Skiers Finish Second At NCAA Championships

JACKSON, N.H. — The University of Colorado ski team gave it their best shot, but in the end there was just too much to overcome as the Buffaloes finished second in the 64th annual NCAA Skiing Championships which concluded here Saturday.

Utah won its first title since 2003 and its 11th overall, overtaking defending national champion and third-day leader Denver with 541½ total points. Colorado, which went into Saturday's two Nordic freestyle races 42 points behind the Pioneers, pulled past them down the stretch in finishing with 525 points; DU took third with 524. Dartmouth claimed fourth (400) and Vermont rounded out the top five (355).

Colorado has now finished as the runner-up seven times, with eight titles, in 27 seasons under head coach Richard Rokos. All-time overall, CU has 20 championships and 12 runner-up finishes in the sport.

"Well it was a little surprise (to finish second) because we were sort of hanging on in third place," head coach Richard Rokos said. "It was actually excellent work on ladies and men's side here today (in Nordic). They did earn a lot of points and got us back into the hunt. Just looking back these four days, we lost it all on day one in relatively our strongest event, but it is the sadness of alpine skiing."

It was the closest margin between first and second since 1999, when Colorado outpointed Denver, 650-636, as well as the second-closest among the top three finishers since the sport went coed in 1983 (17.5 points; in 1998, 16 points separated the same top three: CU 654, UU 651.5, DU 638).

The competitors had to overcome single digit temperatures and gusting winds up to 20 miles per hour; the temperature for the men's race hovered around zero and minus-25 wind chill, "warming" to 2 degrees for the start of the women's race, with minus 18 degree wind chill.

Through seven events, after the men's 20-kilometer freestyle race that opened the day, Denver held the lead with 498 points, followed by Utah (468.5) and Colorado (448). The women's 15-kilometer freestyle race would decide it, and it led to one of the most dramatic finishes in recent memory in NCAA history.

Junior Petra Hyncicova set the pace from the start and led most of the race in winning easily when all was said and done in a 39:21.6 time. Vermont's Alayna Sonnesyn finished second some 21 seconds back in 39:42.7.

After the first 5k, behind Hyncicova and sophomore Christina Rolandsen running 1-2, the Buffs moved into the temporary lead by half a point over Utah (529-528.5), with DU at 521; after two laps (10k), Utah surged ahead with 537.5 points, with DU retaking second (525) and the Buffs third (520).

"In the third loop, it was just me and the girl from Vermont and she was leading," Hyncicova said. "I knew that I would win, because I was just so confident going into the last loop and I had so much energy left. When I saw (teammates) Petter (Reistad) and Jackson (Hill) cheering for me, saying, 'Be smart, be smart, be behind the girl,' I knew that I would wait for the last uphill and then I would try to take off and I did it."

"We sort of talked about it before the race because she often will just go and push pretty hard from the front," CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. "She just had to be a little bit patient because she has a lot of speed. If she is patient enough that she just doesn't push kind of hard and have someone following behind, which is a little more relaxing if you can sort of just ski a little behind somebody, especially if it is windy and feel like you are relaxing and saving some energy.

"She was really focused on trying to ski relaxed and be patient before she really pushed, so she had something left," he continued. "I think at the end she really had another gear left because she finished looking good, she wasn't full exhaustion lying on the ground so it seemed like she was within herself to push that hard and pull away."

Utah's top two skiers moved into the middle of the top 10 with their finishes, keeping CU and DU at an arm's length. Rolandsen finished third in 40:05; CU's other Nordic woman, senior Jesse Knori, finished 28th in 42:57.4, but in the last kilometer, overtook DU's third skier that enabled the Buffaloes to jump the Pioneers into second. Hyncicova and Rolandsen both earned first-team All-America accolades with their finishes.

"It was such a good feeling (See Rolandsen finish third)," Hyncicova said. "I'm so glad for her that she ended up third, she deserves it so much."

Hyncicova, who also won the 5-kilometer freestyle on Thursday, became the 15th woman to sweep the cross country races at the NCAA Championships, the fourth CU skier to pull off the double, joining Line Selnes (1998), current assistant Jana Rehemaa Weinberger (2006) and Maria Grevsgaard (2008). She is Colorado's seventh freestyle champ overall.

She was excited to accomplish the sweep and to match her coach. "I can't believe it, it is insane," she said. "At least I am the same as our coach Jana, so I am super proud."

Hyncicova's win gave the Buffaloes four of the eight individual titles this week, combined with freshman David Ketterer sweeping the giant slalom and slalom crowns.   It's the fifth time in school history that CU skiers have claimed four titles in the same NCAA Championships, also occurring in 1960, 1963, 2006 and 2008, and just the second time in NCAA history two discipline sweeps were pulled off by the same school – and CU had the other in '08.

CU NCAA WOMEN'S FREESTYLE CHAMPIONS
1992 Anette Skjolden
1998 Line Selnes
2000 Katka Hanusova
2006 Jana Rehemaa
2008 Maria Grevsgaard
2013 Joanne Reid
2017 Petra Hyncicova

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP MULTIPLE SWEEPS / SAME SCHOOL
2008     Maria Grevsgaard (N), Lucie Zikova (A), Colorado
2017     David Ketterer (A), Petra Hyncicova (N), Colorado

The men's race was not without excitement as well. Utah's Martin Bergstroem outlasted a pack of five in a sprint at the end in winning in a 46:02.8 time, edging CU senior Mads Stroem, who was timed in 46:03.3. Stroem was the mover among the quintet, sprinting the strongest at the finish and passing DU's Mortiz Madlener in the end, beating him by a tenth of a second.

Just six tenths of a second back in fourth was CU sophomore Petter Reistad, who finished four laps around the 5k track in 46:04.0. The fifth man in the pack, Dartmouth's Fabiak Stocek, closed in 46:04.7, thus a 1.9 second differential among the group.

"I was coming fast in the last sprint," Stroem said. "The final 100 meters, it came up fast and was a little downhill, there wasn't much to do but I managed to pass Moritz at least and go into second. If it was another 50 meters, I could have caught the winner. I should have maybe done something else a bit soon, maybe passed Moritz when there was 400 meters left, but it is hard to do it in the wind. I felt pretty strong in the end, but was a bit disappointed on being second to be honest, though at the same time, thinking back on the whole it's good."

"For him, this was a hero race because there the odds were against him right from the very beginning," Rokos said. "When this happened with his appendectomy (earlier this winter), I didn't think there was a chance he would be any factor for the rest of the season. He came back and today's race just proved how strong he is. He was outstanding."

Stroem finished his Colorado career as one of the most decorated skiers in program history, earning eight All-America honors (seven first-team including Saturday's finish), both marks tying CU all-time bests (Maria Grevsgaard was an 8-time All-American from 2006-09, while Lucie Zikova earned seven first-team honors from 2006-09). The eight are also tied for the fifth-most in all sports at CU.

"It's a great accomplishment, especially looking back at this year when everything hasn't been as planned with surgery," Stroem said of tying the marks. "Being able to pull off two other All-American honors here is great and eight total is awesome. Obviously, I had different plans going into the season for winning and defending the titles, but today I was super close. It is something I'll look back it with so much pride."

Reistad also garnered first-team All-America honors for the second time this week, as he was also fourth in the classical. Senior Jackson Hill rounded out the CU effort Saturday, as he was 28th in 48:37.7.

"Too bad we were just a little bit short, but I felt like it was a really good day and for the most part, short of winning which we always come to do, it was an exciting and great day," Cranmer said of the effort of his Nordics. "It was super having another win for Petra, Christina skied an awesome race, Mads had a great race. I think Jackson and Jesse struggled a little bit and that was the one hard part, but other than that we're happy with the way things went. Congratulations to Utah."

                "It was unfortunate, but again it was a nice championship, great work on everybody's part," Rokos concluded. ""We had very strong individual results, we needed that. Everybody tried hard, but nowadays you have to have three finish in the top 10 (of almost every event) and that's very hard.   Congrats to national champions Petra and David being double winners. That is a very outstanding accomplishment."

ADDITIONAL CU QUOTES

CU NORDIC COACH BRUCE CRANMER

On Mads Stroem Career And What He Overcame This Year With His Appendectomy
"He did a fantastic job. It is hard to even know how much you have to come back from when having a major surgery like an appendectomy. You miss a bunch of training, you try to get your confidence and feel like you are coming back, I think he struggled a couple of times and felt okay just physically, but then he would race and not feel great, so I think that was a bit of a challenge. Just today, seeing him starting pretty much in the very back and skiing up to the front, he was just coming back into form here and that was great to see. I think he really wanted to win here and was just not quite there. It was an awesome performance by him. For me it was a win, even though in the race it wasn't a win. He did fantastic for himself and the team.

CU ASSISTANT NORDIC COACH JANA WEINBERGER

Since You Swept Both Nordic Titles Back In 2006, What Is Petra Hyncicova Feeling Right Now?
"I think for her it is a really successful season. She raced well and I think she was the strongest the whole season, even though she got a little injured in between. She almost was in a different class than everybody else."

What Does It Mean For Her To Join The Elite Class Of Buffs To Sweep NCAA Titles?
"I think it is great, I hope she is going to get a couple more next year."

CU SOPHOMORE PETTER REISTAD

On Earning Two First-Team All-America Honors This Year
"It feels good. It's not such a big deal for me, of course I would rather be on the podium, but it doesn't mean that much more from fifth to fourth or sixth to fifth because it is the win that really counts."

What Have You Learned From Mads Stroem These Past Two Years?
"He's just a really consistent, disciplined skier, always doing the work every day that has to be done and thinking through what he is doing always. He has a top athlete attitude. I feel when he is up on his normal level, he is always in the fight. Part of it is your physical shape, but part of it is that you have to be mentally there."

LINER NOTES: Western schools continued their dominance, now placing at least three in the top four 32 times in the 35 meets since the sport went coed in 1983 … The NCAA Skiing Championship is the first of the winter sports; Utah's win gives the Pac-12 its sixth title this year and 494 overall … Hyncicova's win was CU's 94th individual title, as the Buffs extended their all-time lead over DU (88), which was shut out this year; the other four titles were claimed by Utah (two, third all-time with 74), Vermont (one, 64 total for fourth) and Montana State … Colorado took a 31-30 lead over Denver for seasons with multiple NCAA champions ... The 16½-point margin out of first was the seventh smallest in CU history; you have to go back to 1970 to find a smaller margin of defeat (9.3 points, and CU was actually third behind Denver and Dartmouth) … Colorado had ruled the east this decade, winning all three NCAA crowns held in New England in 2011, 2013 and 2015; western schools have won the last five back east … This was just the fourth time in the last 22 championships that the school leading after six events did not go on to win the title.

NCAA Skiing Championship Team Scores (Final, 8 events)— 1. Utah 541½; 2. Colorado 525; 3. Denver 524; 4. Dartmouth 400; 5. Vermont 355; 6. Montana State 320; 7. New Mexico 188½. 8. Northern Michigan 182; 9. New Hampshire 146; 10. Colby 142.5; 11. Alaska-Anchorage 125; 12. Williams 107½; 13. Alaska-Fairbanks 104; 14. Middlebury 94; 15. St. Michael's 56; 16. Plymouth State 49; 17. Bates 29; 18. Michigan Tech 28; 19. St. Scholastica 24; 20. Bowdoin 21; Colby-Sawyer 15.

Men's 20-Kilometer Freestyle (40 finishers)— 1. Martin Bergstroem, Utah, 46:02.8; 2. Mads Stroem, CU, 46:03.3; 3. Moritz Madlener, DU, 46:03.4;
4. Petter Reistad, CU, 46:04.0; 5. Fabian Stocek, Dart., 46:04.7; 6. Adam Martin, NMU, 46:21.5; 7. Dag Frode Trolleboe, DU, 46:46.7; 8. Martin Mikkelsen, Utah, 46:51.2; 9. Luke Brown, Dart., 46:51.8; 10. Kevin Bolger, Utah, 46:52.9. Other CU Finisher: 28. Jackson Hill, 48:37.7.

Women's 15-Kilometer Freestyle (39 finishers)— 1. Petra Hyncicova, CU, 39:21.6; 2. Alayna Sonnesyn, UVM, 39:42.7; 3. Christina Rolandsen, CU, 40:00.5; 4. Anika Miller, MSU, 40:05.6; 5. Merete Myrseth, Utah, 40:23.1; 6. Guro Jordheim, Utah, 40:37.7; 7. Johanna Talihaerm, MSU, 40:39.2;
8. Sarissa Lammers, UAF, 40:46.5; 9. Elizabeth Gill, UNH, 40:48.6; 10. Hannah Miller, Bowdoin, 40:50.5. Other CU Finisher: 28. Jesse Knori, 42:57.4.

(Associate SID Jason Clay contributed to this report.)

CU SKIING / 2017 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

IN-THE-END: Listed below is how the 2017 championship broke down:

MEN'S TEAM SCORING: Utah 291.5, Denver 285, Colorado 267, Dartmouth 236, Vermont 186, Montana State 96, Northern Michigan 87.
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORING: Colorado 258, Utah 250, Denver 239, Montana State 224, Vermont 169, Dartmouth 164, New Mexico 125.5.
ALPINE POINT LEADERS: Denver 287, Dartmouth 250, Montana State 236, Colorado 229, Utah 219, Vermont 176, New Mexico 120.
Men's Leader: Colorado 142 (2nd—Dartmouth 132). Women's Leader: Denver 168 (2nd—Montana State 145).
NORDIC POINT LEADERS: Utah 322.5, Colorado 296, Denver 237, Northern Michigan 182, Vermont 179.
Men's Leader: Utah 173.5 (2nd—Denver 166). Women's Leader: Colorado 171 (2nd—Utah 149).

CRACKING THE TOP: NCAA West schools have won 21 of the last 23 championships, as the skiing elite fraternity remains hard to crack; only seven different schools have claimed the title since the sport went coed in 1983: Utah (10 titles), Denver (9), Colorado (8), Vermont (5), Dartmouth (1), New Mexico (1) and Wyoming (1). But since the '67 title meet, Colorado (25 first or second place finishes, including 17 wins), Utah (23; 11, 12), Vermont (21; 6, 15) and Denver (19; 13, 6) have dominated college skiing over these 51 seasons. Only three other schools, Wyoming (two wins and four seconds), Dartmouth (two wins, two seconds) and New Mexico (one title and two seconds) have been able to crack the top two in this span (note: adds to 52 titles since CU and Dartmouth shared '76 crown).

CU ALL-TIME: The Buffaloes have won 20 national championships in skiing: 11 men's (1959-60-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-82), eight coed (1991-95-98-99-2006-11-13-15) and one women's (1982, AIAW). The 19 NCAA titles by Colorado trail Denver by four, as the Pioneers (23) caught and passed CU by winning three straight to open the 21st century and extended their lead with three more from 2008-10 and one in 2014 and 2016. After DU and CU (43 combined), Utah has won 11, Vermont 6, Dartmouth 3, Wyoming 2 and New Mexico 1 (CU and Dartmouth tied for the '76 crown).

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS: The Buffs had four individual champions this year; the eight individual champions came from four different schools. Colorado leads all-time with 94 individual NCAA titles, topping Denver (88), Utah (74), Vermont (64), Dartmouth (36), Wyoming (19), New Mexico (17) and Middlebury (11); individual winners in 2017 came from Colorado (four), Utah (two), Montana State and Vermont. The Buffs have had two or more individual champions 31 times (three or more 14 times), now including five occasions when CU skiers topped the podium four times: 1960, John Dendahl (skimeister, Nordic, cross country) and Dave Butts (downhill); in 1963, Buddy Werner (alpine combined, downhill), Bill Marolt (downhill) and Jimmie Heuga (slalom); in 2006, Jana Rehemaa (classical, freestyle), Kit Richmond (freestyle) and Lucie Zikova (downhill); in 2008, Maria Grevsgaard (freestyle, classical) and Lucie Zikova (giant slalom, slalom) and this year Petra Hyncicova (freestyle, classical) and David Ketterer (giant slalom, slalom). CU has had at least one individual NCAA champion in 28 of the last 36 years.

LEARFIELD DIRECTORS' CUP: Colorado picked up 90 points in the Learfield Director's Cup Standings, jumping from 10th place into second in the standings with 358.5 total points; skiing was the first NCAA winter championship completed (Utah also made a significant jump, from 20th into seventh with 296, earning 100 points for its win, and Denver jumped from 66th to 22nd). Stanford leads with 504.5 points, with UCLA third (348); there are seven Pac-12 schools in the top 20 overall. The indoor track, and rifle championships will be included in the next official release of the standings on March 23.

HEAD COACH RICHARD ROKOS: Rokos wrapped up his 27th season as head coach of the Buffaloes (he is just the fifth person to coach a quarter century or longer in any sport at Colorado). He has guided CU to national championships in 1991 (his first season), 1995, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2015, to seven second place finishes and five third place efforts. Under Rokos, Colorado has won 69 of 165 ski meets, including 61 of 138 in the west (with 14 RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regionals titles). In his tenure, CU has had 136 first-team All-Americans and 214 first- or second-team selections (Alpine and Nordic), all adding to exactly 314 top 10 finishes in NCAA championship competition.

NORDIC COACH BRUCE CRANMER: Cranmer has done an equally excellent job with the Nordics. He has coached CU skiers to 19 individual Nordic NCAA titles, and his Buffalo teams have been the Nordic point champions seven times at the NCAA meet (2004-06-08-10-11-13-14) and the runner-up three times (2002-16-17).

ALL-AMERICANS: Eight of the 12 Buffaloes here earned All-America honors in the meet, six gaining first-team status: Nora Christensen (slalom), Petra Hyncicova (classic, freestyle), David Ketterer (giant slalom, slalom), Christina Rolandsen (classic, freestyle), Petter Reistad (classic, freestyle) and Mads Stroem (freestyle). Two others earned second-team nods: Max Luukko (giant slalom, slalom) and Jesse Knori (freestyle). In addition, Stroem garnered second-team honors in the classical. Top five finishes earn skiers the first-team accolade, while finishing sixth through 10th nets a second-team honor.

LOOKING AHEAD: Nine of the 12 student-athletes who competed for the Buffaloes in the 2017 championships are scheduled to return for the 20186 season. CU will graduate eight seniors, three of whom competed here, Jackson Hill, Jesse Knori and Mads Stroem (all Nordic performers); also graduating are Roger Carry and Katie Hostetler (Alpine) and Camilla Brautaset, Lucy Newman and Max Scrimgeour (Nordic).

FUTURE SITES: The 2018 meet will return to the west with sites currently bidding for the honor; CU has again submitted a bid to host at Steamboat Springs.

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