Wednesday, January 3
Anchorage, Alaska
All Day
Colorado
vs
US Cross Country Nationals (10/15K Freestyle)
Photo by: Kelly Gorham, Montana State University
Women Place Four In Top Eight of Season-Opening Race
January 03, 2018 | Skiing
Petra Hyncicova records her sixth career race victory to lead dominant women’s Nordic team
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Colorado women's Nordic team took home the first, second, fourth and eighth place spots in the women's 10K freestyle race at the U.S. Cross Country Championships Wednesday at Kincaid Park to highlight the opening day of the 2018 ski season for the Buffaloes.
Petra Hyncicova, the 2017 NCAA champion in both the classical and freestyle events, picked up right where she left off to end the NCAA circuit last year and recorded her sixth race win in her last nine starts.
"I think the women did great," head Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. "That's awesome to place four in the top eight. The women skied really well, it was kind of a tough day. It had been super icy and we didn't have very much snow, but then it snowed all day and although we only got probably three inches of snow, it made for a soft track and kind of tricky racing on a short and pretty tough course."
On the men's side, CU placed two inside the top 10 with its third-best finisher coming in 17th place.
THE WOMEN'S RACE: CU's deep squad came out firing in the first race of the season and placed four Buffs inside the top eight among finishers out of the RMISA. Along with Hyncicova winning the women's 10K freestyle race, junior Christina Rolandsen, a first-team All-American in last season's freestyle skate at the NCAA Championships, was right on her tail and finished second to earn her fifth career podium finish.
Hedda Baangman, making her first start for the Buffaloes, was seven seconds out from reaching the podium, finishing in fourth place right behind Hailey Swirbul out of the University of Alaska Anchorage, but a native of El Jebel, Colo.
Sophomore Anne Siri Lervik placed eighth for her sixth career top 10 finish. She was just two-tenths of a second out of seventh place, as her time of 29:39.8 was just behind Montana State's Johanna Taliharm. Ane Johnsen, who was the last of 151 competitors in the women's race to start because she came in unseeded, finished in 13th, which was actually a really good showing being the last racer to hit the course on the day that featured soft snow conditions that requires extra effort.
THE MEN"S RACE: Newcomer Alvar Alev and four-time All-American Petter Reistad led the Buffs on Wednesday, the duo finishing in eighth and ninth place, respectively. They finished within sixth-tenths of each other and for Reistad, he has now placed inside the top 10 in every one of the 23 races in his career.
Sophomore Andrew Potyk, who had his best finish last year at the same Kincaid Park in the UAA Invite, finished 17th on Wednesday. He was also 17th last winter in the 20K freestyle at the UAA Invite.
Rounding out the men's team was Ian Boucher finishing 27th and Tyler Terranova placing 29th. Freshman Sondre Bollum did not race on Wednesday as he is back in Europe trying to qualify for the Olympics in the biathlon.
WHAT IT MEANS: The races are being held independent of a team meet and races will not be scored, but results will be used for individual NCAA qualification points.
Although only skiers from the RMISA counted for those qualification results, NCAA skiers from the central and east regions were in the field at the U.S. Cross Country Championships, giving the Buffs an early look at where they stand nationally. Obviously with the women's team having three of the top four collegiate finishers, that collective group will be one of the home run hitters on Colorado's team this season.
NOTEWORTHY: With Hyncicova and Rolandsen finishing first and second in the women's race, it marks just the third time in the last 30 years that the Buffs have gone 1-2 in the first race of the year on the Nordic side, but a first for the women. The most recent was back in 2015 when Mads Stroem won the 10K freestyle in the Utah Invitational and was followed in second by Rune Oedegaard. Then back in 1995, also in the Utah Invitational, Tiit Peek won the 10K classic race and Hans-Jorgen Renaa was second.
NEXT UP: The Buffs are off on Thursday, but competing Friday in the freestyle sprint races. The qualifiers begin at noon while the final heats start at 2:45 p.m.
QUOTEABLE:
Head Nordic Coach Bruce Cranmer
On Petra Hyncicova's performance
"I think Petra is quite happy and I thought she had a great race. She traveled all the way back from Europe just the night before we left to come up here to Alaska, so a bunch of travel and racing. She has been focusing more on sprinting, so for her to win the college race I thought was great."
On the men's team
"I think the boys struggled a little bit more in kind of getting back into race mode from Christmas break mode. Coming back down to sea level is sometimes a little bit of a challenge because you have to go a little bit faster than when you are skiing at altitude and it takes a little bit to get adjusted, but I think everyone will be fine. It will take everyone a bit to get back in the groove, which is fine, I'm not in any big rush.
"I don't think the boys, any of them were thrilled with the results today, but like I said we are just kind of getting back going again and there is a lot of people that are super fired up to go up against a big field and the best that are here in the country."
On Hedda Baangman's fourth-place finish
"I think she was a little bit disappointed because she was coming off a Super Tour win, which is pretty much the same group of people that are here, maybe missing one or two others, that she beat in West Yellowstone when she won that race there in early December. I think she was hopeful that she might be a little higher up, but she was fine."
On CU's Olympic hopefuls and balancing qualification with the NCAA circuit
"For Petra, it was a bigger race because it might help her qualify for the Olympics and probably somewhat important for Alvar. It's not 100 percent important for him, he'll do some races in Europe after the races here and that will be another chance for him to try to qualify for the Olympics.
"Sondre is actually in Europe and is trying to qualify for the Olympics in the biathlon. He will join us when we start the Montana State Invitational. Alvar, he'll leave after the next race to go to Europe and he'll join us again in Salt Lake, so he'll only miss a couple races. We'll swap out Sondre for Alvar and have them both back by Utah."
RESULTS
2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships
Kincaid Park (Anchorage, Alaska)
Women's 10k Freestyle Results (2.5K course, four laps, 31 RMISA finishers):
1. Petra Hyncicova, CU, 28:05.8; 2. Christina Rolandsen, CU, 28:11.5; 3. Hailey Swirbul, UAA, 28:39.4; 4. Hedda Baangman, CU, 28:46.9; 5. Guro Jordheim, Utah, 28:47.0; 6. Emma Tarbath, MSU, 29:20.5; 7. Johanna Taliharm, MSU, 29:39.6; 8. Anne Siri Lervik, 29:39.8; 9. Jasmi Joensuu, DU, 29:44.4; 10. Mariah Bredal, Utah, 30:04.3. Other CU Finishers: 13. Ane Johnsen, 31:01.7; 30. Quinn Lehmkuhl, 33:52.9.
Men's 15k Freestyle Results (2.5K course, six laps, 33 RMISA finishers):
1. Dag Frode Trolleboe, DU, 38:26.9; 2. Erik Axelsson, MSU, 38:44.5; 3. Eivind Romberg Kvaale, DU, 38:48.4; 4. Martin Bergstroem, Utah, 38:49.4; 5. Hakon Hjelstuen, Utah, 38:54.5; 6. Toomas Kollo, UAA, 38:54.9; 7. Seiji Takagi, UAF, 39:34.8; 8. Alvar Alev, CU, 39:26.1; 9. Petter Reistad, CU, 39:26.7; 10. Max Donaldson, UAF, 39:37.5; Other CU Finishers: 17. Andrew Potyk, 40:22.5; 27. Ian Boucher, 42:44.8; 29. Tyler Terranova, 43:08.3
Petra Hyncicova, the 2017 NCAA champion in both the classical and freestyle events, picked up right where she left off to end the NCAA circuit last year and recorded her sixth race win in her last nine starts.
"I think the women did great," head Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. "That's awesome to place four in the top eight. The women skied really well, it was kind of a tough day. It had been super icy and we didn't have very much snow, but then it snowed all day and although we only got probably three inches of snow, it made for a soft track and kind of tricky racing on a short and pretty tough course."
On the men's side, CU placed two inside the top 10 with its third-best finisher coming in 17th place.
THE WOMEN'S RACE: CU's deep squad came out firing in the first race of the season and placed four Buffs inside the top eight among finishers out of the RMISA. Along with Hyncicova winning the women's 10K freestyle race, junior Christina Rolandsen, a first-team All-American in last season's freestyle skate at the NCAA Championships, was right on her tail and finished second to earn her fifth career podium finish.
Hedda Baangman, making her first start for the Buffaloes, was seven seconds out from reaching the podium, finishing in fourth place right behind Hailey Swirbul out of the University of Alaska Anchorage, but a native of El Jebel, Colo.
Sophomore Anne Siri Lervik placed eighth for her sixth career top 10 finish. She was just two-tenths of a second out of seventh place, as her time of 29:39.8 was just behind Montana State's Johanna Taliharm. Ane Johnsen, who was the last of 151 competitors in the women's race to start because she came in unseeded, finished in 13th, which was actually a really good showing being the last racer to hit the course on the day that featured soft snow conditions that requires extra effort.
THE MEN"S RACE: Newcomer Alvar Alev and four-time All-American Petter Reistad led the Buffs on Wednesday, the duo finishing in eighth and ninth place, respectively. They finished within sixth-tenths of each other and for Reistad, he has now placed inside the top 10 in every one of the 23 races in his career.
Sophomore Andrew Potyk, who had his best finish last year at the same Kincaid Park in the UAA Invite, finished 17th on Wednesday. He was also 17th last winter in the 20K freestyle at the UAA Invite.
Rounding out the men's team was Ian Boucher finishing 27th and Tyler Terranova placing 29th. Freshman Sondre Bollum did not race on Wednesday as he is back in Europe trying to qualify for the Olympics in the biathlon.
WHAT IT MEANS: The races are being held independent of a team meet and races will not be scored, but results will be used for individual NCAA qualification points.
Although only skiers from the RMISA counted for those qualification results, NCAA skiers from the central and east regions were in the field at the U.S. Cross Country Championships, giving the Buffs an early look at where they stand nationally. Obviously with the women's team having three of the top four collegiate finishers, that collective group will be one of the home run hitters on Colorado's team this season.
NOTEWORTHY: With Hyncicova and Rolandsen finishing first and second in the women's race, it marks just the third time in the last 30 years that the Buffs have gone 1-2 in the first race of the year on the Nordic side, but a first for the women. The most recent was back in 2015 when Mads Stroem won the 10K freestyle in the Utah Invitational and was followed in second by Rune Oedegaard. Then back in 1995, also in the Utah Invitational, Tiit Peek won the 10K classic race and Hans-Jorgen Renaa was second.
NEXT UP: The Buffs are off on Thursday, but competing Friday in the freestyle sprint races. The qualifiers begin at noon while the final heats start at 2:45 p.m.
QUOTEABLE:
Head Nordic Coach Bruce Cranmer
On Petra Hyncicova's performance
"I think Petra is quite happy and I thought she had a great race. She traveled all the way back from Europe just the night before we left to come up here to Alaska, so a bunch of travel and racing. She has been focusing more on sprinting, so for her to win the college race I thought was great."
On the men's team
"I think the boys struggled a little bit more in kind of getting back into race mode from Christmas break mode. Coming back down to sea level is sometimes a little bit of a challenge because you have to go a little bit faster than when you are skiing at altitude and it takes a little bit to get adjusted, but I think everyone will be fine. It will take everyone a bit to get back in the groove, which is fine, I'm not in any big rush.
"I don't think the boys, any of them were thrilled with the results today, but like I said we are just kind of getting back going again and there is a lot of people that are super fired up to go up against a big field and the best that are here in the country."
On Hedda Baangman's fourth-place finish
"I think she was a little bit disappointed because she was coming off a Super Tour win, which is pretty much the same group of people that are here, maybe missing one or two others, that she beat in West Yellowstone when she won that race there in early December. I think she was hopeful that she might be a little higher up, but she was fine."
On CU's Olympic hopefuls and balancing qualification with the NCAA circuit
"For Petra, it was a bigger race because it might help her qualify for the Olympics and probably somewhat important for Alvar. It's not 100 percent important for him, he'll do some races in Europe after the races here and that will be another chance for him to try to qualify for the Olympics.
"Sondre is actually in Europe and is trying to qualify for the Olympics in the biathlon. He will join us when we start the Montana State Invitational. Alvar, he'll leave after the next race to go to Europe and he'll join us again in Salt Lake, so he'll only miss a couple races. We'll swap out Sondre for Alvar and have them both back by Utah."
RESULTS
2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships
Kincaid Park (Anchorage, Alaska)
Women's 10k Freestyle Results (2.5K course, four laps, 31 RMISA finishers):
1. Petra Hyncicova, CU, 28:05.8; 2. Christina Rolandsen, CU, 28:11.5; 3. Hailey Swirbul, UAA, 28:39.4; 4. Hedda Baangman, CU, 28:46.9; 5. Guro Jordheim, Utah, 28:47.0; 6. Emma Tarbath, MSU, 29:20.5; 7. Johanna Taliharm, MSU, 29:39.6; 8. Anne Siri Lervik, 29:39.8; 9. Jasmi Joensuu, DU, 29:44.4; 10. Mariah Bredal, Utah, 30:04.3. Other CU Finishers: 13. Ane Johnsen, 31:01.7; 30. Quinn Lehmkuhl, 33:52.9.
Men's 15k Freestyle Results (2.5K course, six laps, 33 RMISA finishers):
1. Dag Frode Trolleboe, DU, 38:26.9; 2. Erik Axelsson, MSU, 38:44.5; 3. Eivind Romberg Kvaale, DU, 38:48.4; 4. Martin Bergstroem, Utah, 38:49.4; 5. Hakon Hjelstuen, Utah, 38:54.5; 6. Toomas Kollo, UAA, 38:54.9; 7. Seiji Takagi, UAF, 39:34.8; 8. Alvar Alev, CU, 39:26.1; 9. Petter Reistad, CU, 39:26.7; 10. Max Donaldson, UAF, 39:37.5; Other CU Finishers: 17. Andrew Potyk, 40:22.5; 27. Ian Boucher, 42:44.8; 29. Tyler Terranova, 43:08.3
Players Mentioned
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