Jana Rehemaa

Position:
Nordic
Height:
5-10
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Tartu, Estonia
High School:
Tartu Suusaklub

Top Career Classical Finish: 2nd (2004 Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado Invitationals)

Top Career Freestyle Finish: 2nd (Utah, New Mexico Invitationals, NCAA West Regional)

2003 First Team All-American (freestyle)

2004 First Team All-American (freestyle, classical)

2003, 04 All-Rocky Mountain Ski Association Team

This Season ? “The expectations for senior and captain Jana Rehemaa are very high this season. She has the potential to win both races at the NCAA Championships in March.”

2005? Redshirt. Did not compete.

2004? Rehemaa had one of the strongest women’s nordic seasons in CU history and earned the official title of RMISA runner-up as she had six second-place finishes during the 2004 campaign (twice trailing Alaska Anchorage’s Mandy Kaempf and two to UNM’s Martina Stursova), and finished outside of the top-five just once, a seventh place freestyle effort in the season opening race at Nevada. She earned her second and third first-team All-American titles with a pair of fourth-place finishes in both disciplines at the NCAA Championships in Lake Tahoe, becoming just the sixth women’s cross country skier to earn first-team honors in both disciplines in the same championship, first since former teammate (and current assistant coach) Mari Storeng in 2001. Her classical finish led a 4-5-6 Colorado finish. Named to the All-Rocky Mountain Ski Association Team and named the team’s most outstanding nordic women’s skier at the end of the season.

2003? Rehemaa was the women’s nordic team savior as she filled a void from graduated national champion Mari Storeng on an already slim roster and added a much-needed boost in the discipline. She joined the team from her native Estonia just two weeks prior to CU’s own Invitational in January where she pulled off a season best third place freestyle finish, just 14.8 seconds off the winning time in her first altitude race on one of the highest nordic courses (Eldora reaches points of 9,200 feet above sea level) on the collegiate circuit and first competitive race in over a month. The next day she finished a respectable 10th in the classical portion of the meet. A week later she cut her classical finish in half, finishing a team-best fifth at the Western State Invitational and was just one of two CU skiers to finish the freestyle event the next day, finishing fourth. With a “full roster” at the NCAA West Regionals, she posted CU’s second best efforts of the meet, finishing 10th in the freestyle and sixth in the classical. She continued to be the strongest CU woman at the NCAA Championships, skating to a first-team All-American fourth place finish in the freestyle and 11th in classical. In all she had four top-five finishes and just three double-digit finishes. She was an RMISA All Conference selection.

High School? Rehemaa also competed in basketball and track and field at Estonia Sport Gymnasium.

Club? Rehemaa had skied for the Tartu Ski Club in Estonia with her first cousin, and 2003 NCAA freestyle champion, Katrin Smigun of Utah.

Academics? Rehemaa is an international affairs major at Colorado, eclipsing the 3.0 mark this spring.

Personal? Born to Udo and Veira Rehemaa on July 27, 1979 in Russia, she is the eldest of two children and has a 22-year-old brother, Aivar who is a world junior champion. Rehemaa’s aunt and Katrin Smigun of Utah’s mother is Rutt Rehemaa, one of the top female sports personalities and nordic racers ever in Estonia; and Jana’s uncle is her long-time coach.