The fact the University of Utah has the lead after the opening day of the NCAA Ski Championships is not a surprise. But what is surprising is the spread - 22 points ahead of Colorado and 33 ahead of Vermont, two of the pre-meet favorites.
The Utes did it with consistency and team skiing in the giant slalom on Wednesday. In the men's GS, Utah finished 1-2-19 and in the women's 5-7-9."I thought it would be a little closer at this point," said Pat Miller, Utah's head ski coach. "But it's nice to win both the men's and women's event. This is the largest lead we've had after the first day in a lot of years."
The Utes have won eight NCAA titles in the past dozen years.
Andy Hare, a senior from Salt Lake City, won the men's GS with a combined time of one minute, 41.49 seconds. Teammate Alain Britt-Cote, a freshman from Canada, was second in 1:41.92. Third was Derek McClellan of Vermont in 1:42.18.
In the women's race, Jennifer Collins of Dartmouth won in 1:48.59.
Utah's Christl Hager was fifth in 1:49.24, Tina Kavcic was seventh in 1:49.77 and Heather Munroe was ninth in 1:50.45.
The freestyle cross country event was held early Thursday.
Miller said his nordic team has been consistent, "and if we continue to ski as we have then we should do OK. Under the new format, you just never know. One skier could miss the wax and it could be all over."
Under the new format, each team can qualify up to three skier and all three count towards the team score. In the past each team qualified four skiers and the top three scored.
"Under this format there's no room for error. I'm not fond of it, but it's new and we'll see what happens," added Miller.
The slalom will be held on Friday, followed by the final event, the classical cross country, on Saturday.