NCAA Ski Championships

[GameForAnyFuss]

Today through the weekend is the NCAA skiing championships. Utah is looking for the five-peat (it would be six if it weren’t for COVID which cancelled the 2019 championship with Utah leading big). But unlike the last few years, we go in as the underdog. Colorado is the favorite – they have beaten us head-to-head twice this year.

But not so fast! Utah played shorthanded for most of the year as several skiers were off competing on the World Cup. But they are back for championships, so…game on!

Great day 1 (men’s and women’s giant slalom) for Utah! We are up 154.5 to 137.5 for Colorado. Denver is within striking distance. Nobody else is close. Our great day was driven by a 1-2 finish in the men’s GS. Sindre Myklebust finished 2nd and Mikkel Solbakken is your NCAA GS champion.

Tomorrow is the men’s and women’s 7.5k XC freestyle.

[Uphoric]

How are we expected to do in the up coming events?

[GameForAnyFuss]

Honestly I’m not sure. We have 3 events left and 2 are XC. We’re traditionally strong in XC, but I’m not sure about this year (we graduated a bunch of studs last year). And the one alpine event remaining – slalom – is the most unpredictable. It’s a game of inches where one misplaced ski tip in one turn can mean the difference between winning and not finishing.

So, yeah…not sure.

[Tony (admin)]

I met the ski team a few months ago at a ski event. It was really cool.

[WasatchRanger]

It appears a Sydney Palmer-Leger won the 7.5KM Nordic individual on the female side, while Joe Davies and Tom Mancini were 2nd and 3rd on the male side.

That puts the Utes at 312.5 points, more than 50 points ahead of 2nd place Colorado. Encouraging day for the Utes!

Women Results
Men Results

Meet Results

[GameForAnyFuss]

Whew! Yeah, we are absolutely killing it two days into the championships. That’s a nearly insurmountable lead at halftime.

We lost to Colorad9 twice this year, but it looks like we’re likely to get the last laugh against those Birkenstock-wearing potheads. If we can avoid total disaster in the slalom and come away with a 20-point lead or so, I think we’ve got the natty sewn up.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Sorry for the late update – the NCAA decided to run the slalom as a night event, probably to avoid getting in the way of civilians. The men’s race didn’t wrap up until almost 11:00.

It wasn’t a great night for Utah, but it wasn’t a bad night either. The name of the game in slalom (when you’re interested in a team championship) is to make sure everyone finishes, and everybody did that, even if the results weren’t spectacular. We dropped 5 points to Colorad9, but interestingly, Denver has overtaken Colorad9 for 2nd.

After 3 of 4 events:
Utah 444.5
Denver 401.0
Colorad9 393.5

So we still maintain a huge lead, and barring a total collapse in the 20 km XC classic today, this afternoon we will hoist our 5th straight natty!

[GameForAnyFuss]

Welp…the worst did happen. We didn’t do well in the 20k, Colorado skied out of their minds, and they won by a final score of 569.5 to 567.5. It doesn’t get much closer than that. The streak is over – we finished 2nd.

[The Miami Ute]

You sure it wasn’t the MBB skiing today? Cannot believe that Utah blew a 51 point lead on the last event. That has to be up there with the biggest collapse in NCAA skiing history.

[GameForAnyFuss]

I’m still trying to figure out what happened. 1 of our 3 competitors in the women’s 20km didn’t finish (very rare in XC skiing). Had she finished – in any place – it would have given us enough points to win the title.

[The Miami Ute]

I kind of figured it had to be something like that. Our three male competitors in the CC actually did pretty well, so I was trying to figure out what happened to lose such a huge lead.