Colorado University Athletics
CU's Johansen, Stroem Win RMISA MVP Honors
February 26, 2016 | Skiing
BEAVER CREEK – Freshman Ola Johansen and junior Mads Stroem were named MVPs of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, league president Tyler Shepherd announced Friday evening at the association's annual banquet as part of the RMISA Championships taking place Friday and Saturday.
The awards are given for both alpine and Nordic, men and women, giving CU two of the four MVPs honored on the evening. The MVP is given to the skier who accumulates the most NCAA Qualification points during the regular season, which concluded last week at the New Mexico Invitational.
Johansen, despite skiing out of one race, still easily won the MVP award by 50 points over the other men's alpine skiers in the western region. He finished the season with two wins, four more runner-up performances and eight total podium appearances in the 10 races. Of the nine races he finished, he didn't finish lower than fifth against other NCAA skiers.
“Ola is unique in many ways,” CU coach Richard Rokos said. “It was pretty obvious he was a world cup level skier, but he came to CU as a walk-on and his commitment to CU was surprising. He did his homework and decided CU was the place to go. He's committed and focused and every time he puts a foot in the binding and goes down the hill, he's very fast. He has raised the caliber of competition in training for the entire team and the results are showing all season long for us.”
The Buffs dominated the men's alpine MVP standings with freshman Max Luukko coming in second behind Johansen and senior Henrik Gunnarsson taking fourth in the final tally. Johansen in the first CU skier to earn the men's alpine MVP honor since Andreas Haug did it, also as a freshman, in 2011.
Stroem's victory in the men's Nordic MVP races was much tighter than Johansen's as the junior won by just four points over Utah's Niklas Persson. Persson had an eight-point lead over Stroem entering the New Mexico meet. Stroem won both races and Persson finished third and with the weighted scoring system, Stroem outscored Persson by six points in each race to earn the four-point victory.
“It's great that Mads was able to win MVP honors,” CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. “Especially since he had a couple of races he struggled in. To be able to stay healthy and compete in all the races is a challenge and we're all happy for him.”
Stroem won four races in the regular season, and added his fifth of the season earlier in the day at the RMISA Championships. Stroem also had two runner-up finishes, taking first or second in six of the eight regular season races. Stroem gives the award to a CU skier for the second straight season as Rune Oedegaard was named the MVP last year when Stroem finished as a runner-up.
The Buffs sit third after the first day of the RMISA Championships as they conclude Saturday with slalom races on the alpine side and classic races on the Nordic side. After that, just the NCAA Championships remain, which the Buffs host in Steamboat Springs March 9-12.
