The Pioneers took to the slopes this weekend in California for the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) Championships. A year ago the Pioneers placed third at this event and then went on to finish fourth in the NCAA Championships. This year the team finished first at the RMISA Championships which is also the NCAA Western Regional.
Due to inclement weather the Giant Slalom was canceled leaving the only events in the Regional the alpine slalom, the Nordic freestyle and the Nordic classical. In the Alpine Slalom the Denver Men took first place with 76 points, 13 points ahead of Colorado which sat in number 2. The women took fourth with 62 points, behind Utah, 74, Alaska 69, and Colorado with 65. On day two the men continued to dominate the field. In the freestyle the men earned 81 points followed by Utah with 71 and Colorado with 64. The men were even more impressive in the Classical in which they took 85 points followed by Colorado at 70 and Utah at 66. The women took fourth in the Freestyle with 62, Montana State taking first with 74. In the Classical the women took fourth again with 60 points, Colorado took first with 74. The overall team rankings were the Pi0oneers with 426, Colorado with 409, Utah with 391 and Alaska with 321. Montana State, New Mexico, Nevada, Western State, and Whitman all finished with less than 300 points.
John Stene and Rene Reisshauer had huge weekends. Stene won the 10K freestyle while his teammates Reisshauer finished fifth and Harvard Selseng finished sixth. Taylor Sheldon and Mike Hinckley finished in 12th and 15th respectively. The Nordic men continued to produce strong performances on Saturday. Reisshauer and Stene finished first and second respectively for the second consecutive classical 15K race. Selseng finished fifth, Harald Loevenskiold came in sixth and Hinckley finished tenth to give DU five of the top ten finishers in the classical as well as the Pioneer’s fifth consecutive first place finish a in classical race.
Even though the giant slalom was canceled DU’s Alpine team still faired well this weekend. Francesco Ghedina and John Buchar finished one two in the slalom to help the Pioneers win the slalom. Ian Dunlap and Sean Higgans finished 14th and 15th respectively while Adam Cole was unable to finish.
The women held their ground in the Nordic and Alpine events. Annelise Bailly won the freestyle 5K, her third victory in that event of the season. Her teammates Kara LaPoint and Coutrney Dauwalter finished 13th and 20th respectively. In the Classical LaPoint, Dauwalter, and Bailly finished 10th, 11th, 12th respectively to give the Pioneers fourth place in the 10K race.
The women’s Slalom team saw Karine Flack-Pederson take seventh, Jenny Tank eighth and Courntey Saario take 17th. Molly Ryan and Claire Abbe finished 31st and 33rd respectively.
The Pioneers will be represented by Reisshauer, Stene and Selseng as well as LaPoint and Bailly at the NCAA Championships in Jackson N.H., March 3-7. Dauwalter is the first alternate for the women.
