It was another topsy-turvy day in the NCAA Ski Championships, and the only thing that's for sure going into the final day is that the University of Utah leads.
And, even though Utah leads by 36 points over its chief rival, Vermont, it's not enough of a spread to have the Ute skiers slapping hands yet.True, any other year it would likely be enough of a lead to clinch the title, but this year it comes down to Utah having to ski its worst event, the freestyle cross country, to win, and Vermont its best event to catch, pass and win. And, the Utes remember well that they led by 49 points after the opening day giant slalom, only to see the Catamounts make up 38 points in the classical cross country.
Utah led, but Vermont jumped from 6th to 2nd after the cross country.
Also a threat is New Mexico, which is in second. But, the Lobos' cross country team is rated only slightly above Utah's.
Team standings are: Utah 531, New Mexico 500, Vermont 495, Colorado 477, Denver 377 and Middlebury 363.
For a time Friday, it looked as if the Utes has this meet sewn up. They collected their third individual title when Louis-Francois Gagnon won the men's slalom.
But, in the riskiest of all events, the slalom, Utah's Christl Hager, winner of the GS on Wednesday and with a big lead after the first run, fell on her second run and finished 30th. Then, to make matters worse, Utah's Heidi Standteiner, who also had a solid first run, fell on her second and finished 24th. And then, Petra Pirc failed to finish her second run. Without these mistakes, the Utes easily would have had another 20 points and would have been untouchable.
Helping Utah was Edith Rozsa. She was 14th after the first run, then skied one of her best runs on the second to move up to 8th. Her time was 1 minute, 39.12 seconds.
Winning the women's race was Gibson Lafountaine of Vermont in 1:36.77 seconds. Second was Narcisa Sehovic of Denver in 1:36.99.
"It all happened so fast," said Utah alpine coach Gordon Perry. "First Christl - OK, that can happen - then Heidi and then Petra, and it was over.
"The men skied last and they were great. They saw we were in trouble and they came through. It started with Louis. He was second on the first run. On the second he skied one of the best slalom races I've seen in college skiing. It was great. Then Einar (Unhjem Johansen) skied his best run and then Mark (Bonnell) skied his best run. It was nice to finish up the alpine on a winning note," he added.
Johansen finished 6th, Bonnell was 9th and Andrew Hare was 22nd.
Gagnon's time was 1:36.23. Second was Mattias Eriandsson of New Mexico in 1:37.34 and third was Erik Roland of Denver in 1:38.15.
Weather conditions today are expected to be better than they were for the classical on Thursday. The forecast was for conditions to be clear and cold. On Thursday, new snow and freezing cold created what many coaches said was a wax race rather than a competitor race.
"Conditions will be a lot better for us today," said Utah head coach Pat Miller. "That will help. If we can get a good, solid performance from each skier, we'll win."
The Utes will go into this final event as the defending NCAA champions.