March 7, 2006
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The University of New Mexico ski team travels to Steamboat Springs, Colo., March 8-11, for the 2006 NCAA Championships hosted by the University of Colorado. The Lobos are looking for their second national title in three years after winning the event in 2004 in Reno, Nev. UNM finished fourth in the NCAA Championships last season in Stove, Vt., and the Lobos have placed in the top-5 in each of the last seven seasons.
This will be UNM’s second trip to Steamboat Springs in 2006. The Lobos took second place at the CU Invitational held Jan. 27 – Feb. 3. Junior Alex Mach won the men’s slalom race at the CU meet while junior Dirk Grimm won the men’s freestyle.
New Mexico finished third in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association regular season race with a total of 2,000 points. Colorado won the RMISA with 2,302 points while defending national champion Denver was second with 2,210.5 points. Utah placed fourth in the conference with 1,877.5 points while Alaska-Anchorage rounded out the top-5 with 1,642.5 points.
The Lobos had a very successful NCAA West Regional/RMISA Championship in their last meet, placing second overall. The Lobo men’s Alpine team ended a dominating season by winning both the slalom and giant slalom events.
UNM is one of only three teams in the West Region to qualify a full team of 12 skiers. RMISA champ and NCAA favorite Colorado will have to win with only 11 skiers as their men’s Alpine team only qualified two athletes. Denver and Utah also managed to get 12 skiers in the NCAA Championships.
New Mexico was picked to finish third in the NCAA according to the Ski Racing Magazine preseason top-10 coaches poll.
Action begins on Wednesday, March 8, with the giant slalom races. The women’s first run is set for 8:45 a.m. (M.S.T.) at Mt. Werner with the men’s runs following. Nordic racing begins on Thursday, March 9, at 9:30 a.m. (M.S.T.) at Howelsen Hill with the women’s 5K classic, followed by the men’s 10K classic. Alpine events conclude on Friday, March 10, a Mt. Werner when the men and women compete in the slalom beginning at 6:30 p.m. (M.S.T.). This will be the first night competition in NCAA history. The 2006 NCAA Champions will be crowned on Saturday, March 11, following the men’s 20K and women’s 15K freestyle races at Howelsen Hill at 10:00 a.m. (M.S.T.). The awards ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m. (M.S.T.) at Howelsen Hill.
The Lobos’ 2004 NCAA title was the first team championship in any sport at the University of New Mexico.
ALPINE TEAM NOTES
Overall, the Alpine team finished third in the RMISA, but managed a second place showing at the NCAA West Regional/RMISA Championship. The men’s squad has dominated, winning four of the eight races this season and sweeping both events at the Regional.
ALPINE INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Men’s NCAA Participants – Lars Loeseth (Jr.), Alex Mach (Jr.), Tor Fodnesbergene (Fr.)
Freshman Tor Fodnesbergene won both the SL and GS races at the NCAA West Regional. |
Women’s NCAA Participants – Kathrin Spendier (Sr.), Amy Beresford (So.), Karin Ohlin (Fr.) Loeseth (Oslo, Norway) is a two-time All-American skier who was ranked fifth in the RMISA SL and GS. He is competing in his second NCAA Championships this season after helping the Lobo soccer team to the NCAA title game in the fall. His best SL finish at the NCAAs was third in his freshman season, while his top GS mark was fifth in 2005. Mach (Ottawa, Ontario) is making his second appearance at the NCAAs after placing 24th in the SL and 27th in the GS last season. He was the top-ranked SL skier in the RMISA in 2006 after winning two events, including CU race at Steamboat Springs. Fodnesbergen (Fagernes, Norway) is making his first NCAA appearance after sweeping both events at the NCAA West Regional. He has won four races overall in 2006, more than any other men’s skier in the RMISA. Spendier was an All-American in 2004 and is making her fourth trip to the NCAAs. Her best SL result was 10th in 2004 and her top GS finish was 14th in 2003. Beresford (Dillon, Colo.) is making her first NCAA appearance after transferring to UNM from Colorado. She finished the regular season ranked 31st in the SL and 19th in the GS. She has two consecutive top-10 showings in the GS. Ohlin (Malung, Sweden) is also making her first trip to the NCAAs. She is ranked fifth in the SL and 25th in the GS and has four straight top-10s in the SL.
NORDIC TEAM NOTES
The Nordic team finished third in the RMISA during the regular season, but jumped to a second place effort at the NCAA West Regional/RMISA Championship. The Lobo women’s Nordic team has won the last three NCAA freestyle events. All three members of the women’s Nordic team will be racing in their first NCAA Championship.
NORDIC INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Men’s NCAA Participants – Geir-Endre Rogn (Sr.), Dirk Grimm (Jr.), Jedd Young (Jr.) Women’s NCAA Participants – Marit Rognmo (So.), Laura Van Alst (So.), Crystin Jaques (Fr.) Rogn (Vang, Norway) was an All-American in 2004 and is making his third trip to the NCAAs. His best results came in 2004 when he finished third in the CL and 14th in the FR. Grimm (Unterlemnitz, Germany) is a two-time All-American who is returning to his third NCAA Championship. His top NCAA finishes were last season when he placed sixth in the CL and 10th in the FR. He has three wins in the FR in 2006, including the NCAA West Regional and the CU Invite. Young (Ketchum, Idaho) is skiing in his second NCAAs after placing 33rd in the CL and 24th in the FR as a freshman member of the 2004 championship squad.
Senior Geir-Endre Rogn and junior Dirk Grimm will lead the Lobo men’s Nordic squad. |
Rognmo (Sagelvoattn, Norway) had nine top-10’s in 10 races this season. She was ranked ninth in the RMISA in both the FR and CL events. Van Alst (New Paltz, N.Y.) transferred to UNM from New Paltz, N.Y., and had an immediate impact with three top-10s this season. She was ranked eighth in the RMISA FR standings. Jaques (Canmore, Alberta) posted six top-10s this season, including each of her last four races. She ranked ninth in the CL and 15th in the FR in the RMISA regular season standings.
2006 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
David Plati, University of Colorado
NO CLEAR CUT FAVORITE IN 53RD NCAA SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS AT STEAMBOAT
Seven Teams Could Leave Steamboat With The Crown
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — One of the great things about college skiing is that it is the way the World Series used to be: schools from different conferences don’t see each other until the NCAA Championships, and this year is no exception, with no definitive favorite for the sport’s 53rd national title.
The University of Denver comes in as the defending champion, and it won the first two western meets this winter, but rival Colorado won the last three. In fact, the Pioneers were the first school to win at least one meet the season after claiming the national crown since they did so in 2002. But as many as seven schools could make legitimate runs at leaving Steamboat with the trophy in 2006.
A year ago, Denver rolled to a 47½ point win over Vermont in Stowe, as the Pioneers won their fourth title in six years; UVM led by 30 over Colby after the first day (giant slalom), but a strong DU showing in the classical cross country races gave it a 21-point lead at the midway point, which it extended to 25½ after the slalom. Western schools had three of the top four finishes in 2005, owned the top four in 2004, occupied four of the top five in 2003, and had the top four (and five of the top six) in 2002; that was the first time one region could claim a one-through-four sweep since 1966 and the west repeated it again in 2004.
Colorado emerged as the dominant team in the west by season’s end, twice flirting with the rare 600-point mark in the west, but the Buffaloes did not qualify a full team for the championships. If CU is to win its first title since 1999, the Buffs will have to become the first school with less than the full compliment of 12 skiers since the current scoring format was adopted in 1997. Colorado is racing one short, and already has averted potential disaster as when it lost Patrick Duran to a broken leg in training on Sunday, next up on the alternate list happened to be another Buffalo, Jean-Francois Ferreira.
The Lobo ski team won UNM’s only national championship in any sport in 2004. |
Granted, if there is a team that could do it, it is these Buffaloes. While CU’s weakest link might be it’s young men’s alpine team, CU had three (or more) skiers in the top seven of the other three disciplines. The best finish by a school without the maximum was by Vermont, which skied one short in finishing second in 2001; otherwise, three fourth and three fifth places have been the best.
In the east, Vermont won all six carnivals, overcoming one of the strangest winters in recent memory that saw rain, wind, thunder and lightning – almost anything but snow – wreaking havoc with race schedules and even causing some cancellations. Middlebury played bridesmaid to the Catamounts in five of the competitions, with Dartmouth second in the other; the Big Green finished third five times as the order of finish in the east didn’t see much fluctuation among the top six. UVM won the six by a total of 201 points, closer than it may seem with a larger scoring base in the east. If an eastern school is going to win for the first time since 1994 (and for only the second time since 1976, as Vermont was the last eastern titleholder), it will come from among these three schools with the Catamounts the likely favorite.
In addition to Denver and CU, New Mexico has lurked within striking distance all winter as the Lobos, the 2004 national champs, would like to return to the top of the podium and win their – and the school’s in all sports – second national crown. And Utah, the owner of nine titles since the sport went coed in 1983, the most in the nation, always has done well at the NCAA’s, only finishing outside of the top two six times and never lower than fourth in the last 23 years.
Six Central Region schools are also sending skiers to Steamboat, but they won’t compete for the overall national title, as all six field Nordic-only teams. That doesn’t mean they won’t make some noise; Northern Michigan finished eighth in 2001, and comes in as a perennial force along with this winter’s Central champ, Alaska-Fairbanks. Both UAF and NMU boast skiers who could win the gold here.
Vermont’s Greg Hardy won the most races in any region this winter, as the Catamount alpiner claimed seven wins, besting Colorado’s Lucie Zikova (six, women’s alpine); Hardy had the two extra races in the east to get one-up on his western counterpart. Middlebury’s Megan Hughes (women’s alpine), New Mexico’s Tor Fodnesbergene (men’s alpine) and CU’s Jana Rehemaa (women’s Nordic) all won four races.
The current scoring format was adopted for the 1997 NCAA Championships. To tabulate the final standings, a school’s low three scores will be thrown out; thus, a team with 10 or fewer skiers is already counting four or more zeroes toward its team total and is thus unaffected. Teams with full 12-skier rosters drop its lowest three scores, while teams with 11 must drop one score. While every champion since the format was adopted in 1997 has skied with a full team, mathematically it is possible for a team with 11 or even 10 to win.
A record total of 24 schools will be participating in Steamboat, but only six qualified the NCAA maximum 12-skier teams: Dartmouth, Denver, Middlebury, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont. Colorado qualified 11 with Alaska-Anchorage sending nine. The previous high count of schools competing in the NCAA’s was 23 in 1996, 2002 and 2004.
THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS IN COLORADO
This is the fourth time Steamboat is hosting the title meet, having done so in 1968, 1969 and 1979; it’s the 11th time for the state of Colorado (Winter Park, Crested Butte and Durango have also hosted the affair). The previous 10 gatherings in the Centennial State have bode well for state schools, as CU has won five of its titles within the state and Denver three of its crowns. The other two were claimed by neighboring state schools, Wyoming and Utah; eastern schools have cracked the top two just four times (Dartmouth in 1956 and 1969, Vermont in 1975 and 1993).