

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