It takes somewhere between one and two minutes to get down a mountain in a giant slalom event. Considering the distance covered, and the extreme grade conquered, the 120 to 180 seconds goes by in a blur.
Adam Cole of the University of Denver and Sarah Schaedler of Western State College on Thursday were the blurriest of the bunch, winning men’s and women’s national giant slalom titles at the 54th NCAA Championships in Attitash, N.H.
Cole’s two-run time of 2 minutes, 20.42 seconds edged Dartmouth’s Evan Weiss by 0.27 of a second and netted Denver its first national title in the giant slalom since 1994.
And at the halfway point of the four-day event, Denver, with 18 national skiing titles to its credit, jumped one spot into second place in the team standings with 329 points. Dartmouth leads at 330. Colorado, a 17-time national champion, is fourth at 275, though the Buffs last year jumped from fifth place before the alpine events to win the title.
“We may very well have to pull a rabbit out of the hat, but we’ve done it before so we know it’s doable,” CU coach Richard Rokos said.
Western State’s Schaedler earned a time of 2:30.47, topping Denver’s Jenny Tank at 2:31.35.
Schaedler is the Mountaineers’ first female alpine national champion and the school’s first skiing titlist since 1997. Western is 16th in the team standings with 71 points.
DU’s Rene Reisshauer on Wednesday won his third straight nordic title, winning the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle title. He swept both nordic events in 2005 and will try for a fourth title in today’s classical race. The slalom events will cap the tournament on Sunday.
“Seeing the nordic side be so successful (Wednesday), it pushed the alpine team because they realized that the opportunity is there for us to win the title,” DU alpine coach Andy LeRoy said.
THE COUCH
ON: Daylight-saving time begins Sunday, about three weeks sooner than it has in recent years. And what better way to celebrate spring than with baseball spring training? Of course, most of us can’t kick on down to Arizona to follow the Rockies like they’re some noodley jam band. That’s what TV is for. And, appropriately enough, the Rockies play their first televised game of the season Sunday. Try to determine the gray line between Triple-A mainstay and big-league basher when the Rockies host Kansas City at 2 p.m. on FSN.
OFF: St. Patrick’s Day lands on March 17, a full six days after the 2007 Runnin’ of the Green 7K run/walk in downtown Denver on Sunday. But since Sunday has been the designated day for the annual race in recent years, it seems wise not to stage a Patty’s Day race the day after the day. Hence this weekend’s scheduling. The Runnin’ starts at 10:15 a.m. and ends at McCormick’s Fish House and Bar at 17th and Wazee streets and includes a 2-mile walk. Check bkbltd.com for more information.
AROUND THE STATE
Denver and Colorado College start their respective WCHA best-of-three series today and Air Force plays its AHA quarterfinal Saturday. But in Fort Collins, the college hockey tournament will be a nationwide club-team championship. The American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II national championships, which started round-robin play on Wednesday, continue today, with semifinals and a title game set for Saturday.
Among the 16 teams vying for the crown, Colorado and Colorado State are in contention, and Stony Brook, Eastern Washington, Miami and Davenport are No. 1 seeds. Semifinals start at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday and the championship plays at 8:30 p.m., all at EPIC Ice Arena. Check www.achachampionships.com for more info.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
Good luck to Brandt Jobe, if not on the PGA Tour then in keeping his body in one piece. The one-time Kent Denver golfer’s return to the tour at the PODS Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., is no small feat. A household broom accident in late 2006 sliced off a couple of fingers on Jobe’s left hand, but they were later reattached. And three years before, Jobe twice broke his wrist and still has no feeling in a pinky finger.
WEAK IN REVIEW
Let the NCAA Tournament seeding complaints begin! In the men’s and women’s 64-team Division II brackets, which start play today, all four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title-game teams will be forced into a rematch less than a week later. The Metro State men will play Adams State again Saturday, and the Regis women will face Metro State today.
