University of Utah Student Newspapers--The Chronicle | 2012-12-06 | Page 7

THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Thursday, December 6, 2012 7 SKI Equipment plays major role in ski team's success Chad Mobley STAFF WRITER In alpine ski racing, hundredths of a second measure the margin of victory. Hundredths of a second is the margin of error as well. An alpine ski racer must flawlessly execute turns while navigating a steep mountain face at speeds in excess of 70 mph in order to reach the podium at any NCAA meet. Their athletic abilities, stamina, technique and focus are tested in each 6o-second run, but so is their carefully selected and tuned equipment. "No matter what, the number one thing is the right ski," said Kevin Sweeney, director of skiing for the U. "If they have a ski that is too stiff or too soft, it's not going to glide well. So no matter how good the athlete is, they're not going to be fast [with the wrong ski]." There's no doubt the U ski team consists of top-tier racers from all over the world, but it is the coaches' responsibility to make sure each alpine racer is properly equipped. "Skiers on this team, at this level have skis for each snow condition," Sweeney said. Every alpine team member usually travels with at least four sets of skis to each meet. These include two test skis for making their practice runs, and two race skis only used when it counts. After every athlete has the perfect ski, the coach's expertise goes COURTESY UTAH SKI TEAM The U's Ski Team and coaches spend countless hours perfecting their gear. Gear must be precisely maintained in order the save precious seconds during races. to work. In Olympic and World Cup ski racing, athletes have ski technicians whose sole responsibility is the perfect tuning of their equipment. Collegiate teams do not have the luxury of dedicated ski techni- RUNNIN' UTES continued from Page 6 come in and just take over and we just rolled it and came out, hit our first few shots and got rolling." Jarred DuBois, who once again led Utah in scoring with 18 points, credited the run primarily to the Utes' defense. "I think as a unit we pieced together stops and when we do that, the offense opens up," DuBois said. "If we can piece together three, four, five stops on the defensive end, we're gonna end up get- cians, so this responsibility falls on the coaches. Sweeney said there are four different types of snow they encounter at race venues nationwide: cold dry snow, moderately cold snow, snow right around the freezing ting good shots on the offensive end." Averaging nearly 78 points per game coming into the night, Boise State shot just 4o percent from the field to produce their 55 points, the Broncos' lowest offensive output of the season. Utah, however, was beyond hot from the opening tip, as the Utes shot nearly 68 percent on the night. "As a unit, offensively I think it was like a machine out there," said center Jason Washburn, who had another solid night off the bench with 13 points and six rebounds. "We all knew what we needed to do — we all executed and DABRITZ continued from Page 6 filling 6,000 people into a 15,000-seat gym. The Utes won't even rope off the upper sections to make it seem like there is a decent crowd. Nope, we can't deprive the weird guy who sits at the top row with his kids the satisfaction of trying out his new binoculars. The women's basketball team is a brighter picture — they're good, and they schedule better opponents. But what fun is cheering on a good team among a crowd of just t,000 people? If some of the gymnastics fans start hitting up the women's basketball games, I'll head over. Until then, I'll wait until conference play begins in January. There are no fond memories of football season to hold me over. The 2012 season is one I will quickly forget. The team was bad in 2011, but at least it was fun to watch. Jon Hays was Russian roulette in the red zone, John White was tearing defenses a new one and the Utes won games they should have lost and lost games they should have won. This time around, the offense was boring, the defense was dull . to The Chronicle : dailyutahchronicle.com "LT University MEDIA SALES GROUP Try, 6 THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH 4 ANSWER TO TODAY'S PUZZLE 8 6 3 5 3 9 1 2 1 8 9 6 7 2 6 5 8 3 7 2 8 4 5 7 9 6 4 9 1%-- continued from Page 6 believe how she holds onto the bar." Dabritz was a key contributor in three events last year and held the team's highest scores of the season in bars and floor, with a 9.975. For her to become an all-around competitor this year she will have to conquer the balance beam, something she has struggled on in past meets. When she competed on the beam for the first time last year against Oregon State, she fell twice and scored a modest 8.6o. Marsden said Dabritz had been working on the balance beam in the preseason, and things had gone well. Marsden also believes the trouble isn't a lack of ability, but past struggles in meets might have affected her confidence. Kailah Delaney, Dabritz's best friend and fellow sophomore on the team, is confident she will be able to improve and make an impact in the all-around this season. "She's a really hard worker. Every practice she gives it everything she has," Delaney said. "That's why she's so good. She's an amazing gymnast." Marsden echoed that confidence in her sophomore star. "She had consistent 9.9s on the events that she competed in, so if she can put [the balance beam] together, then she's 9.9's everywhere," she said. "I definitely feel that she is a champion in the making. That's how I feel about Georgia Dabritz." CONNECT [e-mail] Twitter: @Chad Mobley [e-mail] Twitter: @ryanwmcdonald T--co BULLINGER went hard. On the defensive end I think is where we did our thing. We got stop after stop after stop." The victory marked Utah's sixth of the season in just its eighth game, tying the Utes' win total from last season. "This team has a lot of talent, this team plays hard and we work well together," Washburn said. "As long as we keep doing what we're doing and keep improving every day in practice, the wins are just gonna keep coming to us. I'm looking forward to it." a) "I do think that she likes [the attention], but she's a very humble gal considering her talent level and the accolades that she's achieved," Marsden said. "She's very humble and a very 'blue-collar' worker ... I think that's a nice quality, I think it's something that endears the fans to her a little bit. She doesn't expect to be the star of the team but yet I feel like she has that potential." One of the unique things about Dabritz is she doesn't use hand grips when competing on the bars. Because she was so small when she started at gymnastics, her hands wouldn't fit into any grips and she was forced to learn without them. By the time she had grown enough to fit into traditional grips, she had already learned most of her moves. Dabritz and her coach decided it wouldn't make much sense to re-learn the moves with grips so she continued without them. That earned her the nickname "No Grips Dabritz." Even without the help of the grips, Dabritz scored 9.95 on the bars twice last year, and has already put other teams in awe of how she does it. "Other teams, when they see that we have a girl that doesn't use grips, they can't fathom it," Marsden said. "We have a lot of people that [say] 'Oh my gosh, you have someone that doesn't wear grips?' People cannot point starting to melt and wet snow. Each type requires a different intricate tune to maximize speed. "The base grind is how the ski is channeling the water in the snow," Sweeney said. "It's the same concept as car tires. If there's a lot of water, you need more channels to give the water somewhere to go so it doesn't cause suction." The coaches spend the day before the race finding the perfect base grind for the current conditions. They are also scientifically testing and measuring the performance of different ski waxes. This process involves grinding and waxing about five different sets of skis and speed testing each on a too-yard straight away slope. Once the perfect combination is discovered, it's applied to each racer's skis by either the coaches or the athletes under coach supervision. After the racer's skis are dialed in, they suit up and head to the top of the mountain. "The helmet, the goggles, the poles, the speed-suits, the aerodynamics. Each piece is a player," Sweeney said. Before the season, coaches make sure the team is properly dressed with all the right outerwear as well — minimizing wind drag, maximizing comfort and certifying performance. The coach's role in the success of a collegiate ski team outweighs that of most other sports. They have a hands-on responsibility in the athlete's outcome. The U's alpine team leans heavily on the expertise of their leaders to achieve results. This team has proven year in and year out that they are in good hands. BLA KSOXS ANDAL EAR EASEL REUSE ELE TRONI GAMES PLATO LADDER SYRINGE INS ITU DEM FONT DES THE I EMAN OMETH RENE NAVEL AARE EXTRA URR I ULAR VEE MALE ASP I SRAEL ART I SAN RRATED ANODE JESS I AFLET HER POI SE I ED AARON BL IND ARBON OPY [e-mail] Twitter@mattellis_utah and Utah lost all the games they should have lost, which turned out to be many. Thus, I won't be heading to Vegas, San Antonio or San Diego this winter. Hell, even El Paso would have been good — the food there is to die for. So, instead of eating authentic Mexican food in December, I'll be chowing on taco salad at Cafe Rio with some Zoobs home for Christmas Break. The bowl game was a nine-year running tradition of getting Utahns out of their bubble to see a new town, but locals now must sit at home and suck down some inversion. There is a saving grace, though — all the "greatest snow on Earth" that will blanket Utah's slopes. It is December, after all, so it's time to begin skiing in earnest. That is, of course, if we get any snow. After an early four-foot dump, Utah has had nothing but light dustings. So while every ski area to the west and north of us gets hammered with three-foot storms, I sit at my desk and watch it rain outside during a 50-degree day. Suffice it to say, Utah isn't going to be much of a winter wonderland this December. [e-mail] Twitter: @jakebullinger 37/ ./X Nov 1 - Dec 31 REWARDS ON All vIS 1) PURCHASES University FEDERAL CREDIT UNION APPLY ONLINE UCREDITU.COM