Utah Utes skiing: Team hopes for strong showing at NCAA championships

Unlike a year ago, the University of Utah ski team is not considered a frontrunner in the chase for a national title at the NCAA Championships this weekend. When the Utes take to the slopes in Maine today through Saturday, they will be taking on a less familiar role as an underdog.

Operating in the shadows suits the Utes just fine. They relish leaving behind a spotlight that can be distracting to the team favored to win it all.

"Our big advantage is not having that pressure," said Eli Brown, the director of skiing for the team. "We didn't win an invitational all year. We were close a couple of times. But I like our position of not having that pressure. The kids can go out, stay loose, ski hard and see what happens."

While Utah is an underdog because of its lack of overall team wins, the Utes still possess more than enough talent and experience to make a serious run at claiming their first national title since 2003.

Utah is one of four NCAA teams to qualify a full complement of 18 skiers — 12 competitors and six alternates — for nationals. Of the 12 skiers slated to compete, 10 are repeat qualifiers and seven are seniors.

"That's a pretty good indicator of the depth of our team," said Annelies Cook, a Nordic qualifier. "I think that's something that Eli has been trying to build up for the past couple of years."

Utah's strength will be in its men's alpine and women's Nordic teams. Each team qualified five skiers.

In men's alpine, freshman Nick Cohee is the top overall qualifier in the men's giant slalom — and qualified second overall — after winning three GS races this season. Cook is the top qualifier in women's Nordic, after qualifying ninth overall, and earned a pair of fourth-place finishes in regular season meets.

Eva Huckova is expected to do big things on the women's alpine team after earning runner-up finishes at last year's NCAA meet in both the slalom and GS races. Huckova earned six top-six finishes to earn a spot as the Utes' top qualifier at seventh overall.

Even Sletten finished the year strong in men's Nordic and is Utah's top qualifier at eighth overall. Sletten claimed victory in his most recent classic races at the Denver Invitational and the RMISA Championships.

With the senior-laden group, there is a sense of urgency to improve on last year's third-place finish because this meet is essentially a curtain call for many of them.

"Our team morale is good, which is really awesome," Cook said. "For some people, it's going to be the last race of their season and for some, it's going to be the last race of their career."

If the Utes can make a successful run at the title, it will mark the program's 11th NCAA team championship overall and 10th since the association started sponsoring a combined championship in 1983.

At a minimum, Utah hopes to match or improve on its third-place finish at last year's NCAA meet. At the time, it marked the highest team finish the Utes enjoyed since 2005.

EMAIL: jcoon@desnews.com