Skiers Qualify Full Team for NCAA's

2/27/2009 12:00 AM | Skiing

Feb. 27, 2009

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah ski team announced today the 12 skiers who will represent the Utes at the NCAA Championships, held March 11-14 in Maine.

The Utes qualified a total of 18 skiers, but are limited to 12 (three per gender per discipline). Utah has alternate skiers in each discipline in case of injury or illness. Three Western teams qualified full teams: Utah, Denver and Alaska-Anchorage.

Although the Utes have not won any individual meets this season, Director of Skiing Eli Brown believes that Utah can win the title. Seven of the twelve athletes who qualified are seniors and 10 athletes are repeat qualifiers.

"It's nice not to have the pressure of our competitors who have been winning all season and are the favorites," Brown said. "We like being the underdog. We have a few weeks to prepare here and the skiing is good. The snow will be hard for the alpine team back east and the low altitudes will help the Nordic team.

"We are experienced and relaxed, we know what we are getting into and we don't mind not being the favorites."

The men's alpine and women's Nordic teams each had five qualifiers. In men's alpine, freshman Nick Cohee was the top overall qualifier in the men's giant slalom and qualified second overall. He had three giant slalom wins this year. Thomas Zumbrunn qualified eighth while Scott Veenis was 13th. Zumbrunn's best finish was a second-place run at the RMISA Championship in GS and Veenis had three sixth-place runs this year. Serving as alternates are Hermann Lager and Torjus Krogdahl. Lager was Utah's most consistent slalom skier this year with five top 10 finishes in the event.

In women's Nordic, Annelies Cook qualified ninth to lead the Utes. She had two fourth-place runs this season, in the Seawolf Invitational freestyle and the Colorado Invitational classic race. Zoe Roy had three top 10 finishes in qualifying 13th and Sara Schweiger had a top run of seventh in the classic race at the CU Invite to qualify 15th. Alternates are Parker Tyler and Devon Spika. Parker had Utah's best finish of the season in women's Nordic, placing third in the Seawolf Invitational classic race.

The women's alpine team is led by 2008's NCAA slalom and GS runner-up, Eva Huckova, who qualified seventh. She was fifth in the slalom and sixth in the giant slalom qualifying. Huckova had six finishes in the top-six, winning the giant slalom at the UAA Invitational. Mikaela Grassl qualified 11th with five top 10 runs and Chirine Njeim was 13th with four runs in the top 10. The duo qualified eighth and ninth, respectively, in the overall slalom standings. Chelsea Laswell, who had her best year of her career with five top 10 finishes, is Utah's alternate.

Even Sletten came on strong at the end of the year in men's Nordic, qualifying eighth overall. He won the final two classic races of the season at the Denver Invitational and RMISA Championships. Didrik Smith was Utah's most consistent skier with five top 10 runs to qualify 12th. Ben Fick had a strong run in the final race of the year to qualify 19th. The Utes' alternate is Rolf Figi.

The NCAA Championship alpine races will be held at Sunday River resort in Bethel while the Nordic races are at Black Mountain Touring Center in Rumford. The meet is hosted by Bates College.