Pair of Skiers Pick Up Athlete of the Week Honors

Two skiers slid into this week's nomination for athlete of the week. Both Petra Hyncicova (women's ski) and David Ketterer (men's ski) had impressive showings on the slopes over the weekend to win them the honors.

Women's nordic skier Petra Hyncicova won both her 5K freestyle and 15K classic races this past weekend at the Montana State Individual and earned the most points of any individual competing in the meet, not just in women's Nordic but for all disciplines, male and female. Her time Saturday of 15:01.4 was 43.5 seconds faster than the second-place finisher in the meet, a remarkable gap in the shorter 5K skate. Hyncicova also won the longer 15K classic race with a time of 52:59.8, which was 18.4 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. The junior has now opened the season with three wins in her first four races, which marked just the sixth time in the last 27 years that a CU women's Nordic skier won three or more races in the first two meets to open a season (done by five different individuals).

Freshmen men's slalom skier David Ketterer had three podium finishes this past weekend for the CU men's alpine team in Snowbasin, Utah. He earned the most points of any alpine skier, men's or women's. Two of those came off of wins in slalom races - first in the Utah Invitational on Saturday and then on Sunday he won the RMISA slalom qualifier race. His other podium finish was a second-place showing on Friday in the men's giant slalom as part of the Utah Invitational. His win in the men's slalom of the Utah Invitational was by a minute and 34 seconds, an extremely large margin of victory in NCAA skiing. Ketterer has now won all three of his slalom races to open the season, which no other CU skier going back all the way through 1990 has done. His three slalom race victories have him within one slalom win of tying the school record for the most in a season for the event. John Skajem won four slalom races in both the 1986 and 1987 seasons and now Ketterer is one off from tying his school mark.

Also nominated for this week's honors: Xavier Johnson (men's basketball), Duane McClurkin Jr. (men's track and field), and Rajon O'Quinn (women's track and field)

Xavier Johnson averaged 18 points, 6.5 rebounds, along with 1.5 assists in games against No. 4 UCLA and NO. 25 USC last week. He made 58 percent of his field goal attempts including 5-of-8 from 3-point range. Johnson had a team-high 21 points - hitting 8-of-14 from the field against UCLA. Against USC, Johnson scored 15 points with seven rebounds and two assists. He made 6-of-10 from the floor including both 3-point attempts.

Sophomore Duane McClurkin Jr. put together a spectacular opening indoor weekend for the Buffs earning three top-three finishes. McClurkin Jr. dominated the 400-meter coming out of the first heat on fire to win the event title, clocking a 47.78, which ties his indoor career best. He added a third-place finish in the 200, with a time of 21.77, which is only .26 seconds off his PR, which is an impressive early season time. On Friday in the field events, McClurkin Jr. hit a 6-8.75 mark in the high jump to lead all Buffs and finish third overall.

Junior Rajon O'Quinn put together a solid two day meet as she finished second in the high jump, recording a personal best mark of 5-9.75. The mark moved her up two spots on the all-time

Players Mentioned

Petra Hyncicova

Xavier Johnson

David Ketterer

Duane McClurkin Jr.

Rajon O'Quinn

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