Assistant Coaches Dan Weinberger and Jed Schuetze will post weekly diary entries to update Colorado ski fans on the progress of their training towards the 2006 NCAA Championships, to be held at Steamboat, Colorado, March 8-11. This week Dan fills us in on some training as well as the REAL competition the ski team is thinking about during finals.
Christmas is coming soon and the CU ski team is feeling the spirit. This past week, the alpine teams were competing in NorAm races held in Colorado. An abridged women’s team consisting of Rachel Roosevelt, Lucie Zikova, and Sabrina Mocellin was in Winter Park with coach Rokos, and an abridged men’s team consisting of Miles Cooke and Jean-Francios Ferreira (JF) with Coach Schuetze and myself were in Keystone.
They were nice enough to invite me along to help out with some duties, but primarily it was a great experience for me to obtain a better understanding of their sport. The competition at these events were incredible because of the World Cup races the following weekend; which enabled Miles and JF to ski against 90 of the top 100 slalom skiers in the world. JF made both second runs, and on the second day he moved from the 78 start position and finished 37. Miles battled the tough conditions demonstrating athleticism as he skied well on the upper portion of the course; however the lower section got the best of him and he was unable to finish the race.
The women skied well in Winter Park competing against one of the strongest fields to hit the slopes in the US. Austrian Nicole Hosp, German skier Annemarie Gerg, and Marion Bertrand from France were the race champions in Winter Park. “These races are always very intense, it’s great to see the best skiers in world on the hill and see the Buffs race with them,” said Schuetze.
The Nordic team squared off against the University of Denver, their primary competition, in two citizen races held in Frisco this past weekend. The CU women dominated with Maria Grevsgaard outsprinting Jana Rehemaa for the win. On the men’s side, Henrik Hoye won the men’s race by outsprinting three DU skiers and CUs own Erling Christiansen. It is shaping up to be another battle this year on the Nordic side, but we would not have it any other way. The 2nd day brought more success to CU as Jana, Maria, and Kristin were 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively, and freshman Megan Wilder placed 3rd in the Older Junior category. The men were led by Erling and Henrik again and their 2nd and 3rd place finishes.
This upcoming week training will be light because the team is primarily focused on preparing for finals in hopes of defending last years “Highest Team GPA” award.
