Ketterer Sweep Pulls CU Skiers Closer To The Lead At NCAA Championships

Friday, March 10

Franconia, N.H.

All Day

Colorado

NCAA Championships (Slalom)

Freshman David Ketterer made multiple entries in CU's history books with his slalom win Friday.

Photo by: Steve Fuller

Ketterer Sweep Pulls CU Skiers Closer To The Lead At NCAA Championships

March 10, 2017 | Skiing

NCAA Day 3 - Slalom Results

Only the fifth skier to win both the GS and Slalom at the NCAA's in same year

By: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information

FRANCONIA, N.H. — University of Colorado freshman David Ketterer made history here Friday and in the process helped catapult the Buffaloes back into the hunt for the title as the third day of competition of the 64th annual Skiing Championships came to a close.

Defending national champion Denver became the third different leader in as many days, as he Pioneers have scored 419 points, with Utah, the top team at the midway point, now second (384½) while Colorado remained in third (377). The Buffaloes pulled 19½ points closer to the lead and trail by 42.

While a significant margin to make up, in 2013, CU trailed by 54 points heading into the final two events and would go on to win by 43, the largest comeback and reversal in NCAA history.

Ketterer became just the fifth skier in NCAA history to sweep the giant slalom and slalom titles in the same year, as he won the slalom in convincing fashion in a two-run time of 1:49.23. He merged the third fastest morning run and the second quickest in the afternoon to defeat Vermont's St. Germain (1:49.63) by four-tenths of a second. The giant slalom debuted as an NCAA event in 1976, thus just the five double victories in 42 years of racing; the last sweep was nine years ago.

He also joined two other Buffaloes as the only two to win their first two NCAA races, though he is the first alpine skier to accomplish the rarity: Per Kare Jakobsen won a pair as a sophomore in 1988 (men's cross country and relay) and Line Selnes swept her events in 1998 (women's classic and freestyle). Ketterer is also just the eighth CU skier to have a pair of podium finishes (top three) in his first two NCAA races.

The Colorado men won the slalom with 80 points, besting Denver (71) and Utah (39) and in the process tightened up the standings after the midway point among the top three from 61½ points to 20½. But the DU women scored 83 points in their slalom, topping the Buffs (57) and Utah (44) and in the process wrestled the lead away but it's much tighter heading into Saturday's Nordic action.

CU NCAA MEN'S SLALOM CHAMPIONS
1961     Buddy Werner
1963     Jimmie Heuga
1966     Bill Marolt
1970     Mike Porcarelli
1972     Mike Porcarelli
1977     Stephan Hienzsch
1983     Niklas Scherrer
1984     James Marceau
1986     John Skajem
1987     John Skajem
1990     Chris Pedersen
1995     Scott Wither
2000     Andy LeRoy
2009     Gabriel Rivas
2017     David Ketterer

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GS/SL SWEEPS
1977     Stephan Hienzsch, Colorado
1987     John Skajem, Colorado
2007     Adam Cole, Denver
2008     John Buchar, Denver
2017     David Ketterer, Colorado

"Well it is not done yet, but we definitely moved up," head coach Richard Rokos said. "David did a great job and I think the whole team did. We didn't have too much room for error and it was either we could go for it and kill it and take the chances that we would lose it all, or stay in the game and hope that even if there is a little slack that Nordic's will be able to gap it tomorrow.   So I think right now we are still in good position to look for a good day tomorrow."

Rokos has an appreciation for what Ketterer accomplished this week, having been around college skiing now for 30 years.

"(Winning both the GS and slalom) doesn't happen too often," he noted. "The last time it happened was in 2008 (John Buchar from Denver). It is a very unique opportunity because it just displays the great skiing ability on his side. Again, he can do it."

"It is fantastic," Ketterer said of his sweep. "I was kind of in a position where I had to win, or was expecting a pretty good result after the season with a couple of wins. So I was a little bit under pressure that didn't necessarily make it any easier, so I'm even happier now to be here and win both races to earn as many points of possible for the team."

Along with Ketterer's success, CU had two other skiers earn All-America honors on Friday.

Sophomore Nora Christensen repeated the success she found as a freshman in Steamboat Springs last year, placing fifth in the slalom; she is the first Buffalo women's alpine skier to earn back-to-back first-team All-America honors in the slalom race since Lucie Zikova, who earned first-team honors in all four seasons of her career from 2005-08. She posted a two-run time of 1:58.07, just one one-hundredth of a second out of fourth; Vermont's Paula Moltzan won in a 1:56.57 clocking.

"It feels really good," Christensen said of replicating her fifth-place slalom finish from last season. "I really just wanted to put down a good run for the team and be able (for CU) to catch some points on the leading team, so I just skied really stable and find speed where I could find it. It went very well so that was really fun."

On the men's side, sophomore Max Luukko earned second-team All-America honors just as he did two days ago in the giant slalom. He finished eighth in the slalom with a two-run time of 1:50.59, in the middle of a tightly bunched trio as there was only eight one-hundredths of a second separating the seventh-through ninth place finishers; Vermont's Max Roeisland edged Luukko by six on-hundredths of a second for seventh while Luukko was two one-hundredths faster than Middlebury's Rob Cone.

Luukko has now earned All-American honors in three of his four NCAA races (two slaloms and one GS).

Also helping CU win the men's race was fellow sophomore Ola Johansen, who rebounded after not finishing Wednesday's giant slalom. He skied smart and placed 14th in a 1:51.99; that was right behind two DU skiers, one one-hundredth of a second back of Tanner Farrow and eight one-hundredths behind Pioneer Alex Leever.

Thus, showing just how close ski meets can be, three DU skiers bested three Buffs by a combined tenth of a second, which amounted to an 8-point swing in the standings for the Pioneers.

Sophomore Tonje Trulsrud and freshman Isabella Fidjeland both improved greatly on their bib seeds in the race to help the Buffs pick up points on Utah, who had an eighth- and 12th-place finisher, but the third Ute scorer, Chloe Fausa, only earned two points as her time was hurt on the first run when she missed a gate and had to hike back up to clear it.

Trulsrud was timed for her two runs in 1:59.49 and placed 13th, while Fidjeland finished 23rd, up nine spots from her bib seed. She had a two-run time of 2:02.39.

As often is the case, the title will come down to Saturday's Nordic competition. The freestyle races with mass starts will finish off the meet with the men up first with their 20-kilometer race at 8 a.m. MST, which will be followed by the women's 15k at 10 a.m.

LINER NOTES: Ketterer finished his freshman year with seven victories; that ties for the fifth-most overall in school history for as single year, and tied the most by a male alpine skier (John Skajem won seven in 1986 and Toni Standteiner the same in 1991) ... Ketterer's two wins combined with Petra Hyncicova's victory in the women's 5K classic gives CU three individual champions this winter; that's the 14th time Buffalo skiers have won three or more titles in the same championship, and the most since four captured titles in 2008 ... In Thursday's cross country action, Utah scored 165½ points, CU 149 and DU 132; the Colorado women scored the most points (94), the DU men the least (45). The monkey wrench is often the strong Northern Michigan team from the Central Region as its skiers usually infiltrate the top 10 and play a role in the scoring ... Montana State was the first round leader (by 13 points over Utah) ... The Buffs have had 10 All-American efforts here (six first-team, two second-team), upping the total under Rokos to 216 in 27 seasons (including 136 first-team, 38 of whom earned the nod in both their disciplines) ... CU senior Mads Stroem is looking for his fourth individual NCAA title in Saturday's freestyle race; he's looking to tie four others in school history who have four: Bill Marolt, Mike Porcarelli and Buddy Werner (all skiing) and Jennifer Barringer (track) … Ketterer's win was CU's 93rd individual title, as the Buffs now lead DU (88) by five ... Dating back to 1995, the school leading after six events has gone on to win 18 of the 21 titles.

ADDITIONAL CU QUOTES

CU HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS
On Ketterer's Second Run Where He Took Over First Place
"That's the way how he runs, actually I was surprised that his first run was not as smooth as the second run, but there is always a little bit of nerves that play a role, and all pressure and everything. I think everybody, all those guys were nervous. Ola (Johansen) I know for sure was nerve wrecked because it happened to him in GS (not finishing) and he couldn't afford to do it again.

On His Women's Alpine Team
"And the girls, they were skiing solid runs. Isabella (Fidjeland) and Tonje, they skied very well and Nora, she just went for it and she benefited from it.

On The Alpine Structure In General
"Again, this slalom proved that we have to work somehow on our scoring system. We used to have a little room for error and a slalom like this where everybody has to finish, everybody is under such tremendous pressure, it doesn't exactly reflect alpine skiing. There should be a little element of risk taking. If you have a field where 90 percent finish without any problem you know that they were not skiing up to their potential."

On The Alpine Team Heading Over To Jackson To Cheer On The Nordic Team's Saturday
"I think there will be a very, very strong push to do everything we can to make a move."

FRESHMAN DAVID KETTERER
On The Course Today
"It was pretty demanding, the course was not the biggest challenge, just like the hill and the surface was super icy and slick so it was hard to find grip. It is very different than what the snow is like in Colorado, so we didn't ski that much on it. The east coast boys kind of had an advantage over us, but we had a good training yesterday and it worked out well."

On Being Used To Icy Conditions From Skiing In Europe
"It is definitely more like Europe here, but I am not much of an ice skier so I knew that today I have to show my best to come away with a good result and I am so happy with it."

On The Pressure To Preform At NCAA's After A Strong Regular Season
"It was kind of in the back of my mind, I tried to not think about it (last night). It only makes it harder if you think about the result and what happens if I ski out or do bad, so I kind of tried to blind out all the negative things and results that happened."

On Setting A New School Record For Slalom Victories In A Season
"I just remembered that I evened out with the fourth win in Alaska. It is an honor to be a record holder at CU, a school with a lot of good skiers and it feels good to make my mark in the books."

SOPHOMORE NORA CHRISTENSEN
On Repeating As A First-Team All-American
"It feels really good. I really just wanted to put down a good run for the team today and be able to catch some points on the leading team, so I just skied really stable today and find speed where I could find it. It went very well so that was really fun."

On Her Second Slalom Run Where She Made Up Some Spots
"I tried to give it a little bit more in the second run than the first run. I was a little bit careful, at least on the steep first part, so I just tried to go a little bit more but be smart because you have to make it down to the finish. I just tried to give it a little bit more and it went a little bit faster than the first run so that was good."

On The Conditions And Gaining Any Confidence From Skiing On Ice Back In Norway
"The boys helped me with my edges, so that was really helpful. I felt like I had good grip and I think it is so much fun to ski on ice because the conditions are even for everybody and then it is so much fun and you can actually attack it. If you are in a good position then it is so fun to ski."

On Her Second NCAA Championship
"It actually is pretty nerve wrecking. For me myself skiing, I get nervous but I am able to control it. It is worse watching the boys, I get so nervous. You just really want your team to do well, but then it is also such small margins between being at the top and if someone skis out you can be so far behind again. That's what makes skiing fun, but it is really nerve wrecking actually."

NCAA Skiing Championship Team Scores (6 of 8 events)— 1. Denver 421; 2. Utah 386½; 3. Colorado 380; 4. Dartmouth 313; 5. Vermont 279; 6. Montana State 264; 7. New Mexico 155½. 8. Northern Michigan 120; 9. Alaska-Anchorage 110; 10. New Hampshire 108; 11. Middlebury 89; 12. Colby 86½; 13. Williams 62½; 14. St. Michael's 56; 15. Plymouth State 49; 16. Alaska-Fairbanks 39; 17. Bates 29; 18. Colby-Sawyer 15; 19. St. Scholastica 12; 20. Michigan Tech 11; 21. Bowdoin 0.

Men's Slalom (33 finishers)— 1. David Ketterer, CU, 1:49.23; 2. William St.-Germain, UVM, 1:49.63; 3. Erik Read, DU, 1:49.92; 4. Thomas Woolson, Dart., 1:49.97; 5. Endre Bjertness, Utah, 1:50.09; 6. Tanguy Nef, Dart., 1:50.39; 7. Max Roeisland, UVM, 1:50.53; 8. Max Luukko, CU, 1:50.59; 9. Robert Cone, Midd., 1:50.61; 10. Guillaume Grand, St. Michael's, 1:51.47. Other CU Skier: 14. Ola Johansen, 1:51.99.

Women's Slalom (31 finishers)— 1. Paula Moltzan, UVM, 1:56.57; 2. Andrea Komsic, DU, 1:57.08; 3. Foreste Peterson, Dart., 1:57.46; 4. Monica Huebner, DU, 1:58.06; 5. Nora Christensen, CU, 1:58.07; 6. Alexa Dlouhy, Dart., 1:58.18; 7. Benedictine Lyche, MSU, 1:58.21; 8. Roni Remme, Utah, 1:58.45; 9. Genevieve Frigon, UNH, 1:58.96; 10. Stephanie Gartner, MSU, 2:17.7. Other CU Finishers: 13. Tonje Trulsrud, 1:59.49; 21. Isabella Fidjeland, 2:02.39.

(Associate SID Jason Clay contributed to this report.)