Day Four Recap: Denver’s Alpine Squad Lifts Pioneers to NCAA Title
3/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Skiing, Women's Skiing
DU became the first school in 11 years- since the scoring format of the championships changed- to win the event after not leading going into day four. The second leg of the history is DU becoming only the second team in 13 years to win without a full slate of skiers. DU qualified 11 skiers for the championship out of a possible 12. This was the 12th time in the 55-year history of the NCAA championships that DU and CU both finished in the top two.
“I think this just has to do with the situations of the teams,” LeRoy said. “We have a real strong alpine team, and CU was short an alpine guy- so that helped us pass them after they had the day three lead.”
Leroy, who is in his second year as head alpine coach at Denver, was quick to credit his predecessor with the quality of the team.
“This is still the team that Kurt Smitz built,” LeRoy said. “Almost all these kids came from him. It’s still in his court—I just drive the van.”
Interstate rival Colorado led the team competition heading into Saturday by 17.5 points over DU, but failed to produce enough points in the slalom event to hold on to the lead and dropped to second with 619 points.
DU placed all three men’s slalom contestants in the top ten to win the team competition by over 30 points. The top five teams were completed by Utah (585), defending champion Dartmouth (546) and Middlebury (529). Ironically, these three schools were the only ones in the 21-team field that had a full squad of 12 skiers qualify for the championships.
Tague Thorson, a University of Utah sophomore, appeared to have won the men’s slalom but was disqualified for missing a gate on his second run. That left Denver’s John Buchar in first place.
Buchar was the number one seed going into the event and won the men’s giant slalom on Thursday. Denver’s men took one-two in the slalom with Seppi Stiegler placing second. Teammate Francesco Ghedina placed eighth.
“I was happy to have second, but Tague’s disqualification meant we would win as a team and that was the most important thing,” Buchar said. “We’ve had a rough season with a lot of injuries and a lot of people didn’t think we had the best team. So, it’s pretty unbelievable.”
Colorado’s Lucie Zikova won the women’s slalom, rallying from a fifth place clocking in the opening run. Her second round time of 42.93 was enough to push Utah’s Eva Huckova out of the lead and into second place. Jenni Lathrop of Denver placed third in the slalom.
“No one comes here to be fifth, so I had nothing to lose,” Zikova said. “It actually helped me out because I had nothing to lose and I just went for it.”
Zikova, a senior from the Czech Republic, also won the women’s giant slalom on Thursday. The two wins this week put Zikova second on CU’s all-time individual win’s list with 16.
First on CU’s list with 19 is Nordic phenom Maria Grevsgaard who won the two Nordic events this week.
Zikova was the 2006 women’s NCAA slalom champ as a sophomore and finished second in the event last year. She finished in elite company at CU ranking in the top six of all-time individual winners. This win gives her eight All-American awards and two national championships in her collegiate career.
Final Championship Notes: Denver had the “man advantage” last and used it to turn a 17.5-point deficit into a 30.5 win, as the Pioneers won with 649.5 points. Colorado finished second with 619 points, as both teams performed one skier short of the maximum 12 here this week. DU was short one woman in Nordic, CU one male in alpine. Even though CU’s cross country teams sizzled here and scored a meet-best 387 points, the cushion wasn’t enough to counter DU’s alpine effort.
Utah (585), defending champion Dartmouth (546) and Middlebury (529) rounded out the top five. There was some irony in that all three had full 12-skier squads, the only three in the 21-team field, but couldn’t topple the two finished ahead of all.
This was the 12th time in the 55 NCAA championships that DU and CU both finished in the top two; all seven times that Colorado has finished as the national runner-up, the only team ahead of it was the Pioneers.
Denver becomes the second team in NCAA skiing history to win the title shorthanded; the Pioneers competed here with 11 skiers, the same number CU had in 2006 when it was the first team to win. That Buff team won by 98 points, and under this year’s scoring format, would have been a 75-point win. If the same scoring format was still in use this winter, DU won by the same 30.5 margin.
Coming to an end was a streak of 13 straight years where the third day leader went on to win the title, but this was the first time that the leader didn’t have a full complement of skiers for the final two races. The last school to rally the final day was Vermont in 1994, which pulled off a 57-point swing in moving from third to first in Sugarloaf, Maine.
CU and DU shared the four other “sub-titles” this week, as Colorado led the meet in Nordic points (387) and in women’s scoring (358), while Denver had the edge in alpine points (359) and men’s scoring (353).
A side note on DU’s title, as it is the 14th NCAA championship team coached by a Colorado alum. Andy LeRoy, the 2000 national slalom champ his senior year, joins Bill Marolt (seven with CU), Tim Hinderman (two at CU) and Chip LaCasse (four at Vermont) as Buffalo grads who have piloted title teams.
Click on the 'PDF Version Available' link at the top of this page for complete and final results of the 2008 NCAA Skiing Championships.
“I think this just has to do with the situations of the teams,” LeRoy said. “We have a real strong alpine team, and CU was short an alpine guy- so that helped us pass them after they had the day three lead.”
Leroy, who is in his second year as head alpine coach at Denver, was quick to credit his predecessor with the quality of the team.
“This is still the team that Kurt Smitz built,” LeRoy said. “Almost all these kids came from him. It’s still in his court—I just drive the van.”
Interstate rival Colorado led the team competition heading into Saturday by 17.5 points over DU, but failed to produce enough points in the slalom event to hold on to the lead and dropped to second with 619 points.
DU placed all three men’s slalom contestants in the top ten to win the team competition by over 30 points. The top five teams were completed by Utah (585), defending champion Dartmouth (546) and Middlebury (529). Ironically, these three schools were the only ones in the 21-team field that had a full squad of 12 skiers qualify for the championships.
Tague Thorson, a University of Utah sophomore, appeared to have won the men’s slalom but was disqualified for missing a gate on his second run. That left Denver’s John Buchar in first place.
Buchar was the number one seed going into the event and won the men’s giant slalom on Thursday. Denver’s men took one-two in the slalom with Seppi Stiegler placing second. Teammate Francesco Ghedina placed eighth.
“I was happy to have second, but Tague’s disqualification meant we would win as a team and that was the most important thing,” Buchar said. “We’ve had a rough season with a lot of injuries and a lot of people didn’t think we had the best team. So, it’s pretty unbelievable.”
Colorado’s Lucie Zikova won the women’s slalom, rallying from a fifth place clocking in the opening run. Her second round time of 42.93 was enough to push Utah’s Eva Huckova out of the lead and into second place. Jenni Lathrop of Denver placed third in the slalom.
“No one comes here to be fifth, so I had nothing to lose,” Zikova said. “It actually helped me out because I had nothing to lose and I just went for it.”
Zikova, a senior from the Czech Republic, also won the women’s giant slalom on Thursday. The two wins this week put Zikova second on CU’s all-time individual win’s list with 16.
First on CU’s list with 19 is Nordic phenom Maria Grevsgaard who won the two Nordic events this week.
Zikova was the 2006 women’s NCAA slalom champ as a sophomore and finished second in the event last year. She finished in elite company at CU ranking in the top six of all-time individual winners. This win gives her eight All-American awards and two national championships in her collegiate career.
Final Championship Notes: Denver had the “man advantage” last and used it to turn a 17.5-point deficit into a 30.5 win, as the Pioneers won with 649.5 points. Colorado finished second with 619 points, as both teams performed one skier short of the maximum 12 here this week. DU was short one woman in Nordic, CU one male in alpine. Even though CU’s cross country teams sizzled here and scored a meet-best 387 points, the cushion wasn’t enough to counter DU’s alpine effort.
Utah (585), defending champion Dartmouth (546) and Middlebury (529) rounded out the top five. There was some irony in that all three had full 12-skier squads, the only three in the 21-team field, but couldn’t topple the two finished ahead of all.
This was the 12th time in the 55 NCAA championships that DU and CU both finished in the top two; all seven times that Colorado has finished as the national runner-up, the only team ahead of it was the Pioneers.
Denver becomes the second team in NCAA skiing history to win the title shorthanded; the Pioneers competed here with 11 skiers, the same number CU had in 2006 when it was the first team to win. That Buff team won by 98 points, and under this year’s scoring format, would have been a 75-point win. If the same scoring format was still in use this winter, DU won by the same 30.5 margin.
Coming to an end was a streak of 13 straight years where the third day leader went on to win the title, but this was the first time that the leader didn’t have a full complement of skiers for the final two races. The last school to rally the final day was Vermont in 1994, which pulled off a 57-point swing in moving from third to first in Sugarloaf, Maine.
CU and DU shared the four other “sub-titles” this week, as Colorado led the meet in Nordic points (387) and in women’s scoring (358), while Denver had the edge in alpine points (359) and men’s scoring (353).
A side note on DU’s title, as it is the 14th NCAA championship team coached by a Colorado alum. Andy LeRoy, the 2000 national slalom champ his senior year, joins Bill Marolt (seven with CU), Tim Hinderman (two at CU) and Chip LaCasse (four at Vermont) as Buffalo grads who have piloted title teams.
Click on the 'PDF Version Available' link at the top of this page for complete and final results of the 2008 NCAA Skiing Championships.
Wednesday, June 10
Friday, March 27
Monday, March 23
Friday, March 13
