University of Colorado Athletics
Colorado
Montana State Invitational (SL)
Buffs Second At Montana State Invitational After Alpine Concludes
January 11, 2016 | Skiing
BIG SKY, Mont.—The University of Colorado ski team sits in second place after the conclusion of alpine events here at Monday at the Montana State Invitational at Big Sky Resort. The Buffs had six skiers finish in the top 12 of the two slalom races to maintain its second place standing.
Denver won both individual races and went 1-2 in the women's slalom race and leads the meet with 344 points, 33 ahead of Colorado's total of 311, which is then 28 points ahead of Utah's total of 273. Westminster is fourth with 251 points, Montana State sits fifth with 228, Alaska Anchorage sixth with 209, New Mexico seventh with 187 and Colorado Mountain College rounds out the team scoring in eighth with 55 points.
“As much as we had a lot of hope today, things didn't go exactly the way we wanted,” CU coach Richard Rokos said. “Today was a little below the potential of all of our skiers. It wasn't a bad day, but not as good as a normal day would be. We had a lot of mistakes that cost us valuable points.”
Freshman Ola Johansen and senior Jessica Honkonen had similar races for the Buffs. In the men's race, Johansen had a mistake that pushed him down to 21st place after the first run, but he rebounded to record the fastest second run in the field, a performance that moved him up some 15 spots to finish sixth in 1:44.43. Honkonen was 15th after the first run and she had the fastest second run by six-tenths of a second and moved up to finish fourth in 1:50.30.
“I was hoping we would hit the podium on both sides,” Rokos said. “Henrik was close, Jessica was close, but overall it wasn't there. We had a few solid results right behind the podium, but DU won the men's race and had a field day in the women's race and those things hurt us.”
Just ahead of Johansen was senior Henrik Gunnarson, who like Honkonen finished fourth, his time was 1:44.29. Senior Kasper Hietanen gave the Buffs three in the top 10 with his 10th place finish in a time of 1:44.98.
Most of the other Buffs made larger mistakes that cost them. Freshman Max Luukko finished 18th in 1:45.94, senior Cameron Smith 22nd in 1:47.89 while junior Roger Carry (34th, 2:02.96) and senior Adam Zika (35th, 2:05.39) both hiked.
“Roger had a similar mistake to Ola in his first run, at the same part of the course, Max made a little mistake,” Rokos said. “Adam had to hike. These are all things that don't happen all the time. Hopefully we used up all of our bad luck for the rest of the season.”
Behind Honkonen on the women's side were two freshman as Tonje Trulsrud finished 10th in 1:51.26 and Nora Christensen 12th in 1:51.41. Like Honkonen, both Trulsrud and Christensen improved on their second runs and moved up a couple of spots, each.
Junior Katie Hosteler finished 25th in 1:58.80. Senior Thea Grosvold had a solid first run but made a mistake on her second run and finished 27th in 2:00.43 and Clare Wise also made a mistake and finished 28th in 2:01.13.
While the alpine teams put the wraps on its portion of the Montana State Invitational, the Nordic teams finished the Utah Invitational and it was the host Utes surging past the Buffs in the final race of the meet to secure the win as the Buffs finished second. The alpine teams will now have a week off before the start of the CU's Spencer J. Nelson Memorial Invitational at Steamboat Springs Jan. 22-24. The Nordic teams, however, will head to Montana State next weekend before joining the alpine teams in Steamboat Springs the following week.
“We will train the next few days and take a little time off as classes begin,” Rokos said. “Everybody is healthy, we came out of two straight weeks of tough conditions and everybody is better than they went into it. That's good for upcoming training, everybody can be there every day.”
Team Scores (4 of 8 races)—1. Denver, 344; 2. Colorado 311; 3. Utah 273; 4. Westminster 251; 5. Montana State 227; 6. Alaska Anchorage 209; 7. New Mexico 187; 8. Colorado Mountain 55.
Men's Slalom (36 college finishers)—1. Erik Read, DU, 1:43.00; 2. Giulio Bosca, WMC, 1:43.69; 3. David Neuhauser, MSU, 1:44.13; 4. Henrik Gunnarsson, CU, 1:44.29; 5. Joergen Brath, UU, 1:44.41; 6. Ola Johansen, CU, 1:44.43; 7. Morten Bakke, MSU, 1:44.48; 8. Tim Lindgren, WMC, 1:44.51; 9. Garrett Driller, MSU, 1:44.84; 10. Kasper Hietanen, CU, 1:44.98. Other CU Finishers: 18. Max Luukko, 1:45.94; 22. Cameron Smith, 1:47.89; 34. Roger Carry, 2:02.96; 35. Adam Zika, 2:05.39.
Women's Slalom (31 college finishers)—1. Tuva Norbye, DU, 1:48.86; 2. Kristine Haugen, DU, 1:49.45; 3. Maria Gudmundsdottir, UAA, 1:49.95; 4. Jessica Honkonen, CU, 1:50.30; 5. Monica Huebner, DU, 1:50.74; 6. Benedicte Lyche, MSU, 1:50.76; 7. Roni Remme, UU, 1:50.95; 8. Sara Ottosson, UNM, 1:50.96; 9. Ann-Kathrin, Bruening, WMC, 1:51.07; 10. Tonje Trulsrud, CU, 1:51.26. Other CU Finishers: 12. Nora Christensen, 1:51.41; 25. Katie Hostetler, 1:58.80; 27. Thea Grosvold, 2:00.43; 28. Clare Wise, 2:01.13.
