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Races Thread- Skiing hosts RMISA Conference Championships in Steamboat Springs (Friday 2/23- Sunday)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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CU Skiing tries to repeat as (combined) RMISA conference / NCAA Western Region champs this weekend, as well as hopefully gaining good momentum heading into the NCAA Championships, also being hosted by the Buffs in Steamboat (scheduled to start Wednesday, 3/7).

(Note- I'm assuming that due to their great regular season, the Buffs won't have any issues getting their whole team selected to the NCAA Championships assuming disaster doesn't strike this weekend. I'm not sure HOW MANY full teams get selected to the NCAA Championships.?. Assuming their were no changes this season (although I thought I remember there might have been?), 7 or 8 full teams (12 skiers racing for a team is max) were selected for LAST year's championships per https://www.ncaa.com/news/skiing/ar...-womens-skiing-committee-announces-selections.)

GO BUFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Preview article -

Direct link - http://cubuffs.com/news/2018/2/20/skiing-buffs-aim-to-repeat-as-ncaa-western-region-champs.aspx

"
BOULDER — The Colorado ski team, winners of the 2018 RMISA regular season title by a 156½-point margin, now looks for back-to-back RMISA/NCAA West Regional championships as the Buffs head off to Steamboat Springs to compete in the RMISA Championship meet that doubles as the NCAA Western Regional this weekend.

The championship schedule is as follows:
Friday, Feb. 23 – men's and women's slalom (Howelsen Hill)
Saturday, Feb. 24 – men's and women's 5/10K classic (Howelsen Hill)
Sunday, Feb. 25 – men's and women's giant slalom (Mt. Werner) & men's and women's 15/20K freestyle (Howelsen Hill)

Also on the weekend lineup is the RMISA alpine qualifier that will run Saturday at Mt. Werner. The second of two alpine qualifiers on the year, both being giant slalom races this winter, the qualifiers are used as an extra opportunity for skiers to earn qualification points for the NCAA Championships.

At last season's RMISA Championship/NCAA Western Regional, the Buffs took home their 28th all-time title (dating back to 1950). The win came by just a 7½-point margin of victory over Denver, the third smallest margin in the last 20 years.

This year, Colorado had a dominant regular season, winning three of the four meets. It marked the first time since 2013, a year CU swept all six meets including the RMISA and NCAA Championships, that a school had won three or more meets in the regular season.
...

Denver and Utah are the top challengers that the Buffs will be competing against for the title. In the last eight winters it has either been the Buffs or Utes that have won the title, and those two schools have combined to win 28 of the 35 since the sport went coed back in 1983.

The Pioneers won the Utah Invitational this winter, the only meet that CU did not win, and finished second in the RMISA regular season standings.

Utah was third in the standings, but the Utes feature the top Nordic squad that has a combined 11 individual race victories between their men and women. CU is second on that list with five.
...
"
________________________________________________________________________________

Right now, I'm not see any links to live timing yet for any of the races, which usually becomes available sometime before race-time. Assume some combination of the CU schedule (http://cubuffs.com/schedule.aspx?path=ski), and/ or CU ski (https://NOPE/cubuffsskiing/) or RMISA (https://NOPE/rmisa?lang=en) twitter accounts will provide links to live timing (as well as providing general updates themselves) before the various races start.

I will both edit this OP below and put individual timing links (and start times) in new posts as they become available.

Schedule (Copied from above)-
Friday, Feb. 23 – men's and women's slalom (Howelsen Hill)
Saturday, Feb. 24 – men's and women's 5/10K classic (Howelsen Hill)
Sunday, Feb. 25 – men's and women's giant slalom (Mt. Werner) & men's and women's 15/20K freestyle (Howelsen Hill)

Edit- Copied from what I wrote in last year's NCAA championship thread-
"
SCORING- For reference, Just because I forget how skiing is scored every new year, wanted to quote what I copied in the thread for last year's NCAA championships -
"Scoring in NCAA Skiing- the top 30 finishers of each race earn points. The scores earned for the top 8 finishers from 1st through 8th are 40 (for 1st place)-37-34-31-29-27-25-23. After that, the 9th through 30th places earn one point less for each lower place finish, so for example 9th place earns 22 points, 10th place 21 points, etc., all the way down to the 30th place finisher, who earns 1 point."
(Note-at the NCAA championships, teams can only bring 3 athletes of each gender for each type of skiing (Alpine and Nordic), so all their finishes count. For earlier season races with more than 3 racers per team competing in each event, only the top 3 finishers for each team get their finishes counted when calculating their team's score.)"

Note- I haven't heard of any changes to the scoring system this 2017 season, but will update the above if I later find out there HAVE been changes.
"
 
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Not a great start for the Buffs in the women's slalom, but not disastrous.
(Although, looks like DU has a BIG lead after one event, as their top 3 finished, 1-2-7. Montana State also with 2 in the top 5 and 3 in the top 13, so would guess they'll be in a solid 2nd. Conversely, looks like the Utes had a REALLY tough time (only 2 racing, finishing 8th and last (of the finishers)), so the Buffs probably gained some advantage against them.)

 
With the top 30 now having completed their runs, looks like a strong performance by the Buff men in the slalom, as I believe they'll have a narrow point win with their top 3 finishing 2nd, 5th and 9th. (DU looking to be right behind with a 4-6-8 finish.)
 
Women's day 1 reminds me of how the national championship started last year where they had the DNFs and dug themselves too big of a hole.
 
Buffnik said:
Women's day 1 reminds me of how the national championship started last year where they had the DNFs and dug themselves too big of a hole.
Click to expand...

Hopefully today's results won't end up being quite as "bad"*** as last year, where the Buffs were in 5th (4th of the western schools) after day one (http://cubuffs.com/news/2017/3/8/sk...er-first-day-of-ncaas-ketter-gs-champion.aspx). (***the funny nature of perception from team to team where the ski Buffs coming back to "only" finish 2nd in the country at NCAA's is considered at least somewhat "disappointing".)

Also, just some random notes from a (very random) me of things I'll be looking at in the results for tomorrow's Nordic races.
  • Be interesting to see how much if any ground the Buffs will be able to make up, as RMISA stats show the Buffs and Pioneers to be pretty close this year (http://www.rmisaskiing.com/team.php) in that discipline. And, with Petra Hyncicova still at the Olympics, we can only be thankful it looks like the women's Nordic team has by far the best depth of any of the Buff's 4 groups. It will also be interesting to see how much (if any) ground Utah can make up after what looks like a really tough 1st day today. (From those standings linked to above, it looks like the Nordic teams have been pretty close in tomorrow's classical class races, with the Buffs being the more dominant "class of the RMISA" in the freestyle races that will be run Sunday.)
  • I believe Buff (from Estonia) freshman Alvar Alev has been coming on very strong the last few races, highlighted by him winning both races 2 weeks ago. Hopefully that will continue. Also on the men's side, another freshman, Sondre Bollum, has had top 9 finishes in every one of his 6 racers competed, but was out sick in the races 2 weeks ago. Hopefully he'll be able to finish strong this week to show his illness wasn't too major. Assuming they look OK this weekend, assume they'd be the favorites to join junior Petter Reistad (who had a 2nd and 3rd the last Inivitational) on the NCAA Championships-selected team.
  • Even with senior leader and double defending NCAA champion Ms. Hyncicova still in So. Korea, the women's side still could end up finishing with nearly as many if not more points than the strong men's team. Namely, sophomore Anne Siri Lervik has been coming on strong, and paced the Buff's with the highest combined finishes (3rd and 4th) 2 weeks ago. Freshman Hedda Baangman started off this season dominantly with 2 wins and 5 top 4's in her 1st 6 races, but since then, although still almost always finishing around the top 10, hasn't been quite as consistently dominant the last month or so. Still, 5K classical has been her strongest distance/ discipline combo, so hopefully she'll help pace the Buffs tomorrow. In maybe the deepest group I've seen since starting to following CU skiing more closely a few years ago, there will also be TWO OTHER's I'm sure looking to have top finishes to make their case for being one of the (only) three selected to the NCAA's for the women's Nordic team- junior Christina Rolandsen , who has consistently finished in the Top 8 of every one of her 9 completed races (average finish around 5th), while senior Ane Johnsen has 4 Top 10's in her last 4 races since coming back from not competing at all until the the last month or so.
 
Article after Day 1-

Direct link - http://cubuffs.com/news/2018/2/24/skiing-mens-alpine-leads-the-way-to-open-rmisa-championships.aspx

"
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The Colorado alpine team opened up the first day of the RMISA Championships by winning the men's slalom race, but CU stands in third place overall after 2-of-8 events as the Buffs are hosting the 69th annual championship that doubles as the NCAA Western Regional.

Friday saw the men's and women's slalom races running at Howelsen Hill, with the second runs taking place under the lights for some night racing.

Colorado's men's team carried the Buffs on the first day and placed three inside the top 10 to win the race with 88 points. The women's team finished third with just three finishers, and only one in the top 10.

"The guys definitely saved the show today and it was pretty much a standard what they have done throughout the season," head coach Richard Rokos said.

CU stands in third place overall for the meet after the first of three days. Denver leads it by a 36-point margin, as the Pioneers scored 185 points Friday. Montana State sits in second with 149 points, just one ahead of the Buffs.

Short on depth on the alpine side all season, the pressure was on for the four men and four women skiers racing Friday to finish their runs, a phenomenon that is difficult but good training for the NCAA Championships where you can only field three competitors.

CU was down to four on the men's side with Bobby Moyer out sick Friday and Andrea Arnold on the women's side, who is out for the season. It was then down to three after the first run for the women, when Isabella Fidjeland did not finish. Joey Young did not finish his run on the men's side.
...

NOTEWORTHY: Johansen's second place finish marks the second season in a row he placed second behind Busengdal at the RMISA Championships. Johansen has now hit the podium in four different slalom races this winter – two were wins and the other two were both second place finishes.

UP NEXT: The Nordic team takes the spotlight Saturday with the 5/10K interval classic start at Howelsen Hill. The women open it up at 9:30 a.m. followed by the men at 11. The alpine teams are racing as well, but their giant slalom races do not count for the championships, as it will be just a qualifier race used towards individual NCAA qualification points.

The giant slalom races apart of the RMISA Championships will run on Sunday.
...

2018 RMISA CHAMPIONSHIPS/NCAA WEST REGIONAL
Feb. 23, 2018 | Howelsen Hill

MEET TEAM STANDINGS (final):
1. Denver 185; 2. Montana State 149; 3. Colorado 148; 4. New Mexico 134.5; 5. Utah 89; 6. Alaska Anchorage 87.5; 7. Westminster College 79; 8. Colorado Mountain College 39

WOMEN'S SLALOM TEAM SCORES:
1. DU 104, 2. MSU 85, 3. CU 60, 4. UNM 59.5, 5. UAA 56.5, 6. UU 35, 7. WMC 20, 8. CMC 13

WOMEN'S SLALOM (22 finishers):
1. Amelia Smart, DU, 1:21.18; 2. Andrea Komsic, DU, 1:21.22; 3. Jocelyn McCarthy, MSU, 1:21.27; 4. Nora Christensen, CU, 1:21.94; 5. Stephanie Gartner, MSU, 1:22.16; 6. Tuva Norbye, DU, 1:22.32; 7. Rebecca Fiegl, UNM, 1:23.23; 8. Ann-Kathrin Breuning, UU, 1:23.29; 9. Mia Henry, MSU, 1:23.40; 10. Benedicte Lyche, MSU, 1:23.52. Other CU Finishers: 18. Megan McGrew 1:28.38; 19. Tonje Trulsrud 1:29.72. Isabella Fidjeland DNF

MEN'S SLALOM TEAM SCORES:
1. CU 88, 2. DU 81, 3. UNM 75, 4. MSU 64, 5. WMC 59, 6. UU 54, 7. UAA 31, 8. CMC 26

MEN'S SLALOM (33 finishers):
1. Vegard Busengdal, UNM, 1:26.04; 2. Ola Johansen, CU, 1:26.23; 3. Garret Driller, MSU, 1:26.29; 4. Tobias Kogler, DU, 1:26.41; 5. David Ketterer, CU, 1:26.64; 6. Nick Santanello, DU, 1:26.91; 7. Raffael Breu, WMC, 1:27.02; 8. Jett Seymour, DU, 1:27.12; 9. Max Luukko, CU, 1:27.77; 10. Huston Philp, Utah, 1:27.94. Other CU Finishers: None, Joey Young DNF.
"
 
While I think of it, possibly a few links for tomorrow's (and later?) live results-

For Nordic (both today's and tomorrow's races), found this site page - https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/event-details.html?event_id=42559&cal_suchsector=CC
(Note- not sure if this will provide a link to live results, or if it will just post results at some point after the races are over.?.)

For today's giant slalom qualifier (Note- these races do NOT count towards the Western Regional/ RMISA Conference championships this thread is mainly about, but does help individual Buff skiers move up or down the overall rankings, which could be important for NCAA Championship team selection, start position/ bib # possibility for the important 1st run at NCAA's, etc..)-
Men's (1st run scheduled for a 9:00 AM start, with the 2nd run to start at 1:00 PM.) - http://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=185733
Women's (1st run scheduled for a 10:30 AM start, with the 2nd run to start at 2:15 PM.) - http://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=185735
 
Less than 45 minutes until today's 1st Nordic race starts, and 15 or so minutes til the 1st GS qualifier starts -

I still haven't had any luck finding sure-thing live timing pages for today's (or tomorrow's) Nordic races. In addition to the page linked to in my last post that MIGHT (???) have results, I did find a few RMISA Conference pages which look like they might, at minimum, populate with final results sometime after the races are completed -
Women's 5K Classic - http://rmisaskiing.com/race.php?r=1618
Men's 10K Classic- http://rmisaskiing.com/race.php?r=1619

And, for tomorrow's freestyle races-
Women's 15K - http://rmisaskiing.com/race.php?r=1622
Men's 20K - http://rmisaskiing.com/race.php?r=1623
 
Looks like kind of a not too good/ not too bad day of Nordic races for the Buffs. They lose a little more ground to DU, while the Utes get the solid point win for the day and are right back in it in 3rd, even after there tough day on the slopes yesterday.

 
Article on today's races. (All the Buff's are going to have to put some WORK in tomorrow to win another conference crown.)-

Direct link - http://cubuffs.com/news/2018/2/24/s...-at-halfway-point-of-rmisa-championships.aspx

"
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The Colorado ski team moved into second place Saturday at the halfway point of the RMISA Championships that doubles as the NCAA Western Regional, but saw meet leader Denver University widen its lead after the completion of 4-of-8 events.

Saturday kicked off the Nordic racing – women's 5K classic and men's 10K classic at Howelsen Hill - with Colorado's women's team finishing in second place and the men in third.

The Buffs did move ahead of Montana State, who held a one-point edge in the standings on CU after the first day, but day-one leader DU was able to increase its lead by another eight points on Saturday.

DU has 350 points at the midway point to Colorado's 306. Utah, who's 192 total Nordic points Saturday was the highest in the field, sits in third with 281 points. Montana State fell from second to fourth, now with 263 points overall.
...

CU INVITATIONAL/SPENCER JAMES NELSON MEMORIAL: As Colorado is hosting the 69th annual championships, the meet also serves as the CU Invitational/Spencer James Nelson Memorial. It is in honor of the former Buffalo skier who lost his life just prior to his sophomore season at CU in August 2011.

UP NEXT: Sunday will see the final four events of the championships run – the two giant slalom races for alpine at Mt. Werner and the 15/20K freestyle mass start for Nordic at Howelsen Hill.

QUOTEABLE
Head Nordic Coach Bruce Cranmer

On The Women's Race
"It was kind of mixed. I felt like for Anne Siri that was a really good race, she was very close to second place and for her I think that was a really good race. I think that everyone else was kind of in the hunt, obviously we are always hoping to be where we were earlier (in the season) going 1-2-4 or things like that. Hopefully we can regroup and step it up. I know Hedda has been struggling with her body a bit, so that battle continues for her and I'm not really sure what is going on there. All in all it wasn't as good as we were hoping, but it was okay."

On The Men's Race
"More or less with the men it was kind of the same. I think Sondre fell off a little bit there at the end maybe, he started pretty fast but just couldn't stick with it. The boys felt like they were a little bit tired, I know they've been kind of focusing more towards NCAAs than this weekend, but still it would have been nice to have been a little higher up. Obviously some other teams did really well, Utah women and DU men. Hopefully we can step it up in about 10 days (at the NCAA Championships)."

Looking Ahead To Sunday's Freestyle Races
"Skating is different, a mass start is different, longer race and a little different too, but hopefully we'll be up closer and maybe in front of where we were today. That would be my hope for sure. I think that they are doing okay, but not great, especially after Alvar winning both races (at the DU Invite) I was hoping he would be back up there, but we'll see how tomorrow goes. It is always a little bit different in these mass starts and I think it is supposed to be a fraction warmer. I don't know if that helps or hurts, but I think most of them enjoy racing when it is a little warmer. Hopefully we'll step it up a notch for tomorrow."
...
"
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Doesn't look there are going to end up providing live results for any of the Nordic races, so assume CU Ski twitter will continue to be the only/ best source for Buff final results. For tomorrow's giant slalom Alpine races, however, links are-
Women's (1st run scheduled to get under way at 9:00 AM MT; 2nd run at 12:30 PM) - http://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=185894
Men's (1st run scheduled to get under way at 10:00 AM MT; 2nd run at 1:30 PM) - http://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=185895
 

Also, looks like Buffs are in decent shape after the 1st run of women's GS, with CU skiers having the 3rd, 9th and 25th best times. (Note- there are quite a few non-collegiate athletes in front of our 25th place person (who impressively improved quite a bit on her 43 bib # during the run), so if she held her place, she'd be quite a bit better than 25th for the Championship scoring.) Note that points leader leader DU is in even better shape, with 3 skiers in the top 6 and a 4th in 12th (for insurance).
 

(With the DU women looking in very good shape after the 1st run of the giant slalom and their men in good position, looks like the Buff's women's Nordic team is going to have to put in some MAJOR work to close the point gap behind DU so the Buff Alpine team is given a decent chance to come back and catch the pioneers. OF course, anything can happen in Alpine (DNF's, etc.), so of course it's not over until it's over (and all those types of cliches).)
 
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(With only ~15 lower ranked skiers still to finish 1st runs, the 4th Buff is also currently just inside the all-important top 30 (in 29th) right now, so if that position holds, he'll hopefully be able to put a strong 2nd run in on clean snow to provide insurance in case any of the other 3 Buffs have 2nd run issues.)
 
Looks like unless DU has major issues on their 2nd runs, it's going to be tough to catch up to them. (Through the regular season, the Buff's biggest advantage over DU was in the freestyle races, but DU beat the Buffs (narrowly) in both today.)

 

Just eyeballing the giant slalom results, looks to me like DU outscored the Buffs in both of those also, so looks like the pioneers have comfortably won the conference title. Should help make the Buffs even hungrier for NCAA's.
 

Article on the end of the Championships - http://cubuffs.com/news/2018/2/25/skiing-skiers-finish-second-at-rmisa-championships.aspx

"
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The Colorado ski team had three podium finishes on Sunday in the final day of the RMISA Championships/NCAA Western Regional that saw the Denver Pioneers pull away to take the team title by a 91½-point margin of victory over the second place Buffaloes.

It is Denver's first RMISA Championship title since 2007, its fifth overall in the coed era, and its 710½-points scored being the second-highest total in any meet since the current 40-point scoring base was adapted in 2014.

The Buffs ended the championship that it hosted at Mt. Werner and Howelsen Hill with 619 points and has now finished first or second at the regionals in 13 consecutive seasons.
...

UP NEXT: Colorado will host the NCAA Championships back in Steamboat Springs, March 7-10. The selection announcement for the NCAA Championships will take place on Monday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. MT on www.ncaa.com.

QUOTEABLE
Head Coach Richard Rokos

Overall Impressions of the RMISA Championships
"It was a tough first day and actually unexpected because DU took off with a pretty good lead in our favorite event and we were trailing them for the next two days trying to gain some ground and it didn't work too well. I think overall it was a fantastic weekend for everybody, pretty good racing in three days and good warmup for NCAA Championships.

On Steamboat Springs
"Looking ahead it is just a pleasure to be here, be home so called even though it is not exactly the place we train daily, but it is a very friendly environment and we are looking forward to coming back in a week."

On what the team will do now to prepare for the NCAA Championships
"We'll do some adjustments, repairs, corrections and all kinds of stuff just to get ready. Obviously there is not too much we can accomplish technically, but we'll try to stay healthy, take care of some wounds if there are some. I know there are some sickness on the Nordic side, so part of it will be to get fully healthy and ready to go."
...
"
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, although thankfully it's MUCH less stressful for Buff fans than it is in many other sports, NCAA Championships selection day for skiing is tomorrow-
.

Assume the selections will just be released via a press release/ article which should be available at https://www.ncaa.com/sports/skiing, but if by some chance they do do a selection show stream, assume a streaming link might pop up at https://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2018/02/26 by 4:00 tomorrow. (I see they DID do a NCAA rifle championship selection show video stream earlier this week, so maybe one for skiing isn't out of the question?)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Note- totally off-thread, but for the hordes of Allbuffians who I'm sure are interested, the 8 rifle teams selected for this year's championships are W. Viriginia, TCU, Murray State, Kentucky, Alaska- Fairbanks, Air Force, tOSU and the corn. Not even knowing this was a NCAA sport, I went and looked at the NCAA history page for it (https://www.ncaa.com/history/rifle/nc), and it looks like W. Virginia is the current dynasty, having won the last 5 championships.

Per http://www.scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html , the NCAA allows a total of 3.6 (equivalent) scholarships for rifle. Interestingly (at least to me with no life), looks like it's the only NCAA sport where the scholarship "pool" is shared between men and women (no separate allocation), so I assume the scholarship breakdown between gender within a team is based on coaches' discretion (with I'm sure AD input in some cases based on the institution's overall scholarship situation).)
 
Looking forward to nationals.

I'm concerned, though, that Skiing is going to die as a college sport. They may need to do something to make it more tv friendly. Maybe go with Alpine, Freestyle and Snowboard as the 3 disciplines in the future.
 
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