Denver storms back to win 19th NCAA title

BOZEMAN, Mont. — It came down to a duel between Front Range rivals, the Universities of Colorado and Denver. Back and forth they went during the championship, first CU in the lead, then DU, then back to CU. But on Saturday — the final day —it was DU that drew the fastest.
    On the strength of their men’s alpine team — a squad DU head coach Andy LeRoy thought was weakened by injury — the Pioneers pulled ahead of the University of Colorado in the final minutes of the 2008 NCAA Ski Championships, giving the Pioneers a record 19th title. The DU alpine men put 109 points on the scoreboard, which combined with the Pioneer women’s 75, was enough to pull them ahead of CU. The Pioneers won with 649.5 points, almost 40 more than CU, with 619.
    “I felt confident coming into [the slalom],” LeRoy said after the Pioneers won. “In GS, we made back 63 points [on CU]. Deep down, I had a feeling our team would come out on top.”
BOZEMAN, Mont. — It came down to a duel between Front Range rivals, the Universities of Colorado and Denver. Back and forth they went during the championship, first CU in the lead, then DU, then back to CU. But on Saturday — the final day —it was DU that drew the fastest.
    On the strength of their men’s alpine team — a squad DU head coach Andy LeRoy thought was weakened by injury — the Pioneers pulled ahead of the University of Colorado in the final minutes of the 2008 NCAA Ski Championships, giving the Pioneers a record 19th title. The DU alpine men put 109 points on the scoreboard, which combined with the Pioneer women’s 75, was enough to pull them ahead of CU. The Pioneers won with 649.5 points, almost 40 more than CU, with 619.
    “I felt confident coming into [the slalom],” LeRoy said after the Pioneers won. “In GS, we made back 63 points [on CU]. Deep down, I had a feeling our team would come out on top.”
    Despite Utah’s top slalom skier, Tague Thorson, being disqualified from the win, Utah hung on for third place with 550 points, keeping Dartmouth, with 546, just four points from the podium. Middlebury rounded out the top five with 529 — one of the best finishes for the Panthers since 1994.
    The day began with CU in the lead, 17.5 points ahead of DU. A safe bet would have been on CU to keep the lead. After all, their women’s alpine team is one of the strongest in the country. Surely, the CU women would be able to put more points on the board than the DU men. Without last year’s double gold medalist Adam Cole and Norwegian flash Andreas Kilde — both injured in the early season — the DU alpine men’s squad did not appear as if it would fire with all cylinders.
    The Lady Buffs held up their end of the bargain. Lucie Zikova took her second gold of the championship — and her 16th college victory (a CU record for an alpine skier) — jumping from fifth after her first run to beat Utah’s former Olympian Eva Huckova.
    “It was a really great course, I went out there and had a lot of fun,” Zikova said. “I was a little nervous on the first run so I didn’t ski as fast as I probably could have and on the second run I really had nothing to lose. I just went all out and it worked out.”
    With Lisa Perricone in 10th and Rachel Roosevelt in 12th, the Lady Buffs added 22 points to their lead over DU.
    Jenny Lathrop took bronze for the Pioneers — her second NCAA medal (she won silver in the 2003 slalom while racing for Colby College).
    But then the DU men threw the hammer down. After Thorson was DQed for straddling a gate in the second run’s first combination, John Buchar collected another gold to go with the one he won in GS on Thursday, and freshman Seppi Stiegler earned silver. The one-two punch knocked CU out of contention.
    “I thought I could win,” Buchar said. “But I was so nervous second run. I don’t think I’ve ever been that nervous.”
    Stiegler’s performance was especially noteworthy. LeRoy said he knew the freshman would be fast when he recruited him but never thought he would make the podium his first year. Asked if big sister Resi gave him any advice, Stiegler said no, “she let me do my own thing.” But Resi and his parents were there to watch.
    With Francesco Ghedina in eighth, the Pioneers collected 109 points in the event — the most dominant performance by any team at this year’s championship.
    Drew Roberts and Josh Bryan, CU’s only NCAA qualifiers, could do little to counter such firepower. They both would have had to finish in the top five to save CU.
    Thorson’s DQ also put Dartmouth’s David Chodounsky in the hardware. The Big Green skier completed his NCAA medal collection with the bronze. He won the title in 2005 and added silver last year.
    Notes: This was the first time that a male and female alpine skier won both events in the same championship. In 1998, Thorodd Bakken (UVM) and Line Selnes (CU) won both the classic and freestyle races, and in 2004, Henning Dybendal (Utah) and Sigrid Aas (Alaska-Fairbanks) also won both nordic races.
    Lucie Zikova became the fifth Buff to claim both individual titles at the NCAA’s in the same discipline since the sport went coed in 1983, and coupled with Grevsgaard’s sweep, it marked the first time in the 26 coed NCAA meets that the Buffs had two sweeps the same year. The pair overall joined John Skajem (1987, alpine), Line Selnes (1998, nordic) and current CU nordic assistant coach, Jana Rehemaa (2006, nordic).
    John Buchar’s alpine sweep comes one year after teammate Adam Cole performed a similar feat. Buchar and Cole are roommates and have one year of eligibility left.

Women’s Results
Rank    Bib    Name            School        Time
1     9    ZIKOVA, Lucie    CU         1:27.09
2     1    HUCKOVA, Eva    UU         1:27.31
3     5    LATHROP, Jenny     DU         1:27.51
4     14    GRASSL, Mikaela    UU         1:28.00
5       6    MCDONALD, Jilyne    UVM         1:28.15
6     17    FARRELL, Aileen    UNH         1:29.04
7     18    LYONS, Katie        NEV         1:29.25
8     3    OHLIN, Karin        UNM         1:29.28
9     8    JANOWIAK, Lyndee    UVM         1:29.47
10    21    PERRICONE, Lisa    CU         1:29.54

Men’s Results
Ranks    Bib    Name                School     &
nbsp;  Time
1     2    BUCHAR, John        DU        1:42.10
2    11    STIEGLER, Seppi        DU         1:42.85
3     5    CHODOUNSKY, David    DAR         1:43.15
4     8    CHRISTIANSON, Charles    WIL         1:43.16
5     1    LEBRUN-FORTIN, Vincent    CBC         1:43.18
6     9    WAGNER, Andrew        MID         1:43.71
7    15    SCHWAB, Thomas        UNM         1:43.87
8    13    GHEDINA, Francesco    DU         1:43.89
9    12    TARBERRY, Alec        MID         1:44.11
10    6    HARDY, Greg        UVM        1:44.16

Team Scores
1.   UNIVERSITY OF DENVER        DU       649.5           
2.   UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO                 CU        619.0           
3.   UNIVERSITY OF UTAH                     UU        550.0           
4.   DARTMOUTH COLLEGE                      DAR       546.0           
5.   MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE                     MID       529.0           
6.   UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT                  UVM       455.0           
7.   UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO              UNM       404.0   
8.   UNIV OF ALASKA-ANCHORAGE         UAA       334.0
9.   UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA                   NEV       303.0                            
10.  NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIV              NMU       287.0
11.  UNIV OF NEW HAMPSHIRE                  UNH       286.0                     
12.  UNIV OF ALASKA-FAIRBANKS           UAF      253.0           
13.  COLBY COLLEGE                          CBC       227.0           
14.  WILLIAMS COLLEGE                       WIL       223.0           
15.   BATES COLLEGE                             BAT       153.0           
16.   MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY       MSU       145.0           
17.   MICHIGAN TECH UNIVERSITY           MTU          63.0           
18.   GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE     GAC          59.0           
19.   COLLEGE OF ST SCHOLASTICA         CSS          35.0           
20.   UNIV OF WISCONSIN-GREEN BAY    UWGB         26.0           
21.   WHITMAN COLLEGE                       WHT          14.0