February 28, 2010 (Steamboat Springs, CO) – The University of Colorado ski team once again used a balance attack, as 12 top 10 finishes including seven in the top five and another victory from senior Matt Gelso in cross country propelled the Buffaloes to Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) and NCAA West Regional titles.

The No. 2-ranked Buffaloes amassed 902 points, scoring at least 100 in seven of the eight disciplines, easily outdistancing second place Alaska-Anchorage; the Seawolves had 764 points, scoring 100-plus in four events. The 138-point win by the Buffaloes is the most CU has ever won an RMISA Championship by, though the new scoring format accounted for about a third of the margin. Still, CU’s old largest margin was 70.5 points in the 1994 meet in Gunnison. Top-ranked New Mexico (725), Utah (704) and No. 4 Denver (700.5) rounded out the top five.

Colorado has now won 24 RMISA championships, 10 under current head coach Richard Rokos; the breakdown includes 11 men’s, 11 coed and two women’s championships under the RMISA banner. But just as if not more important, the Buffaloes qualified a full 12-skier team for next month’s NCAA Championships.

The meet also doubled as the NCAA West Regional as we well as the CU Invitational/Laura Sharpe Flood Memorial, honoring the Colorado sophomore who died in a training run at Eldora on April 3, 1990.

“Mission accomplished,” Rokos said. “We qualified a full team and are looking forward to competition right back here in two weeks on the same courses. Today’s slalom was one of the most turbulent races, when our solid standing after the first run turned into some chaos in the second run. Credit again should go to our Nordic team for a very solid performance, and an outstanding one in particular on the men’s side.”

Colorado finished first in Nordic points (482), men’s points (463) and women’s points (439), while taking second in alpine points (420), but just three behind New Mexico.

The Buffs continued their overall Nordic dominance with a season best 482 points, the third time they reached 480 in five meets and the fourth time that Colorado was the Nordic team champion in a meet.

Senior Matt Gelso continued his recent roll in the men’s 20-kilometer freestyle race, as his time of 54:07.4 was good for 26-plus second win over Alaska’s Michael Schallinger (54:33.9). Combined with Friday’s win in the classic, it was Gelso’s fourth straight victory, second straight sweep (having also done so at Nevada last weekend) and the sixth win of his career, four coming in freestyle competitions and all 20k in length. He is now tied for the top Nordic skier in the west with New Mexico’s Martin Kaas, but he loses the tiebreaker.

Gelso’s four consecutive wins are the most by a CU male, alpine or Nordic, since Ove Erik Tronvoll opened the 1999 season with five straight wins in cross country to set the school record for the four current disciplines (slalom, GS, classic, freestyle); Vidar Nilsgard won seven straight in 1973 in jumping (now defunct) for the all-time men’s mark, while Line Selnes holds the women’s and overall mark of eight straight wins in Nordic competition, which she accomplished in 1998.

“Today went well, I definitely made it through my training right,” Gelso said. “I’ve been working up to a peak and I’m getting there so I should be ready to go in two weekends for NCAA’s. I think we’ll have a strong team, we put four guys in the top 10 again today. When you can have four guys in the top seven it’s pretty impressive and proves what kind of depth we have. Ian (Mallams) really stepped it up the last two skate races.

Colorado in fact had four of the top seven finishers, three of whom were in a pack between third and 10th separated by just eight seconds. Junior Jesper Ostensen took third in 54:48.0, his third podium finish in his last four races, while sophomore Reid Pletcher posted his season best finish in crossing the line fourth in 54:48.8. Freshman Ian Mallams, who had a career best eighth place in the freestyle last Saturday in Nevada, improved that mark by one spot, as he snared seventh in 54:50.9.

It marked the sixth time in 10 races this winter that the Buffaloes had four of the top 10 finishers in a race. Junior Patrick Neel (14th, 56:09.4) and Vegard Kjoelhamar (22nd, 57:04.6) completed the CU men’s efforts.

“It was nice to have a solid result from the guys … keeps our momentum rolling forward entering the NCAA’s,” CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. “The men had a great race. We’ve had four in the top a number of times this year, and I think this is the second time we’ve had four in the top seven (it was). In the four 20k races, we’ve done extremely well and we’ll get another 20k right here in the NCAA’s. I’m not really sure what happened with Vegard, he might have been a little tired after yesterday, may not have found a rhythm, just a little off of the pace. It’s nothing to be overly concerned about; he had a 16th and DNS (did not start) at last year’s regional and went on to be the NCAA champ in the freestyle and take sixth in the classic. So maybe we’re going for a repeat in similar fashion.”

In the women’s 15k freestyle, if what happened Saturday wasn’t a first, there’s no documentation of it happening in the last 30 years. Nevada’s Maria Graefnings and Denver’s Antje Maempel were in a dead sprint at the end, and even after a video review, it could not be determined if one edged out the other; they thus tied for first with 45:35.1 times. Ties happen all the time in alpine and interval cross country starts, but it’s as rare as they come in Nordic freestyle, which almost always features a mass start.

The Colorado women placed three in the top nine, led by junior Alexa Turzian, who skied into a third place finish in 46:05.2. Sophomore Eliska Hajkova was sixth (46:48.3) and freshman Joanne Reid ninth (47:32.7). Turzian matched her season-best finish, which she had previously accomplished also in freestyle races in the Utah and Nevada meets, while Hajkova finished the regular season with 10 top nine efforts while Reid finished in the top nine for the fifth time in six races this winter.

“I have been doing pretty well all season,” Turzian said. “I’ve been pushing through it and I’m just starting to feel my legs again these last couple of races. At this point I’m feeling really strong, I feel like I need to play it out a little better strategically so I can stay in the lead until the very end.”

“Typically you don’t want to stay in the lead because you waste a little more energy than those who stay behind and draft,” she added. “But I was feeling pretty good, but when it comes to fast sprinting I’m not the best at that, and that’s when some of the other girls can take me. I just need to get out in front a little more early on.”

Sophomore Katie Stege (22nd, 51:34.6) and freshman Mary Rose (24th, 51:52.7) rounded out the CU women. “Finishing 3-6-9 is pretty solid,” Cranmer said of the women. “I don’t feel like they were on top of the game completely but Joanne had something not going great for her today. But we still had three in the top 10 so it was still good. Alexa had a good race, she’s wasn’t able to hold off the sprint at the end but she led a lot of it so we can take advantage of that.

“You always hope to peak in March, but you never know,” he added. “Matt is on a high spot, I’ve just got to keep him up for another 10 days or so and hopefully with a little rest and some more training the rest will be there too.”

Next up are the 57th NCAA Ski Championships, which are set for March 10-13 on the same exact courses the western schools competed on this weekend. They will be joined by teams from the east and central regions.

NCAA SEEDS: Here are the final seeds by Colorado skiers: Men’s Nordic (Classic/Freestyle): Matt Gelso (2/2), Jesper Ostensen (3/5), Vegard Kjoelhamar (5/4), Reid Pletcher (13/9), Ian Mallams (22/12), Patrick Neel (24/14); Women’s Nordic (Classic/Freestyle): Eliska Hajkova (2/3), Joanne Reid (9/7), Alexa Turzian (14/4); Men’s Alpine (Giant Slalom/Slalom): Gabriel Rivas (4/4), Drew Roberts (21/8), Spencer Nelson (12/24), Taggart Spenst (23/16); Women’s Alpine (Giant Slalom/Slalom): Katie Hartman (3/11), Erika Ghent (6/8), Carolina Nordh (11/6), Sara Hjertman (10/10), Jennifer Allen (12/19), Joelle Chevalier (18/16).

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA SKIING: The EISA Championships reached their midway point after a one day delay due to weather, and No. 3 Dartmouth holds the lead in the Big Green’s bid for a second straight undefeated regular season. Dartmouth has 409 points, to hold a 25-point lead over host Middlebury (the same Day 1 lead Colorado held at the midway point of the RMISA’s); Vermont is third with 364 points. Dartmouth used a dominant performance in the women’s 5K classical, six skiers in the top 10 including the winner, Katie Bono, to zoom into the lead. Vermont skiers claimed the men’s 10k and the men’s slalom, with New Hampshire taking the women’s slalom.

Results RMISA Championship/NCAA West Regional Team Scores – Final after 8 events

1. Colorado 902
2. Alaska 764
3. New Mexico 725
4. Utah 705
5. Denver 700
6. Montana State 640
7. Nevada 635

Men’s 20km Freestyle (37 finishers)
1. Matt Gelso, CU, 54:07.4
2. Michael Schallinger, UAA, 54:33.9
3. Jesper Ostensen, CU, 54:48.0
4. Reid Pletcher, CU, 54:48.8
5. Harald Loevenskiold, DU, 54:49.9
6. Charlie Smith, UN, 54:50.3
7. Ian Mallams, CU, 54:50.9
8. Didrik Smith, UU, 54:55.4
9. Martin Liljemark, UU, 54:55.9
10. Miles Havlick, UU, 54:56.2.

Women’s 10km Freestyle (31 finishers)
1. Maria Graefnings, UN, and Antje Maempel, DU, 45:35.1
3. Alexa Turzian, CU, 46:05.2
4. Kate Dolan, DU, 46:24.5
5. Polina Ermoshina, UNM, 46:41.7
6. Eliska Hajkova, CU, 46:48.3
7. Kaelin Kiesel, MSU, 47:10.8
8. Zoe Roy, UU, 47:27.7
9. Joanne Reid, CU, 47:32.7
10. Stephanie Hiemer, UAA, 47:40.3