Colorado Wins RMISA Championship

Saturday, February 23, 2008 – by Curtis Snyder, RMISASkiing.com

Results Available On Schedule/Results Page

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Colorado turned its 17 point lead after the first day into a 25 point win at the 2008 Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Regional Championship. The Buffs totaled 551 points while Utah finished second with 526 and Denver 495.

Alaska Anchorage finished fourth with 456 points while New Mexico was just 10 points back in fifth with 446, Nevada finished sixth with 420, Montana State seventh with 380, Western State eighth with 195 and Whitman ninth with 185.

Utah took the men's slalom race on the strength of a 3-4 finish from Thomas Zumbrunn and Scott Veenis. New Mexico also had two top five finishers with Tor Fodnesbergene in second and Thomas Schwab in fifth. But the individual honors went to Nevada's Greg Berger, who won his second straight race and took the victory with a race time of 1:46.09.

The women's slalom race was one of the closest of the second with both Colorado and Denver earning 69 team points and Alaska Anchorage, Utah and Nevada all earning 66 points, and each of those five teams placed a skier in the top five. The Buffs' Lucie Zikova won the race with a time of 1:32.51, followed by New Mexico's Malin Hemmingsson in second, Denver's Jenny Lathrop in third, Nevada's Katie Lyons in fourth and Utah's Mikaela Grassl in fifth.

Colorado continued to win the Nordic races, taking all four Nordic regional races. They racked up 77 points on the men's side with Denver (75) and Utah (73) in close competition. Kit Richmond won his second race of the weekend, taking the men's classical race in 1:03:24.69, less than two seconds ahead of second place Snorri Einarsson from Utah. The Buffs' Jesper Oestensen finished third while Alaska Anchorage's Raphael Wunderle finished fourth and Denver's Haarvard Selseng took fifth followed by a pair of Pioneer's in sixth and seventh, as well.

CU's Maria Grevsgaard led three Buff skiers in the top seven as they racked up the most points in the women's classical race, as well. Grevsgaard won by over 49 seconds to take her ninth race in 10 attempts on the season. New Mexico's Polina Ermoshina finished second with the Buffs' Lenka Palanova taking third and Utah's Annelise Bailly and Sara Schweiger rounding out the top five, respectively.

Colorado took home its first regional title in two years after winning the 2006 championship en route to the NCAA title that season. The Buffs won their ninth RMISA Championship from coach Richard Rokos and 22nd overall RMISA Championship, with 11 men's, one women's and 10 combined titles to the school's credit.

Coaches will now meet to determine which skiers qualify for the NCAA Championships, held here in two weeks. The top 18 of both men's Nordic and Alpine from the NCAA Qualifying standings will be eligible for the NCAA meet while the women's alpine has 17 spots and the women's Nordic 16. A school can take a maximum of three skiers and if more than three qualify, the coaches will determine who will accompany the team to Regionals.