Every year, come the NCAA ski-off, it's the same: East is East and West is West, and the only comparison between the two is hearsay.
Eastern and Western schools never meet during the regular ski season, so there's no way to compare power. This year, again, the University of Vermont dominated in the East and the University of Utah goes into the finals with the best record from the West.The championships began Wednesday in Bozeman, Mont. It opened with the giant slalom, followed by the classical cross country and the slalom and finishing on Saturday with the freestyle cross country.
In the past 15 years, Utah has won eight national titles, Vermont four and Colorado two. Wyoming, which closed its ski program in 1993, has one title. Utah finished second five times and Vermont seven. The two schools have, for 15 years, dominated collegiate skiing.
Utah goes into the NCAAs with two straight tournament wins and an overall win in the regionals. Utah finished the regionals with 474 points, to 451 for Colorado, 345 for New Mexico and 327 for Denver. Vermont also won its regional final.
What makes Utah such a perennial power, says Pat Miller, Utah's ski program director, is its consistency.
"We may not win events, but we place skiers in the top 10. That what counts - points. We ski for the team, not as individuals," he said.
"At this point we're skiing well. We're fairly well balanced in all eight events. I think we would all be disappointed if we were not on top of the podium at the conclusion of the nationals."
In the regionals two weeks ago, Utah was the leading scorer in four events - men's slalom (61 points), women's slalom , men's classical cross country and men's freestyle cross country . Colorado won the women's giant slalom , the women's classical cross country and the women's freestyle . Denver won the men's giant slalom.
Utah's one weakness, if it can be called that, is it will have four freshmen skiing in key positions. Backing up the first-time NCAA competitors will be seven returning all-Americans.
Miller, of course, still sees Vermont as one of Utah's biggest threats.
"And, even though Colorado finished second, I don't think that's a good indication of just how strong of a team it has. Also, I think Denver could do well. Even (University of Anchorage) Alaska will have a strong team and could pull some upsets. Individually, I think you'll see Dartmouth and Middlebury do well. It's going to be tough, but I like our chances," he adds.
Looking at individual Utah skiers, the brother team of Rune and Frode Kollerud are expected to do well. In the men's 15K freestyle in the regional they finished 2-3, respectively. Both are expected to be strong contenders for titles in both nordic events.
Hailey Wappett, a junior, finished second in the women's free-style.
In alpine, Sabrina Lawrence, a freshman, and Marianne Winge, a sophomore, have been skiing well. Lawrence was 2nd in the regional slalom and Winge was 6th. Alicia Howard, another freshman, was 8th.
Heather Walker, a freshman from Sandy, will also ski in the finals.
On the men's side, Ryan Forsyth, a sophomore, was 2nd in the men's regional slalom. Teammate Mike Elvidge, a senior, was 4th, and Markus Leunig, a sophomore, was 8th.
Those teams with a full complement of 12 skiers include Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Dartmouth, Denver, Middlebury and Ver-mont.
"Everything we've done so far has prepared us for this weekend. The most important thing going into the NCAA Championships is to stay focused. There are a lot of distractions. Balance and consistency will determine the overall champion. Our main goal is placing three skiers in the top 10 in each of the eight disciplines. The team that accomplishes that will win."
And, as records show, Miller's teams have been able to do this with consistency.