Buffs Ready For Shot At Lucky No. 21

STOWE, Vt.—Twenty-one is generally regarded as a lucky number. Whether it gets you a winning hand at blackjack or represents the legal drinking age in your state, it's usually a number many look forward to.

And that's certainly the case for the Colorado Ski Team, which is looking for National Championship No. 21 this week here at Stowe Mountain Resort and Trapp Family Lodge. The Buffs have won 19 NCAA and one AIAW Championship in its rich skiing history.

And while the Buffs are looking for No. 21, they are also looking for the program's 20th NCAA Championship, which would make it the second skiing program to achieve that milestone but just the 11th program among the 90 different championships contended annually to win 20 or more NCAA Championships.

But as in most sports, history doesn't mean much for the present, and that's the case for this year's CU squad. The Buffs have traveled east with 12 skiers capable of climbing to the top of the mountain yet again. This year's squad consists of Alvar Alev (men's Nordic), Hedda Baangman (women's Nordic), Sondre Bollum (men's Nordic), Nora Christensen (women's alpine), Erik Dengerud (men's Nordic), Stef Fleckenstein (women's alpine), Filip Forejtek (men's alpine), Anne Siri Lervik (women's Nordic), Max Luukko (men's alpine), Christina Rolandsen (women's Nordic), Mikaela Tommy (women's alpine) and Joey Young (men's alpine).

Among those 12 skiers, six have skied at NCAAs before and six will be making their first appearance. Of the six who have been at NCAAs before, they have a combined 11 appearances and each has been named an All-American in each of those 11 appearances. Of the six newcomers, four of them won at least one race this season. In all, the 12 skiers have combined for 73 Top 10 and 34 top five finishes this season including 22 podiums and seven race victories.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE: The 2019 NCAA Championships will begin on Wednesday, March 6, with the 5K women's and 10K men's freestyle races at Trapp Family Lodge. The interval-start men's race will begin at 10 a.m. ET/8 a.m. MT and the women's race will follow two hours later at Noon ET/10 a.m. MT.

Thursday will see the giant slalom action taking place at Stowe Mountain Resort. The women will ski first with their first run set for 9 a.m. ET/7 a.m. MT followed by the men's first run at 10:15 a.m. ET/8:15 a.m. MT. The women's second run will be at 12:45 p.m. ET/10:45 a.m. MT and the men's second run will conclude the day at 2 p.m. ET/Noon MT.

Friday's action returns to Nordic with the classic races. A mass start race, the women's 15K race will start at 10 a.m. ET/8 a.m. MT followed by the men's race at Noon ET/10 a.m. MT.

On Saturday, the alpine and overall championship will conclude with the slalom races. The men will go first at 9 a.m. ET/7 a.m. MT followed by the women's first run at 10 a.m. ET/8 a.m. MT. Second runs will begin at Noon ET/10 a.m. for the men and 1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. MT with the women.

LIVE COVERAGE: There will be live streaming and live timing for all races at the Championships. Live streaming can be found at ncaa.com/live under the correct day and live timing for Nordic will be located at BullitTiming.com while alpine will be available at live-timing.com.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY: The Buffs have won 20 National Championships, including 19 NCAA (and one AIAW). The Buffs also have 96 Individual National Champions (94 NCAA, 2 AIAW), with the 94 NCAA individual titles constituting the most by any school. The Buffs have won three of the last four Championships contested in the East, including 2011 here at Stowe. The Buffs also won in 2013 at Middlebury and 2015 at Lake Placid. The Buffs are also looking for their fourth NCAA Championships this decade to keep pace with Denver and make a claim for team of the decade.

Coach Richard Rokos has been at the helm of the program for eight NCAA Championships. His eight championships match Cross Country and Track & Field coach Mark Wetmore for most in CU history and it's the third most in NCAA Skiing history. If the Buffs win, Rokos will pull into a tie for second most in NCAA Skiing history.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The Buffs have been a little stronger in classic races on the Nordic side and giant slalom races on the alpine side. Those two days are the middle two days of this championships. It's always important to get off to a good start, so if the Buffs can be near the top after the first day, that momentum could carry through the next two days. Rokos calls slalom the great equalizer. It's usually the most stressful event of the championships, and that's only heightened when it's the final event of the championship.

QUOTEWORTHY:
Richard Rokos: "Every year, we have the goal of winning the National Championship. This year is no different. We have qualified a full team of 12-skiers, and only five or six teams will be there with a full team, so we will see how it all shakes out."

"Joey has grown so much in two years. He has always been fast in training, but in the past it wasn't always translating to the races, and this year it has. Max has been a little bit hard to figure out. Some of his recent results haven't been as good as past results. He looks the same, the key is just having the confidence to go out and do it. He's been to NCAAs three times before this, so hopefully he can dig down and get a few good races in. Filip went to Alaska after his injury was healed and had some top results but also a little bit of inconsistency. He doesn't even look fast, he's naturally a good skiers. With his size, you look at him and say 'oh, gosh,' but in the end he's fast, he's a good glider on the flat terrain because of his downhill background."

"Mikaela's results speak for themselves. She is one of the top skiers in the NCAA. Stef came into the league and wasn't in the top seed, but she moved herself into that bracket. Nora has had a solid season and was skiing even better before she took two weeks off at Christmas when she went home. It was a little bit of a confidence issue, but she's now finally getting back at the right time."

"Because of the format, everything events out at NCAAs. Utah has 10 guys on their alpine team, you can only score six, but they rotate through. Denver went to regionals with six total alpine skiers and only skied with five. Throughout the season, Utah was dominating with their numbers, but going into the NCAA, it will even up. We'll see how things end up."

"With the Nordic team, the six of them that are going, we have no doubts, they will pull their weight."

Jana Weinberger: "We're looking good. Everybody is healthy, it seems like everything is going according to plan. It helps that four of the six have been here before. They're a little more confident, they don't worry as much as the new ones."

"Hedda's very excited. She feels confident and is excited to race. I think she'll do well."

"We're a little stronger in classic, both the men's and women's side. I like that we'll finish with our strong suit. This course is a little bit tactical, the first part of the course is easy, the last part is hard, there will be tactics. It's a very skiable course, it should suit our men's skiers especially well."

"It's very similar to what we saw eight years ago here, the course hasn't changed much at all. Conditions will be different than it was then. It's going to be cold here this week, back in 2011 we were dealing with rain."

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Players Mentioned

Alvar Alev

Hedda Baangman

Sondre Bollum

Nora Christensen

Erik Dengerud

Stef Fleckenstein

Filip Forejtek

Anne Siri Lervik

Max Luukko

Christina Rolandsen

Mikaela Tommy

Joey Young