Ski Team Wins 20th National Championship!

Saturday, March 14

Lake Placid, NY

All Day

Colorado

NCAA Championships (SL)

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

March 14, 2015 | Skiing

NCAA Championship Final Results

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - The University of Colorado ski team put individual accomplishments aside here Saturday, skiing with a strategy with limited risks to get all of its racers through the slalom, and the end result saw the Buffaloes bring home the title as the 62nd annual NCAA Skiing Championship.

It is the school's 20th national championship in skiing - 11 men's, one women's and now eight since the sport went coed in 1983; all eight of those have come under the direction of head coach Richard Rokos, who completed his 25th season coaching the Buffaloes this winter. Rokos' teams have now won more national championships at Colorado than any other coach, as he snapped a tie with Bill Marolt (seven in skiing, all in a row from 1972-78), and current cross country coach Mark Wetmore, who has seen his men's teams win five titles and the women two.

The Buffaloes led after the first and third days of competition this week - Utah had a small four-point edge at the midway point - and Colorado carried a seven-point lead over the Utes into the slalom races. But in the end, CU pulled away and won with 505 points, besting defending champion Denver by 27 points, as the Pioneers made a run with five top five finishes and finished with 478 points. Utah slipped into third with 471, while Vermont (443) and New Mexico (402) rounded out the top five.

Colorado pulled off the win with just two top 10 finishes Saturday - but more important, all six of its skiers handled the challenges of the slalom and five did finish in the top 15, earning the Buffs enough points to keep their predators at bay.

"It's absolutely great. It's always a great feeling and this one was even more because it was very dramatic until the very end," Rokos said. "There was no room for error, we displayed a great deal of discipline, but they (the Buffs) made 12 mistake free runs. That's so unique in slalom, it's almost unprecedented.

"The course was great, it worked out very well, it maintained the quality for the first and last race," he added. "There were equal conditions for all. Coming in with only a seven-point cushion, that doesn't really help you, especially in slalom and when you're the one being hunted. But it's always great to come back east and display our level of competitiveness."

"Finally," Rokos joked of his passing Marolt's title count. "I've given all the rings we've won to my wife Helena and she still has two fingers left, it may be a little motivation to continue past year 25. I know Bill can handle it, he knows it's for school and that's what counts. It's not me, it's everybody. This one goes to Bill and Bob (Beattie) and Jimmie Heuga and all the guys in the past who laid the foundation for Colorado Skiing.

"We were waiting for No. 20 for a while, even when we were approaching it, it was always out there on the horizon. Now that we've reached that number, we can start the 21st Century."

The slaloms were run concurrently, and all six CU racers made it down with decent times on their first runs. It was obvious all the skiers were a little more cautious after 20 "did not finishes" (DNFs) were recorded in Thursday's giant slalom, but just three in the first run and five total. The Colorado men held the No. 11, 15 and 17 positions after the first run, while the women were in the No. 8, 10 and 17 spots. The three schools chasing CU (Utah, UVM and DU), also had all their racers finish their first runs.

The men finished first, CU's trio juniors all finishing outside the top 10, but the key was to finish; when they each completed their second run, all were somewhere in the top three, but skiers after them had faster first run times they rode to higher finishes. Henrik Gunnarsson was 12th in 1:58.85, with Adam Zika right behind him in 13th (1:59.04; he actually briefly held the lead), and Kasper Hietanen rounding out the CU men in 19th (2:00.20).

"It feels great, it feels awesome," Gunnarsson said. "A lot of hard work went into it and we got what we wanted. Today was fun, we had tactics, we wanted to ski solid and finish strong and that's what we did. All I could do was finish my runs, you can't control anything else, but I did my part and it worked out."

"It's crazy, this is the second one, it's unbelievable," Zika said. "I was hurt when we won it before (2013) and I was still struggling last year. I came back stronger this year and we made it. It was so stressful, we were all really stressed about it, but we knew we could do it, we're solid skiers and we delivered the points."

Vermont's Dominique Garand won in 1:55.03, while Denver skiers captured the next three spots to help the Pioneers close a 98-point gap they faced heading into the day down to 45 points, while Utah remained just 10 behind. So with the women's second run remaining, nothing was close to being decided; a fall or disqualification would cause havoc.

But the Colorado women more than held off the charge from others to steal away the title, despite Denver claiming two of the top three spots, including Monica Huebner who won in a two-run time of 1:56.52.

Junior Thea Grosvold, who was in 10th after her first run, skied down Whiteface Mountain with the third-fastest time in her second run, propelling her to a sixth-place finish in 1:57.97. Junior Jessica Honkonen skied two racers later, and she recorded the fifth-fastest time in the afternoon run to place seventh in 1:57.99. Both earned second-team All-America honors for their efforts.

"I was a little nervous before my first run," Grosvold said. "We knew that we all had to finish, but we had to finish strong. So we needed to balance things. I definitely did better on the second run, I was little more relaxed, trusted my skis. I thought if I could do what I can, I'd put together a good run and that's what happened.

"I wouldn't say we skied conservative, but it was definitely in the back of our heads that it was a part of the tactics for how we approached today."

Senior Brooke Wales Granstrom concluded her Colorado career with a 15th place effort in 1:59.65. As with the men, all three CU skiers at the end of their runs were either in the lead or the top two.

"We've worked so hard all season for this, this was the goal all season," Wales Granstrom said. "Not only for the Nordics and alpiners that are here, but for everybody back home, I know they've been cheering us on and watching all week and we wanted to bring home the big one for them, for the whole team. We're so excited. The Nordics worked so hard this week, we were just hoping to be able to have a solid performance in the men's and women's slalom, and we were able to do it.

"The nerves were high, and that doesn't even begin to explain it," she continued. "Our athletic director, Rick George, always says we compete for championships, and that's what we were doing today. It requires a lot of mental strength to accept the nerves and know they'll be there and still go out and perform. It was high pressure. I was super nervous in the start - I know the other girls were. We worked hard and tried to ski like we can and we knew if we did that we'd be fine."

She took note that this was the first NCAA Championship in several years that ended with the slalom.

"It felt different than two years ago, for one alpine finished, so that made it exciting," she said. "To come home with a trophy is great. We came into the day with a very slim lead and our Nordics have been battling so hard all season for us and we wanted to keep the lead and gain on it and make sure we rewarded them as well for all their hard work this week."

Wales Granstrom concluded her three-year CU career with 17 top five and 26 top 10 finishes.

"It's been incredible, the highlights have been two of the three years I've been here we are national champions," she said. "There's nothing better than a team victory, as much as I wish I would've done better in GS on Thursday, I'm so happy we were still able to come out with the win. It's been a great career and to finish it as a Buffalo is amazing. I love the school, I love skiing for Colorado, I love my teammates. I just love being a Buff."

LINER NOTES: Colorado now has won 28 national titles in all sports overall, and Saturday's win gave the Pac-12 Conference NCAA title No. 472 ... This is the fourth time CU has won two national championships in the same athletic season, as the Buffaloes won the men's cross country title last November (matching the same pair won in 2005-06); in 1990-91, CU won football and skiing, and in 2004-05, the Buffs claimed both the men's and women's cross country crowns ... Rokos in completing his 25th season is the fifth-longest tenured coach in CU athletic history ... The school that has led going into the final day's events have now gone on to win the title in 18 of the last 21 years ... Colorado has ruled the east this decade, winning all three NCAA crowns held in New England (previously winning in 2011 in Stowe and 2013 in Middlebury) ... Nordic senior Rune Oedegaard concluded his CU career Friday as the all-time leader, alpine or Nordic, in top three (or podium) finishes with 36 in 44 career races ... Colorado won just one point category - the most Nordic points with 306, but were balanced throughout, finishing second in points by its women (263) and men (242), and fourth in alpine points (199).

(Associate SID Curtis Snyder contributed to this report.)

62nd Annual NCAA Ski Championship Team Scores (Final, 8 events)' 1. Colorado 505; 2. Denver 478; 3. Utah 471; 4. Vermont 443; 5. New Mexico 402; 6. Dartmouth 275; 7. Montana State 259; 8. Middlebury 230; 9. Alaska-Anchorage 204; 10. Northern Michigan 193; 11. New Hampshire 156; 12. Colby 109; 13. Williams 75; 14. Alaska-Fairbanks 36; 15. St. Scholastica 27; 16. Michigan Tech 26; 17. Bates 20; 18. St. Michael's 12; 19. St. Lawrence 11; 20. Plymouth State 8; 21. Harvard 6; 22. St. Olaf 3; 23. Bowdoin 1.

Men's Slalom (33 finishers)' 1. Dominique Garand, UVM, 1:55.03; 2. Trevor Philp, DU, 1:55.20; 3. Espen Lysdahl, DU, 1:55.68; 4. Sebastian Brigovic, DU, 1:56.58; 5. Taylor Wunsch, UVM, 1:56.67; 6. David Neuhauser, MSU, 1:57.12; 7. Andy Trow, Utah, 1:57.61; 8. Sean Alexander, UAA, 1:58.04; 9. Philippe Rivet, UNH, 1:58.17; 10. Robert Cone, Mid., 1:58.22. CU Finishers: 12. Henrik Gunnarsson, 1:58.85; 13. Adam Zika, 1:59.04; 19. Kasper Hietanen, 2:00.20.

Women's Slalom (30 finishers)' 1. Monica Huebner, DU, 1:56.52; 2. Kristina Riis-Johanneseen, UVM, 1:56.77; 3. Kristine Haugen, DU, 1:57.19; 4. Mardene Haskell, Colby, 1:57.44; 5. Elli Terwiel, UVM, 1:57.63; 6. Thea Grosvold, CU, 1:57.97; 7. Jessica Honkonen, CU, 1:57.99; 8. Mateja Robnik, UNM, 1:58.70; 9. Mary Sackbauer, Midd., 1:58.74; 10. Laurence St.-Germain, UVM, 1:58.76. Other CU Finisher: 15. Brooke Wales Granstrom, 1:59.65.

CU SKIING / 2015 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

IN-THE-END: Listed below is how the 2015 championship broke down:

MEN'S TEAM SCORING: Vermont 259, Colorado 242, Denver 234, Dartmouth 223, Utah 189, New Mexico 172

WOMEN'S TEAM SCORING: Utah 282, Colorado 263, Denver 244, New Mexico 230, Vermont 184, Montana State 148

ALPINE POINT LEADERS: Denver 327, Vermont 257, Utah 200, Colorado 199, New Mexico 173 (Men's Leader: Denver 170 (2nd'Vermont 151). Women's Leader: Denver 157 (2nd'New Mexico 96).

NORDIC POINT LEADERS: Colorado 306, Utah 271, New Mexico 229, Northern Michigan 193, Vermont 186, Dartmouth 153, Denver 151 (Men's Leader: Colorado 153 (2nd'Northern Michigan 127). Women's Leader: Utah 178 (2nd'Colorado 153).

CRACKING THE TOP: NCAA West schools have won 19 of the last 21 championships, as the skiing elite fraternity remains hard to crack; only seven different schools have claimed the title since the sport went coed in 1983: Utah (9 titles), Colorado (8), Denver (8), Vermont (5), Dartmouth (1), New Mexico (1) and Wyoming (1). But since the '67 title meet, Colorado (23 first or second place finishes, including 17 wins), Utah (22; 10, 12), Vermont (21; 6, 15) and Denver (18; 12, 6) have dominated college skiing over these 49 seasons. Only three other schools, Wyoming (two wins and four seconds), Dartmouth (two wins, two seconds) and New Mexico (one title and two seconds) have been able to crack the top two in this span (note: adds to 50 titles since CU and Dartmouth shared '76 crown).

CU ALL-TIME: The Buffaloes have won 20 national championships in skiing: 11 men's (1959-60-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-82), eight coed (1991-95-98-99-2006-11-13-15) and one women's (1982, AIAW). The 19 NCAA titles by Colorado trail Denver by three, as the Pioneers caught and passed CU by winning three straight to open the 21st century and extended their lead with three more from 2008-10 and one in 2014. After DU and CU (41 combined), Utah has won 10, Vermont 6, Dartmouth 3, Wyoming 2 and New Mexico 1 (CU and Dartmouth tied for the '76 crown).

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS: The Buffs did not have an individual champion for the first time since 2007; the eight individual champions came from seven different schools, the most since the sport went coed in 1983 (six schools had done it on several occasions). Colorado still leads all-time with 88 individual NCAA titles, topping Denver (85), Utah (70), Vermont (63), Dartmouth (36), Wyoming (19), New Mexico (17) and Middlebury (11); individual winners in 2015 came from New Mexico (two), Dartmouth, Denver, Middlebury, Northern Michigan, Utah and Vermont. The Buffs have had two or more individual champions 29 times (three or more 13 times), including four occasions when CU skiers topped the podium four times: 1960, John Dendahl (skimeister, Nordic, cross country) and Dave Butts (downhill); in 1963, Buddy Werner (alpine combined, downhill), Bill Marolt (downhill) and Jimmie Heuga (slalom); in 2006, Jana Rehemaa (classical, freestyle), Kit Richmond (freestyle) and Lucie Zikova (downhill); and in 2008, Maria Grevsgaard (freestyle, classical) and Lucie Zikova (giant slalom, slalom). This is just the eight time the Buffs did not have an individual champion in coed skiing, but CU still has had at least one 26 of the last 34 years.

LEARFIELD DIRECTORS' CUP: Colorado picked up 100 points in the Learfield Director's Cup Standings, jumping from 12th place into fifth in the standings with 372 total points; skiing was the first NCAA winter championship completed (Denver also made a significant jump, from 110th into 37th, earning 90 points for its win), and New Mexico jumped from 57th to 23rd). Stanford leads with 545 points, with UCLA second (497.5), North Carolina third (434.5) and Penn State fourth (383). There are five Pac-12 schools in the top 11 overall. The indoor track, and rifle championships will be included in the next official release of the standings on March 19.

HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS: Rokos wrapped up his 25th season as head coach of the Buffaloes (he is just the fifth person to coach a quarter century or longer in any sport at Colorado). He has guided CU to national championships in 1991 (his first season), 1995, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2015, to five second place finishes and five third place efforts. Under Rokos, Colorado has won 65 of 153 ski meets, including 57 of 128 in the west (with 13 RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regionals titles). In his tenure, CU has had 122 first-team All-Americans and 196 first- or second-team selections (Alpine and Nordic), all adding to 287 top 10 finishes in NCAA championship competition.

NORDIC COACH BRUCE CRANMER: Cranmer has done an equally excellent job with the Nordics. He has coached CU skiers to 15 individual Nordic NCAA titles, and his Buffalo teams have been the Nordic point champions seven times at the NCAA meet (2004-06-08-10-11-13-14).

ALL-AMERICANS: Eight Buffaloes earned All-America honors in the meet, three gaining first-team status: Rune Oedegaard (freestyle, classical), Mads Stroem (freestyle, classical) and Maja Solbakken (classical). Five earned second-team nods: Thea Grosvold (slalom), Henrik Gunnarsson (giant slalom), Jessica Honkonen (slalom), Petra Hyncicova (freestyle, classical) and Ane Johnsen (freestyle, classical). In addition, Solbakken garnered second-team honors in the freestyle. Top five finishes earn skiers the first-team accolade, while finishing sixth through 10th nets a second-team honor.

LOOKING AHEAD: Ten of the 12 student-athletes who competed for the Buffaloes in the 2015 championships are scheduled to return for the 2016 season. CU will graduate just four seniors, two of whom competed here, Brooke Wales Granstrom (Alpine) and Rune Oedegaard (Nordic); also graduating are Shane McLean (Alpine) and Emil Johansson (Nordic).

FUTURE SITES: Colorado will host the 2016 meet at Steamboat Springs (March 9-12), the seventh time the revered ski area will host (last in 2010); once again, it will feature the slalom on Friday night. In 2017, New Hampshire will host in Franconia, N.H.