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Show University of Utah Skiers Capture NCAA Championship ; ' - - - - - . ; i , ' a . - - i i f" 1 . . -' ... I c v v. ' - ' i . ; -- H- i - 3 .a ,. ., .... ...,, , .Ill II I llll. i. I -'-"' 'O ) .. Vi V- . fA ; ' . V- I Lt 'UVri I ; By Jim Smedley The lUniversity of Utah won the 1981 NCAA Ski Championship at the Resort and at Deer Valley by beating a very, very, tough University of Vermont team 183-172. The Utes took the title by combining an overall team consistency with brilliant second runs by their alpine skiers when needed and an 11th place finish by an unsung hero. Not one of the other 18 teams entered was really close to Utah and Vermont. But before the championships started the coaches for the top two schools knew i would be a shootout between them. Roo Harris, Utah alpine coa-li. said he thought it would come down to Utah and Vermont. Utah head coach Pat Miller saw Vermont as the main obstacle to a championship but was leery of Wyoming's nordic team because it could be a spoiler - a team taking valuable points from the top two teams. Vermont's head coach, Chip LaCasse, said prior to the races that Utah was the main challenge but cautiously added that Colorado and Wyoming were both good teams and had a shot. Three days after all the hoopla was over Miller insisted that the championships were wide open at the beginning. "Vermont could have won as easily as us," Miller said. "Even though Wyoming and Colorado were way back on any given day one of the four teams could have won." The First Day LaCasse liked the ski conditions for the GS race. He had feared that the powder that Utah is so famous for might be covering the hills - giving an advantage to the western colleges. The lack of snow forced the Resort to stockpile what they had and the U.S. Ski Team's Women's GS course was well packed and fast - just the way Vermont liked it. Vermont liked it so much that after the first run they appeared ready to blow everybody off the course. John Please turn to page 3C i Roo Harris I ' !' - r I i ,' ....!.! --''.ff'-t- 3 i j ; a 1 1 " , mi i, ii inn L Ute ski team members raise coach Pat Miller on left and unidentified skier after winning championship - v , w -.. -7 7 The NCAA first place trophy ; - '' ' ! I I ' v ! ; I v l 1 1- i) I' - -. ft - .t a. ' . i iT '? ' : -iff - ' ' - ? : 'I ! -V. -j rl i x ; . i , , i "v -;. r, s A . " - . j v 1 OUc Larssen 4 M 4441 44 4 4 Uth skiing ce Bernt Lund collapsed after first place finish in individual cross country race. Most Difficult Black Diamond Continued from Page 1C Teague was the fastest down the hill and his teammates Tor Melader and Chris Mikell were close behind him in third and . fifth place respectively: Utah's Scott Hoffman was in striking distance in sixth place 68100 seconds off the pace. All-American Bjorn Gefle was in ninth and Albert Innamorati was 11th. Colorado posed the main threat to Vermont by placing skiers in second, fourth, 22nd and 24th - all possible point scoring positions. Then the Utes used some of their second run magic. Hoffman posted the fastest second run time and vaulted from sixth to second. Innamorati jumped five places to sixth and Gefle ended seventh. Vermont's Teague and Melander changed places. Mikell scored no points dropping to ninth while his teammate Pete Murphy pulled in into eighth. Had Colorado's Niklas Scherrer finished the second run he would have kept his team in it and Scherrer would have needed a run of 67.19 to tie for first place - which was not an unreasonable time. The first day ended with LaCasse smiling, the Utah coaches were glad they were close and Colorado suffereing the first major bad-break of the tournament. The Second Day The second day started with Utah losing the edge they had in the 15-kilometer cross country race. Utah trained for cross country skiing at Brighton over an extremely hilly area. Miller said because of their familiarity with hills and altitude of the race the Utes had an edge. -unwn jajft- ii 1,1 ,i j-i," jiii ,i i 1,1,11. mil i in I mil u i Tmi-MiTiB--- o Easiest Green Circle r-r -ii..i...imi.uiJ . i 1 V " ';., . ! ' '' ( - ". i. ' . n-rfrl - .. J- .i . .,' - . r,- " AS- J- I w W :. - ! . k ; . .", - ';;: , , -: r ' ' ' j 1 ? , ! - - ;i v ; . s "I : 4 t Caution Bernt Lund relaxes after cross-country victory But that was not to be because the coaches got together Wednesday and decided to flatten out the run at Deer Valley. "WE cut out most of the hills because they were icy and that presented a danger to the skiers in going downhill," Miller said. Contrary to tradition LaCasse sent his best skiers out first because he expected the weather to warm as the race progressed, softening and slowing the track. But as the race started clouds crept in overhead and towards the middle of the race a soft snow was falling "My skiers told me the course was slow the first leg but picked up on the second. They could feel it get faster and faster," LaCasse said after the race. Utah saved its best for last. Bernt Lund, starting in the last position, turned in a winning 49:48.6 time to beat the nearest competitor by nearly a minute. Lund's run could have been faster had he not fallen after colliding with a skier who was starting his second lee. Lund said he was, "a little mad", after the collision but just went out and skied knowing he had to make up lost itme. He said he heard his split times early in the race and knew he was off his pace. "On the last leg I skied with everything I had. I'm very tired now." said Lund shortly after collapsing at the finish line . LaCasse felt his strategy of starting his best first backfired but Mill.- said it did not matter. "Their (Vermont's) foirr skiers are so good that they could start anywhere in any order in the field and have those times," Miller said. Although Lund won the race the Utah lost two more points to Vermont. Vermont's Pal Sjulstad, Jon Zdechlik and Todd Kempainen finished fifth, sixth and eighth respectively eiving the easterners 44 points, Utah's Trygvc Mikkelscn a rid Oyvind Solvang finished ninth and 12th to help Lian put 42 points on the board. Wyoming was missing the wax. The had really slow skis, Miller said. "For two weeks alter the rcgionals Wyoming couldn't train as much as they should have because of snow conditions in ! ;inimie." Miller siiid iIki! he wa hoping his team would get a few' Please turn to page 4c More Slders Continued from Page 3c more points in the cross country race but, "felt good" that he was only five points behind Vermont. "As long as we could stay within shouting distance I knew we would be in there." Miller said. The Third Day As brilliant as a finish that Utah's Scott Hoffman and Mark Halvorson had in capturing the top two spots in the slalom the hero of the day had to be two time All-American Per Christian Nicolaisen. The pressure was all on Nicolaisen's shoulders. It was necessary for three skiers to finish to be eligible for the team slalom points champ'u,r,chi" Halvorson said Hoffman's jreat second run inspired him to do well. Gefle, who was the third Ute in the top five after the first run, hit a rut and fell on the second run. He got up and attempted to finish the run but was o.na so fast that he blew off the course and ended up with a DNF alongside his name on the scoresheet instead of a time. Albert Innamorati was in 40th place for Utah 3.13 minutes off the 20th spot. It was almost impossible for him to finish in the top 20. After Gefle did not finish Johan Monson of Wyoming, who has been in second place after the first run, also blew out of the course. Nicolaisen had a lot to think about. "When Bjorn blew out there was an amazing amount of pressure on our third guy because he had to make it down," Miller said. "Nicolaisen hasn't won a race but has been scoring points for us all year." Nicolaisen lived up to the task confronting him and finished at 42.34, good enough for 11th place and 10 very important points. Innamorati also had a great second run at 41.96 which jumped him up to the 24th position. Nicolaisen's 10 points not only allowed Utah to score in the slalom but was 10 of Utah's 11 total-points-victory-margin over Vermont. Vermont might have been able to stay closer to Utah had they dulled their ski edges as Utah did for the first run. Even though Vermont compensated for their mistake in the second run, by dulling the edges their fastest two finishers. Tor Melander in seventh a..d J " T"Hue i.; 12th, were still at least a full second behind Hofman and 30 seconds behind Halvorson. ' The Final Day Uah headed into the fourth day of the championships tasting NCAA gold. The slalom gave them a 15 point bulge over Vermont. A lead so large that only a bad piece of luck would stop Utah from winning its first NCAA Championship in any sport in since 1944. To win the championship Utah had to finish in front of Vermont or directly behind them, irregardless of where they placed. After the first 7.5 kilometers of the cross country relay Jon Zdechlik of Vermont carded the fastest time at 25:10.8. Utah's Mikkelsen was second in place 1.13 minutes behind. Bjorn Gjelsten, of Colorado, was only 1.7 seconds behind Mikkelsen. "I was definitely a little leery when after five kilometers we were in fifth place," Miller said. "Our second man out (Solvang) was fortunate. He positioned himself behind Colorado's Egil Nilsen who turned in the fastest time for the event. It's easier to ski behind someone and pace." After two legs Colorado, who had not really made its presence known the past three days, loomed as the spoiler. They were in second place with a 20 second lead over Utah. Vermont held first by only four seconds. But the up jet was not meant to be. Colorado's anchorman, Alan Ashley finished poorly - a full three minutes after Lund and Silstad for Vermont. "Lund knew mid-way through the last leg that all he had to do was pace himself and finish the race and the championship was ours," Miller said. Lund finished the last 100 yards of the race with a large smile on his face. As well he should. Utah was the number one skiing team in the country. |