Nordic Team Makes Its Move at Utah Invitational

Thursday, January 18

West Yellowstone, Mont.

All Day

Colorado

Utah Invitational (5/10K Classic)

January 18, 2018 | Skiing

Utah Invite Results

CU has three podium finishers, places eight inside the top 10 in Thursday’s classical races

By: Jason Clay, Associate SID

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. — The Colorado men's and Nordic teams took first place in both the 5/10K classic races held Thursday at the Rendezvous Ski Trails, allowing the Buffs to close in on meet leader Denver at the Utah Invitational.

Colorado stood in third place after 4-of-8 events in the meet prior to Thursday, 56 points behind the leading Pioneers, but after winning both races Thursday the Buffaloes have closed to within six points of DU, 476-470. Colorado scored 197 points total from the two races Thursday, 108 on the women's side thanks to first-, second- and fourth-place finishes, and 89 from the men.

"We weren't even sure we were going to be able to bring it back at all, that's a lot of points," Cranmer said of the margin before the start of the Nordic racing. "That's great, six points, that's doable."

For the second consecutive women's 5K classic race, CU's Hedda Baangman and Petra Hyncicova finished first and second, and again by a close margin. At the Montana State Invitational last weekend, Baangman edged out Hyncicova in the 5K classic by four-tenths of a second. On Thursday, Baangman's margin was by 1.4 seconds.

Then not far behind was sophomore Anne Siri Lervik in fourth place, as the Buffs were that close to sweeping the podium in a race for the first time since 2013 at the RMISA Championships.

Junior Petter Reistad led the men's team that placed four Buffs inside the top nine. His second place finish was his best result of the season and gave him the 10th podium appearance of his career.

MEN'S 10K CLASSIC RACE: The men's team set the tone with its race that opened the day's events. Colorado's top three scorers placed second, sixth and seventh, while Andrew Potyk was ninth, registering the first top 10 finish of his career.

Reistad's second place time of 26:44.0 was just 1.6 second faster than Utah's Martin Bergstroem, who swept the men's Nordic titles at last winter's NCAA Championships, and was one contributing factor to the men's team edging the Utes 89-88 for the team race victory.

In sixth place was freshman Sondre Bollum and classmate Alvar Alev was right behind in seventh.

WOMEN'S 5K CLASSIC RACE: In addition to Baangman, Hyncicova and Lervik leading the Buffs as the top three scorers, there was a fourth Buff that finished in the top 5. Christina Rolandsen placed fifth for CU on Thursday, as the Buffs won the women's race by an 18-point margin over Utah (108-90).

NOTEWORTHY: In five races now during this NCAA season, the CU women's Nordic team has 19 top 10 finishes and that is 11 more than any other school has posted this winter (Denver, Utah and Montana State all have eight top 10 finishes).

WHAT IT MEANS: With Colorado closing to within six points of Denver with only the 15/20K freestyle events left to go, CU has the opportunity to win its 60th West Region regular season meet since skiing merged to a coed sport in 1983. Among all of the schools in the West, Colorado's 59 victories ranks second, slightly behind Utah, who holds the overall lead having won 59½ regular season meets. The Utes shared the 1985 Wyoming Invitational title with UW.

NEXT UP: The Utah Invitational is scheduled to conclude on Friday with the women's 15K freestyle and the men's 20K freestyle races.

QUOTEABLE:
Head Nordic Coach Bruce Cranmer

On Petter Reistad
"He felt pretty good about (his second place finish), but I don't think he was ecstatic. I think he felt like maybe too much wax, but not enough to probably have won it. Maybe be a little closer, hard to say, but always second guessing after the race. Still, we're pretty happy with it."

On Baangman and Hyncicova Finishing 1-2 Once Again
"I think Hedda is a little better in classic and I think Petra is probably a little bit better in skating (freestyle), but it will be interesting because it will kind of balance itself out because Hedda is better at long distance and Petra's better at shorter races. Petra is doing a longer race in what is her best discipline and Hedda likes longer distance races, but she is doing it in something she is not as strong in. It kind of balances out and is kind of nice. If it was a 5K skate, that would probably definitely favor Petra, but when you go 15K then it kind of evens things out a little bit. Hard to say how much, but that will make for some close racing between those two."

On The Heavy Snow Expected For Friday's Races
"We're gearing up for what could be a really tough race day tomorrow. It is supposed to start snowing around midnight and then snow right on through the race. Depending on how accurate the weather man is, it could be anything from a couple three inches to it could snow three or four inches just during the race. Then you get a packed field because it is really hard to break away and it makes for a really tactical race. When it is like that I usually say you got to be smart and tough. There is a lot of toughness that goes with those snowy races. It is part of the game and you have to be smart tactically, because you can burn up a lot of energy and get no gain out of it."

RESULTS
Utah Invitational
West Yellowstone, Mont. (Rendezvous Ski Trails)

MEET TEAM STANDINGS (6-of-8 EVENTS):
1. Denver 476; 2. Colorado 470; 3. Utah 417.5; 4. Montana State 410.5; 5. New Mexico 326; 6. Alaska Anchorage 259; 7. Westminster College 224; 8. Alaska Fairbanks 108; 9. Colorado Mountain College 71

Complete Thursday results found on the link at the top of the page.