NCAA: Denver wins West regional crown

AUBURN, Calif. – The University of Denver won the NCAA Western Regional on Saturday, outdistancing national champion Colorado in second place and Utah in third in the meet that doubles as the RMISA Championships.
AUBURN, Calif. – The University of Denver won the NCAA Western Regional on Saturday, outdistancing national champion Colorado in second place and Utah in third in the meet that doubles as the RMISA Championships.
    The Pioneers totaled 426 points, while Colorado tallied 409. Utah (391), Alaska (321), Montana State (300), Nevada (248), New Mexico (250), Western State (197) and Whitman (191) rounded out the finishers.
    Snowfall wreaked havoc with the alpine events at the regional, forcing cancellation of the giant slalom races; thus, the point totals were lower due to six events being scored instead of the usual eight as only the slalom was run in alpine competition.
    Denver is the regional champ, but the Pioneers failed to qualify a full team for the NCAA Championships, slated for March 3-7 in Jackson and Attitash, New Hampshire. Colorado and Utah are the only teams in the West Region to qualify full 12-skier teams for nationals. In the East Region, EISA champion Dartmouth has tentatively qualified a full squad. Central Region schools participate in just Nordic racing).  
    Colorado did prove it’s not impossible to win short a skier, as the Buffaloes won the 2006 title by 98 points, the fourth largest margin of victory in any NCAA title meet.
    “Our goal in slalom was to protect our guys and solidify our qualifying positions. So we traded a run at the regional title to qualify five guys in men’s alpine, so I am happy with that,” CU head coach Richard Rokos said. “DU had everyone qualified so they put their best guys in the front and zoomed down, so we both accomplished what we set out to do.  But our best guys started deep into the 30s, so it’s not reflective of what we’re capable of doing or what we did all season.
    “Overall, I think we are better equipped to go to the NCAA’s,” Rokos added. “But a full team is still not any ticket to the title, it just gives you more peace of mind. This year, with the slalom wrapping up the championships, it’s going to be mental rollercoaster until the last minute.”
    For the second consecutive Nordic classical race, Denver’s Rene Reisshauer and John Stene finished first and second, respectively, with Colorado’s Matthew Gelso 53 seconds behind Stene in third. DU’s Havard Selseng was fifth, Harald Loevenskiold was sixth and Mike Hinckley 10th, giving the DU men’s team its fifth consecutive first-place finish in five classical races.
    For Gelso, it was his sixth “bronze” finish this season, as he has one win, a second, the six thirds, a fourth and a seventh for what has been the top season by a newcomer in either discipline in the West.
    Colorado’s next-best finisher was Kit Richmond, who finished eighth for the second straight day. Two sophomores followed in Karl Nygren (15th) and Garrett Reid (19th). Gelso, Richmond and Nygren will represent the Buffs at NCAA’s. Reisshauer, Stene and Selseng will represent Denver.
    In the women’s 10 km classic race, Colorado recorded its first 1-2 finish of the season, as  Maria Grevsgaard won her seventh race on the winter, while freshman Kristin Ronnestrand finished second, her best collegiate effort to date. Grevsgaard swept all five classical races this winter.
    “I think we’re in good shape, it was a good showing today, and it always helps your psyche to know you’ve have had good races before a championship — it boosts your confidence,” CU Nordic coordinator Bruce Cranmer said of Saturday’s results.  
    “Hopefully Maria can keep rolling, and it was fantastic to see Kristin really step it up after getting over her illness. And with Lenka on the mend and getting better, I feel like we’re going to be in hunt. Matt has been pretty consistent, and a little rest will help him. Kit stuck it out, he still not at 100 percent and wasn’t at his best, but he will be better with a little time off.”
    For Denver, Kara LaPoint was 10th, Courtney Dauwalter 11th and Annelise Bailly 12th in the classic as the women’s team finished fourth.
    LaPoint and Bailly will ski for the Pioneers at the NCAA Championships, although Dauwalter is the first alternate for the women, meaning that she may compete is another skier on any team cannot race.
    “It was a very good day for us, a very good day,” Denver head Nordic coach Wolf Wallendorf said. “Our women’s team was solid, and the men did exactly what they are capable of doing. Now we will just prepare for the NCAA Championships in two weeks.”
    While Colorado has now qualified a full team for nationals in 21 of the 25 seasons since the sport went coed in 1983, all four times it did not came in this decade, including the last three years. The Buffs qualified 11, or one shy, in 2001, 2004 and 2006 and advanced just 10 in 2005.  The last three times, the Buffs were short on the men’s alpine side; in ’01, it was minus a women’s cross-country racer.
    In alpine, five Colorado women and men each have qualifying rankings: defending NCAA slalom champion Lucie Zikova, freshman Heidi Hillenbrand, sophomore Lisa Perricone, junior Rachel Roosevelt and senior Kristin Taylor. The men’s alpine team qualified freshmen Stefan Hughes and Drew Roberts, sophomores Josh Bryan and Tony Cesolini and junior Miles Cooke.
    Rokos has until Monday to inform which three men and women’s alpine skiers will make up his team; their seed orders right now in the West are Hughes (No. 3), Roberts (No. 6) and Bryan (No. 16) for the men, and Zikova (No. 1), Perricone (No. 9) and Hillenbrand (No. 11) for the women.
    The University of New Hampshire is hosting the 54th NCAA Championships, which begin Wednesday, March 7, with the cross-country freestyle races, followed by the giant slalom races (Thursday, March 8), the Nordic classical races (Friday, March 9) and the slalom races (Saturday, March 10).