NCAA Wrap-Up

NCAA Skiing Championships Hot and Cold

We just finished the NCAA Skiing championships in Maine... we brought home two All-Americas in Gergery Berger and a tenth place team finish... but left a lot on the trails. Sickness struck the team soon after we arrived on the east coast. Then alpine skier Katie Lyons blew out her knee the day before the championships were to start. (She put on a knee brace and slipped the course to help the team score some points, despite the embarrassment of finishing last and the pain in her knee. It should be noted she wanted to race and we had to talk her into the slipping plan) Senior Chelsea Holmes skied a gutsy race after being taken down at 2 k in the 15 mass start. She broke a pole and ended up in the creek, emerging back on the trail in DFL. She was able to ski back into 16th, who knows what it might have been otherwise, but this is ski racing. Jonathan showed strength in the classic with a 19th place. Lutz Preussler had a disappointing final championships, after returning from China, but fought through his health issues for a very respectable 25th. Kristin Ronnestrand was 29th in the classic and chose not to race in the skate race, due to her health.

We learned a lot and if we can come back to Nevada and teach those on the team that did not go to the championships these lessons we will have success in the future. It was not what we had hoped for, but it was not bad either. Our team showed how close they are by having fun throughout the championship. It was our goal to have more fun then any other team and we achieved this. It was our goal to finish in the top ten and we snuck in there and achieved this goal as well. We wanted five All-Americans, and got two, so we still have some work to do.

Our long terms goal is still to bring a NCAA skiing championship home to Nevada. In order to achieve this goal we will need to continue to improve in the RMISA. We were third at NCAA Regionals this year, and next year we need to win a RMISA invite. We need to have an individual champion in each event at some point during the year. We need to take advantage of when we have snow and have quality workouts on it. Most of all we need to continue to have fun and do it the Nevada way.