Official NCAA Skiing Championships Thread

[GameForAnyFuss]

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when you get to spend 15 minutes of your week thinking about Utah skiing, because it’s NCAA championships time! Utah is the defending national champion and prohibitive favorite to repeat. And it’s a home game for the Utes – alpine events are being contested at Park City Mountain and nordic is at Soldier Hollow.

Today was supposed to be the men’s and women’s giant slalom, but it had to be postponed until Thursday due to all the new snow PCMR got during last night’s storm. “Wait a sec,” you’re saying. “How can snow stop a ski race? Don’t you need snow to have a ski race in the first place?” While you are correct, new snow is actually bad for ski racing because it’s very soft. When you get dozens of skiers making turns in the same spot on soft snow, you get big ruts in the snow (imagine a mini bobsled track) that make the race unfair at best and unsafe at worst.

So the GS is postponed until tomorrow when the course crew can get all the new snow cleaned off the track. On the cross country side, the 5k classic will also go on Thursday, which was the original schedule.

I’ll report back tomorrow when we get some results. Thank you for your time and your interest in the badass sport of ski racing!

[Ute Dub]

These pre-race skiing posts start out great but then it’s all downhill from there.

[GameForAnyFuss]

<rimshot>

[DataUte]

do they push the snow off or groom it or pack it down or get a bunch of dudes to shovel it? Never thought of this before – forgive my ignorance. The courses always seem really hard which I guess is what they want for speed.

[GameForAnyFuss]

For high-level races (like an NCAA race) they will have people shovel the new snow off the course and get it down to the hardpack underneath. For low-level races they will just groom the hill because it’s cheap and easy. But just grooming isn’t enough – the course will break down in the turns anyway. Periodically they will stop the race and have course workers (called “slippers”) ski the course in a snowplow to push away the ruts that develop, but it’s really just delaying the inevitable.

The desire for hardness really has nothing to do with speed – it’s all about fairness. The harder the snow, the less ruts you get and the more fair the race will be for every starter, regardless of start position.

At the World Cup/Olympic level, they will actually inject the snow with water and let it freeze before the race, so you’re essentially skiing on a tilted ice rink. It makes for super fair racing but it’s also really technically demanding (any recreational skier knows this), not to mention dangerous, which is why it’s only done at the highest level.

[DataUte]

Thanks! Fairness makes sense and the only way to get there is harder courses. Of course these are the elite and this is what they do. They have to decide how hard to push it and when to just take what the course gives them. That’s what seemed to happen with Shiffrin at the olympics – she’s going to go all in and a little mistake on a hard course and you’re out. Push it to be able to win but risk skiing out? Seems razor thin. That’s why they’re the best.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Hakuna matata, bitches! I’m here with your day 2 update. Go ahead and exhale…I know you’ve been pacing back and forth in your kitchen waiting for this. Well I am here to chase away all your ills. Here we go:

Men’s XC classic: Utah 5th place (46.0 points)
Women’s XC classic: Utah 1st place (102.5 points)
Men’s alpine GS: Utah 1st place (75.0 points)
Women’s alpine GS: Utah 2nd place (63.0 points)

Overall standings after 2 of 4 events:
Utah 286.5
Colorado 262.0
Denver 249.0
Vermont 235.0
There are no other schools within striking distance.

So on the back of an incredible performance by the women’s XC team, Utah is in the driver’s seat to win another natty! It’s hard to describe how dominant the XC women were. The 2nd place team had 67 points (compared to Utah’s 102.5). That’s just a straight up ass-kicking right there.

Tomorrow is the most unpredictable event in skiing: Slalom. It’s a discipline of inches and milliseconds. Anything can happen, and Colorado is stacked with world cup talent. If we come out of tomorrow with the overall lead, I think the XC team has what it takes to bring home the hardware on Saturday!

I’ll report back tomorrow…

[GameForAnyFuss]

I’m baaaaack…and here’s the results from Friday:

Men’s alpine slalom: Utah 2nd place (77.5 points)
Women’s alpine slalom: Utah 7th place (44.0 points)

Overall standings after 3 of 4 events:
Utah 405.0
Vermont 377.5
Denver 372.5
Colorado 368.0

We can practically taste the wood finish on the national championship trophy now! Utah did what they needed to do in slalom: They survived. Vermont was the big winner today, but their hole after yesterday’s XC events was just too big. Looks like CU hit the ganja too hard last night – the slalom gods were not kind to them today.

Tomorrow we should be able to hold off all contenders with our depth in XC, and if we race freestyle like we did in the classic, we could turn this thing into a boat race. Barring a major disaster, 24 hours from now Utah will have its first natty of the year!

[GameForAnyFuss]

Final results are in…Utah has won the national championship!

For those who want the gory details:

Men’s XC freestyle: Utah 2nd place (73.0 points)
Women’s XC freestyle: Utah 1st place (100.0 points)

Overall standings after 4 of 4 events:
Utah 578.0
Vermont 511.5
Denver 436.5
Colorado 435.0

Thank you for following along this week as we celebrate another natty for Utah’s best sports team!

[Tony (admin)]

Hell yeah! Go Utes!

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