The NCAA News - News and Features

March 9, 1998

National Collegiate Men's and Women's Skiing

Utah, Vermont, Alaska Anchorage all contenders for team honors

Event: 1998 National Collegiate Men's Skiing Championships.

Overview: Defending champion Utah has no returning champions but has won two of four carnivals this season. The Utes are led by Frode Kollerud, the West's top-ranked Nordic skier (fourth in the 1997 freestyle event) and twin brother Rune (second in freestyle and fourth in classical), who is ranked third. Utah also has Stine Hellerud, fourth in women's classical and third in freestyle last year. In women's Alpine, Marianne Winge, second in slalom last year, returns. Utah also has added U.S. ski team member Alicia Howard .... King of the East, Vermont won the first four carnivals it entered, with defending freestyle champion Thorrod Bakken taking every Nordic race. Bakken has finished worse than first only three times in his three years of collegiate competition -- each time in the NCAA championships. The Catamounts also feature sophomore Brandon Dyksterhouse, who won the '97 men's giant slalom and finished third in the slalom .... Alaska Anchorage, which was fifth last year despite not qualifying enough racers to win, returns three champions, Izidor Jerman (men's slalom ), Frode Lillefjell (men's classical) and Doris Hausleitner (women's classical) .... Colorado is led in women's Nordic by undefeated Line Selnes, sister of two-time Nordic champion Heidi, who skied for Utah. In men's Nordic, Ove Erik Tronvoll is Colorado's leading contender. Freshmen Chad Wolk and Josh Nolting lead the Buffs' men's Alpine effort, along with Geoff Buchheister, who was sixth in last year's giant slalom. In women's Alpine, Caroline Gedde-Dahl has won two giant slalom races this season .... Denver has Roberta Pergher back to defend the women's slalom title she has won the past two years. In men's Alpine, Denver features Andre Bachleda, who finished fifth in the Alpine combined competition at the Nagano Olympics, and Christian Hutter, who has lost only once this year (to Bachleda). Denver's hopes in Nordic lie with Kristina Andersson and Carolina Barthelson. Heiko Zuehlke and Kyrill Kretzschmar lead the men in Nordic.

Field: A total of 148 skiers (74 men, 74 women) will qualify for the championships.

Dates and site: March 11-14 at Deer Park/Bohart Ranch, hosted by Montana State-Bozeman.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915). Request numbers are 5139 for day-one results; 5140, day two; 5141, day three; and 5142, day four. Championships results also will be posted on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Results will be published in the March 23 issue of The NCAA News.