Mia Cullman

Position:
Alpine
Height:
5-6
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Vail, Colo.
High School:
Vail Mountain

Top Career Slalom Finish: 1st (three, last at 2003 Montana State Invitational)

Top Career Giant Slalom Finish: 1st (2003 Colorado Invitational)

2001 First-Team All-American (slalom)

2001 Second-Team All-American (giant slalom)

2002 First-Team All-American (slalom)

2002 Second-Team All-American (giant slalom)

2003 First-Team All-American (slalom)

2003? Colorado’s most consistent women’s downhill racer with eight top-10 finishes and two wins and five first or second runs won,

It would take her just two races to claim her fourth career win, as she took the slalom at the Montana State Invitational. She posted her third and fourth top-10 finishes of the season a week later at the UAA-UU meet, finishing eighth in the GS and runner-up in the slalom. In two races at the World University Games, she barely missed the medal stand as she finished fifth (the second-best finish by an American) in the giant slalom, just 2.35 seconds off the winning pace, and 12th in the slalom. Less than a week after she got off the plane from Italy, she won the GS with more than a second to spare at the Buffs’ own CU Invitational, but finished a disappointing 35th (after having to hike) in the slalom, typically her stronger discipline. She made up for it a week later by posting a pair of runner-up finishes in the Western State Invitational, trailing Utah’s Lina Johansson, in both races. Following a fourth-place finish in the GS at the NCAA West Regionals, she suffered her first DNF of the season, just second of her illustrious career, when she failed to finish the first run of the slalom. After a 24th place finish in the GS at the NCAA Championships in Lyme, N.H., she rebounded two days later in the slalom to finish third, the best individual performance by a Buff in the Championships. She was an RMISA All-Conference Selection.

2002? One of the west’s most dominant skiers, Cullman christened the 2002 season with a second place finish in the slalom and 11th-place effort in the giant slalom at the Montana State Invitational to contribute to the Buffs’ fourth-place finish in the meet. A week later she won her first career slalom race (the first for a CU woman since the 2000 season) at the Nevada Invitational in Sugar Bowl, Calif. and had a team-high fourth-place finish in the GS the next day. She was part of Colorado’s slalom sweep at the Denver Invite in Winter Park, taking the women’s slalom with almost a second to spare over New Mexico’s Marte Dolva. The day before she finished 17th in the GS to pace the Buffs to their then-best team finish of the season. At the UNM Invitational, she paced a second CU dominated slalom race that led a six-pack of Buffs in the top 12. She used a blistering morning run of 49.84, the only one sub 50.8 seconds, to catapult her to the win in a two-run time of 1:42.30, easlity defeating Utah’s Petra Svet by more than a second. She struggled with the slips at the NCAA West Regionals both days, finishing with a career-low 30th place in the slalom at Anchorage, but turned her fortune around a day later to finish 13th in the GS. In her second NCAA Championships she finished eighth in the GS before taking on the slalom two days later. After her final run she was the national champion for about 50 seconds, until UNM’s Dolva got the season equalizer and won the time challenge. Cullman would settle for the silver and her second All-American accolade in a two-run time of 1:31.52. During the late summer she worked a ski camp at Mt. Hood.

2001? Cullman cracked the top 10 in all but two races during her rookie campaign, winning two, proving to be Colorado’s most consistent women’s alpine skier throughout the 2001 season. She began the season by scoring in the top eight of six consecutive events, becoming the first CU alpine woman to do so since Linda Wikstrom in 1999. Cullman’s top efforts on the year included a third place giant slalom finish at the Nevada Invitational and then duplicating that in the slalom at the New Mexico Invitational. Her best-combined result came at CU’s home event in Eldora, where she finished fourth in both the GS and slalom. She took a mid-season break to compete in the World University Games in Zakopane, Poland where she finished fourth in the slalom, missing bronze by a quarter of a second. She turned in a pair of All-American performances at the NCAA Championships when she earned second-team honors in the GS finishing seventh and first-team accolades with a bronze effort in the slalom with the second-fastest run of the day in 1:25.59. Following the collegiate season she finished sixth in the slalom at the U.S. Alpine Nationals.

Other?She had a successful background competing with Ski Club Vail and the U.S. Junior Development Team from 1997-2000, with solid showings at the 2000 U.S. Alpine Championships, finishing ninth in the downhill, 10th in the super G and 13th in the slalom. She was third in the overall combined standings. She has had her run of strong finishes at the Junior Olympics, as she took three of four events (slalom, giant slalom and super G) at the 1998 junior’s in Breckenridge, Colo. As a youngster, Cullman skied for the Summit County Ski and Education Foundation. She was also a four-year letterwinner for Vail Mountain’s soccer team. She was the starting right wing for 1998 team that claimed the state championship under head coach Carrie Koeper.

Academics?A Dean’s List student during the ’02 spring semester, she is an English major carrying a better than 3.0 grade point average into her final season at Colorado.

Personal?Born Oct. 26, 1979 in Santa Fe, N.M., she is the daughter of Crawford Pierce and Liv Sverre Pierce. She has three brothers. Nikken is a junior at Yale and a member of the Bulldogs’ alpine club team while Zeke is 5-years-old and Max, 3. Her father competed on the world cup circuit for the U.S. national alpine team.