The University of Utah took the risk out of the NCAA Ski Championships. In fact, the event is so safe after Day 3 that going into the final day, the Utes could almost sleep through the first race and still be crowned champions.
Once again, Utah extended its lead in the skiing finals. After Day 1 it was 22 points over the closest school, then Day 2 it went to 40, and now, after Day 3, it's 72 1/2.After the risky slalom race on Friday, Utah leads with 555 points, then comes Colorado with 4821/2, University of Denver at 4461/2 and Vermont at 434.
Friday's race was a big concern to Utah coach Pat Miller. The slalom, because of its quick turns and no-room-for-error skiing style, can easily drop a school from a leader to an also-ran.
As it turned out, Miller need not have worried. The Utes skied cautiously but well.
In the ladies' race, Utah finished 2-9-16 and in the men's 3-12-22.
So how risky is the slalom? Vermont, only 66 points behind going into the event, left 121 points out. Not one of its skiers finished in the top 15 - men's or women's. Colorado, 40 points out at the start, is now 1081/2 back.
It was even more risky this year with a change in scoring. In past years each school could qualify four skiers in each event and score the top three. This gave each school a buffer. This year each school could only qualify three skiers and all three count.
Winning the women's slalom was Roberta Fergher of Denver, with a time of one minute, 25.06 seconds. She had the fastest time on both runs. In second was Utah's Christl Hager in 1:25.81 and third was Narcisa Sehovic of Denver in 1:26.27. Utah's Tima Kovcic was ninth in 1:28.92.
In the men's race, University of New Mexico racers Mattias Erlandsson and Jimmy Renstroem finished one-two with times of 1:37.31 and 1:37.56, respectively. Third was Utah's young freshman Alain Britt-Cote in 1:38.29. Teammates Mike Elvidge was 12th in 1:42.17 and Andrew Hare, winner of the GS title on Wednesday, was 22nd in 1:45.77.
The final event today will be the classical cross country.
Miller admitted that his cross country teams have been skiing well all year.
"If they ski as well as they have been all season, then we've got nothing to worry about. Of course, anything can happen, but at this point it looks pretty good for us. The skiers are excited. They know what they've got to do and that's all we can ask," he said.
It has been cold in Montana. Early Friday temperatures dropped into a single digit. On Thursday, during the freestyle cross country, there were several mild cases of frostbite reported.
Cold conditions are expected today and the cold will make ski waxing difficult.
On Thursday, however, Ute coaches hit the right wax perfectly.
At this point it would be far more difficult to lose than win. This being the case, Utah will be celebrating its ninth NCAA title in 15 years before lunch.