Colorado University Athletics
Hartman Injures Knee At World University Games
ERZURUM, Turkey - Just two days after winning a race on the same course, University of Colorado senior Katie Hartman fell and injured her knee in the Super G half of the Super Combined race here at the 25th World University Games Monday. Hartman will miss the remainder of the ski season with a torn ACL and partially torn MCL, thus her collegiate career on the slopes for the Buffs is in jeopardy.
"It's a huge bummer but I am just going to take it one day at a time and as my best friend and teammate said, 'No Struggle, No Progress,'" Hartman said in reference to one the mantra's of Spencer Nelson, who passed away in the off season. "It's been a pretty big roller coaster ride over here in Turkey."
"It's a tough day over here, that's for sure," CU head coach Richard Rokos added. "We will try to regroup. She has done so much for this team and we know she will continue to do what she can. She has been a team captain forever; she will be around the rest of the season for mental support for the rest of us. It's just hard to digest it. There isn't enough that we could give her to match what she has given us."
In what were already borderline conditions, Hartman described the crash as "super hard, my most epic crash yet," and after she fell there was a delay in the race. Then after the next skier fell, just the 13th skier to take the course, the race was cancelled.
"It's hard to say if she crashed because of the race conditions," Rokos said. "Maybe 50-50. She fought fog and high winds at the top of the course and was in the lead by over a half-second right before she fell. She hit a patch of softer snow and fell at a very high rate of speed. Her injury is severe, but she is lucky she didn't get hurt worse."
Hartman will remain with Team USA and the other CU skiers and return to the United States as scheduled early next week, then look at her options.
Meanwhile Tuesday the slalom portion of the Super Combined was completed and sophomore Erika Ghent sits in second place on the women's side and senior Gabriel Rivas, skiing for France, is sixth place on the men's side. CU junior Taggart Spenst took 29th on the men's side while freshman Kirsten Cooper took 42nd on the women's side and Sara Hjertman and Carolina Nordh, skiing for Sweden, did not finish the race.
Ghent took fourth place in the first Super G race here last week and is currently about a second behind the leader, Slovakia's Barbora Lukacova, who finished in 45.42 seconds. Ghent's time was 46.39. While there was about a second between Lukacova and the field, Ghent leads a pack of four skiers that are within a second of each other behind her.
The Super G portion of the Super Combined will take place Wednesday and then the rest of the original program, the giant slalom and slalom races, will continue as originally planned later in the week.
Reid Concludes World Juniors Competition
OTEPAA, Estonia - Sophomore Joanne Reid concluded her competition here at the Junior World Cross Country Championships Monday helping the United States to a seventh place finish in the 4x3.3K relay. Skiing the anchor leg of the relay, Reid finished her lap in 9:08.8, the seventh fastest in the 17-team field, helping the U.S. finish in a time of 36:43.1. The U.S. was in 10th place at the mid-point of the race when Jessica Diggins had the second fastest third leg of the race to move up three spots to seven and Reid was able to maintain that placement through the final leg.