The University of Colorado ski team took first place at the 2015 NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, New York on Saturday. This is the Buffs’ third title in the last five years, eighth title under Colorado head coach Richard Rokos, and the 20th national championship in program history.
Nationals took place last week at St. Lawrence University from March 11 through March 14. Men’s 10K freestyle and women’s 5K freestyle took place on the first day, with men’s and women’s giant slalom following the next day. The events of day three were women’s 15K classical and men’s 20K classical, followed by men’s and women’s slalom on day four.
After the second day, Utah led the overall team score with 241 points. Colorado was close behind with 237 points, followed by the University of Denver with 232 points. But just as they did in the western regional championships, the Buffaloes battled back after being in second for the first place finish with 505 team points. Denver came in second, Utah came in third, Vermont came in fourth and New Mexico rounded out the top five.
In men’s 10K freestyle, Rune Malo Oedegaard took third place for CU with a time of 25:35.1. Mads Stroem’s time of 25:38.9 was enough for a fourth place finish for the Buffs. In women’s 5K freestyle, Maja Solbakken and Petra Hyncicova took sixth and seventh, respectively. Spots five, six and seven were separated by a total of 0.5 seconds. Solbakken was edged out by Utah’s Sloan Storey by 0.2 seconds and was followed by Hyncicova coming in only 0.3 seconds behind Solbakken. The two earned Colorado a total of 52 team points with their times of 14:44.3 and 14:44.6. Colorado came away with 82 points from men’s freestyle and 73 points from women’s freestyle.
In men’s giant slalom, Henrik Gunnarsson took seventh for the Buffaloes with his total time of 2:18.71. On the women’s side, Thea Grosvold’s time of 2:25.98 earned her an 11th place finish. CU grabbed 40 points from men’s slalom and 42 from women’s slalom.
The women’s 15K classic started day three. Maja Solbakken took fourth place with a time of 48:55.5. Petra Hyncicova came in sixth behind Utah’s Sloan Storey. The men’s 20K classic was on tap next. Rune Malo Oedegaard and Mads Stroem went two and three. Stroem’s time of 56:12.9 was 0.7 seconds behind Northern Michigan’s Fredrik Schwencke for first place. CU picked up 80 points from women’s classic and 71 from men’s classic to jump Utah in the overall team standings. After day three, it was Colorado in first with 388 points followed by Utah, New Mexico, Denver and Vermont.
In the final day, men’s and women’s slalom were up. CU came into the day with a marginal seven point advantage over the Utes. Thea Grosvold and Jessica Honkonen did their part, finishing six and seven. Grosvold beat out Honkonen by 0.02 seconds for the sixth place finish. Henrik Gunnarssen and Adam Zika took 12th and 13th in the men’s slalom. CU was able to get just enough to secure the team victory and the national title.
Contact CU Independent Sports staff writer Cannon Casey at Cannon.Casey@colorado.edu
