Skiers In Fifth After First Day Of NCAA Championships

Wednesday, March 9

Steamboat Springs, Colo.

All Day

Colorado

NCAA Championships (GS)

Skiers In Fifth After First Day Of NCAA Championships

March 09, 2016 | Skiing

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — The defending national champion University of Colorado ski team will have to rally from behind if it wants to be the first school to repeat in six years, as the Buffaloes had a near-disastrous day in the giant slalom and opened in fifth place.

Montana State ended the first day of competition with its first-ever lead at any stage of the championships since it went coed in 1983; the Bobcats amassed 148 points to own a 10-point lead over Denver (138). Utah, this year's NCAA West Regional champion, holds third with 123, followed by Dartmouth (92), the Buffaloes (88.5), New Mexico (80.5) and East region champ Vermont (76).

MSU, which was the point-leader in both the men's and women's races Wednesday, is just the 10th different school to hold the first day lead (as well as at any point), with the 10-point margin the smallest since 2006, when New Hampshire held a 1½-point lead over Denver.

The Buffs will be hoping to repeat what they pulled off a decade ago, rallying from sixth place after the first day; back then, CU was 52 points behind New Hampshire but rallied to take the lead after six of eight events. This time, the comeback would have to come from some 59.5 points down.

The western schools dominated the giant slalom races, taking eight of the top 11 spots in the men's race and 10 of the top 12 in the women's.

The men's GS opened the championships, and CU's group had dominated the west all winter but that didn't carry over to Wednesday. Freshman Ola Johansen was CU's top performer, tying for 10th in 1:52.53, well behind Utah's Endre Bjertness, who won in 1:50.85. MSU's David Neuhauser was second in 1:50.93 as just eight one-hundredths of a second separated the top two.

Johansen wasn't pleased with his first NCAA effort.

“Not so good,” he lamented. “In my first run I didn't have enough intensity. Maybe I felt a little pressure. I gave it 100 percent, but it didn't work out. The second run was better, and I stepped it up a little bit and jumped some spots. Overall, not super happy – I should have been in one of the top spots.”

He was 19th after the first run, but thanks to posting the fourth-best run in the afternoon (55.65) he moved up nine spots and earned second-team All-America honors in the process.

Freshman Max Luukko drew the top spot and was the first to race out of the gate, but had some trouble being the first to ski down the Mt. Werner course which likely cost him about three seconds and put him 30th overall. His second run – 55.41 – was the second fastest in the afternoon but he still finished 22nd in 1:53.72.

Senior Henrik Gunnarsson was 13th after the first run, and looked to be skiing to perfection in the first portion of his second run but suffered a crash that forced him to record a DNF (did not finish), and thus the west's No. 1 alpine seed coming in did not score for the team.

“It was a nightmare as a coach, when one of your best skiers goes out early,” head coach Richard Rokos said. “It's created a little turmoil and anxiety. I could go into a bunch of technical reasons as to what happened to Max, but he was basically the guinea pig being the first to ski following much slower forerunners. Sometimes that is an advantage, sometimes it can be a disaster. It was the latter today, and all the other skiers picked up on it after they saw what happened to him.”

“Henrik was skiing perfect up top, everything was going well, but he had the bad luck with some balance and wound up crashing in an easier part of the course,” Rokos added.

Freshman Tonje Trulsrud recorded CU's best finish Wednesday, earning first-team All-America honors with a third place finish in a two-run time of 1:59.27. Denver's Kristine Haugen won the gold with a 1:58.00 time, with Montana State's Benedicte Lyche almost exactly in-between the pair in 1:48.59 to take second.

“Tonje was consistent throughout the whole season and she carried forth with that today,” Rokos said. “She had a good first race at the NCAA's and it was a good finish. Knowing there was no room for error, she came through and skied well.”

Trulsrud was the 20th Buffalo to earn a podium finish in their first NCAA race dating back to 1983, the 12th alpine performer to do so (and the seventh woman).

“I am super happy – I was really nervous,” Trulsrud said. “I can't remember the last time I was that nervous. I am obviously happy with my third place (finish). Going into my second run I was in fourth, and it was only one-hundredth (of a second) short of third. I really wanted to get into third place.”

“It is important to do well for the team – you ski for the team,” she replied as to why she was so nervous, which is fairly common among most first-timers at the NCAA's. “You get more nervous because you don't only ski for yourself, but you ski for the whole team. I guess that's why, but it's difficult to know. I was told before that there would be pressure. I knew it was like that. I think I just put the pressure on myself.”

The conditions on Wednesday weren't what was expected – more sun and better visibility. But Trulsrud responded to the unexpected.

“It was rough, you couldn't see anything,” she said. “You couldn't see the surface. It was bumpy. There was ice underneath (the snow), but the ice breaks in some (places). It was pretty difficult. You had to be pretty aggressive all the way down to ski fast. I had expected it to be better. I expected sun today with good ice, not breaking ice. It was different than what I expected.”

CU's other finishers were outside the top 10, with senior Thea Grosvold finishing 16th in 2:02.99, with freshman Nora Christensen placing 21st in 2:02.91. Christensen replaced Jessica Honkonen, CU's second-ranked alpine woman, who suffered a collegiate-career ending knee injury in training last Saturday.

“It was under what we should and expect to be,” Johansen added about the men's results. “I think we got 30 points or something from all three men (actually 29.5). With Henrik, it was a little unfortunate that he skied out. Max was unlucky in the first run. Definitely under what we expected and where we need to be to get the win. Luckily, Tonje [Trulsrud] did a good job. And the other two (women) did a decent job and scored some points. We're still in there, won't give up. Hopefully the Nordies can step it up tomorrow.”

“It's pretty bad to start this way, and I'm not happy about it, but there's nothing we can do,” Rokos said. “At this point, we have to go for it, make it or break it. Luckily, all teams aren't strong on both sides, so hopefully the Nordics can come through and make up some of the difference for us tomorrow. Then we'll have a shot at redemption in the slalom Friday night.”

Johansen is in concert with that thought.

“Tomorrow, we will probably do a little bit of training, then take it easy,” he said. “Friday, with the races at night, maybe do some training in the morning. We are going to try and recharge the batteries and mentality, and then go for it.”

The freestyle races open the Nordic events Thursday, with the women's 5-kilometer race at 9 a.m. and men's 10k at 10:30 a.m. The slalom races are set for Friday, and for third time in NCAA history – all at Steamboat – the event will be in prime time: the women's first run is at 6:30 p.m., with the men's at 7:15 p.m.; the second runs follow at 9 p.m. (women) and 9:30 p.m. (men). The classical races will finish off the NCAA meet on Saturday, March 12: the men are first with their 20-kilometer run at 9 a.m., with the women's 15k to follow at 11 a.m.

NCAA Skiing Championships (2 of 8 events)— 1. Montana State 148; 2. Denver 138; 3. Utah 123; 4. Dartmouth 92; 5. Colorado 88½; 6. New Mexico 80½; 7. Vermont 76; 8. Alaska-Anchorage 68; 9. New Hampshire 63; 10. Middlebury 48; 11. Colby 25; 12. St. Michaels' 23; 13. Williams 11; 14. Plymouth State 8.

Men's Giant Slalom (27 finishers)— 1. Endre Bjertness, Utah, 1:50.85; 2. David Neuhauser, MSU, 1:50.93; 3. Erik Read, DU, 1:51.24; 4. Dominique Garand, UVM, and Morten Bakke, MSU, 1:51.78; 6. Sean Alexander, UAA, 1:51.85; 7. Jay Ogle, New Hampshire 1:52.29; 8. Sebastian Brigovic, DSU, 1:52.41; 9. Thomas Woolson, Dart., 1:52.36; 10. Ola Johansen, CU, and Rob Greig, UNM, 1:52.53. Other CU Finisher: 22. Max Luukko, 1:53.72. DNS (second run): Henrik Gunnarsson.

Women's Giant Slalom (31 finishers)— 1. Kristine Haugen, DU, 1:58.00; 2. Benedicte Lyche, MSU, 1:58.59; 3. Tonje Trulsrud, CU, 1:59.27; 4. Stephanie Gartner, MSU, 1:59.67; 5. Foreste Peterson, Dart., 1:59.71; 6. Tuva Norbye, DU, 1:59.74; 7. Laurence St.-Germaine, UVM, 2:00.73; 8. Chloe Fausa, Utah, 2:00.86; 9. Roni Remme, Utah, 2:00.91; 10. Julie Mohagen, Utah, 2:01.41. Other CU Finishers: 16. Thea Grosvold, 2:02.99; 21. Nora Christensen, 2:03.91.

(Student Assistant SID Jessica Malknecht contributed to this report.)