NCAA
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS Next Stop,
EISA and RMISA Regionals are the final events before Colorado hosts NCAAs BY BRYCE HUBNER
RMISA
enough alpine power to lead the Buffs to overall team victories. When asked
what has made the difference for his alpine program, CU’s head coach Richard Rokos said it’s a combination of timing and confidence.
“We’ve been building throughout the season, and because most of our athletes have been staying healthy we are starting to peak at the right time,” Rokos said. “But it’s mostly about confidence — not so much confidence about
whether or not they could be fast, but confidence in being able to put two runs
together. A lot of these kids have been very fast all year, but if they don’t finish
two runs on the same day they don’t show up in the results. Finally, we are
starting to finish and it’s a whole new story.”
EISA
Middlebury College put forth a heroic effort to make sure that the EISA Regional Championships went off without a hitch Feb. 27 and 28, braving wild
conditions and wicked weather in the days leading up to the races.
“We got about 25 inches of new snow during the week and I’ve got a picture of a six-foot snow drift in the middle of our slalom hill,” Middlebury
alpine coach Stever Bartlett said. “Then we got rain, more snow, rain, snow
— it turned into a couple feet of mashed potatoes.”
Middlebury was forced to postpone the races by a day to allow for blading
and re-fencing the alpine race hill — several times. Bartlett said the nordic
venue was no picnic either, as a week before the race more than a dozen volunteers from the town of Middlebury and the entire Middlebury College ski
team were shoveling snow onto the track, only to see the region blanketed by
wet cement shortly thereafter.
“Everything came together okay, though,” Bartlett said. “The hill got a bit of
time to freeze up the night before our first race and the conditions were pretty
fair all things considered.”
Not surprisingly, Dartmouth won its 12th consecutive carnival when EISA
wrapped its Championship weekend — its 23rd win in 24 tries over the past
four years. But Middlebury’s hard work to make the races happen paid off,
because several skiers from the home team had stellar weekends and will now
look to continue their fine form at NCAAs.
Colorado’s Katie Hartman has helped lead a resurgent Buffalo
alpine squad in recent weeks.
Seawolf Andreas Adde has won three rcaes in his last five starts, leading
Alaska to a program best second-place finish at RMISA Championships in
Steamboat.
