Five Buff Skiers Hit The Podium Saturday

HUNTSVILLE, Utah and WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. — Nora Christensen (women's slalom) and Hedda Baangman (women's 5K classical) won their races, the first victories in the careers of both skiers, and the Colorado ski team had five total podium finishes as both the alpine and Nordic teams were in action Saturday.

The Nordic teams were racing classical at the Rendezvous Ski Trails in West Yellowstone where the women's team won the 5K race by a 35-point margin and the men's team finished second in its 10K, 12 points behind the Utah Utes. Overall in the Montana State Invitational after 6-of-8 events, Colorado leads by a 65½-point margin over second place Utah heading into the final day on Sunday.

On the alpine side, the Buffs wrapped up their portion of the Utah Invitational running at Snowbasin Resort. Behind Christensen's big victory, CU's women's team held off Montana State for a one-point win while the men's team, led by Ola Johansen's second-place finish, placed second overall with 75 points. Colorado moved up from fourth place into third with 273 points after 4-of-8 events in the Utah Invite. Denver leads the meet with 329 points and Montana State is second with 295½.

"It's great to see it," head coach Richard Rokos said of the success from both teams early in the season, pointing out that it was especially good to see because the Buffs do not have their entire roster competing right now. "Our Nordic team should wrap it up pretty easy tomorrow I assume and we'll see what they can do with the Utah meet. On alpine, we are kind of pulling things together. It is a good phenomenon."

WOMEN'S 5K CLASSIC RACE: CU's strong women's Nordic team had a dominate day, one where the Buffs had the first, second, fifth and seventh-place finishers. It came down to the wire between Baangman and Petra Hyncicova for the victory, with Baangman edging Hyncicova by just four-tenths of a second.

For Hyncicova, it was her 14th career podium finish and that ranks No. 14 in school history, just one behind her coach, Jana Weinberger, who skied for the Buffs from 2003-06 and is now in her 10th season as the assistant Nordic coach.

Sophomore Anne Siri Lervik finished fifth in a time of 15:46.5 and this was the third top five finish of her career. Junior Christina Rolandsen was seventh with a time of 16:00.0 to record the 14th top 10 finish of her career. Quinn Lehmkuhl placed 29th Saturday. There were 37 finishers in the women's race.

MEN'S 10K CLASSIC RACE: The Buffs were led by junior Petter Reistad and freshman Sondre Bollum, who finished third and fourth, respectively. The podium finish for Reistad was the ninth of his career while for Bollum, his result came in his first collegiate race. Bollum missed last week's U.S. Cross Country Championships in Alaska so he could compete at the Norwegian National Cup races, called the DNB Cup, in the biathlon. Bollum was working on Olympic qualification with his native Norway in the event.

The third scorer on the men's side was sophomore Andrew Potyk, who recorded the best finish of his career by placing 15th with a time of 29:00.2. His finish secured 17 points and helped the men's team finish second overall with 82 points in the 10K classic race.

Other CU finishers include Tyler Terranova, who placed 22nd, and Ian Boucher, who finished 25th. There were 31 finishers in the men's race.

WOMEN'S SLALOM RACE: The women's team won the slalom race for the second straight meet, beating out Montana State by one point, 82-81, for the victory. Along with Christensen's victory, Tonje Trulsrud scored 22 points by finishing ninth and Isabella Fidjeland scored 20 points with her 11th place finish.

That was the best slalom finish of Fidjeland's career and there was a fourth Buff close behind. Sophomore Megan McGrew finished 13th in her first slalom race of the season (she missed the Montana State Invite due to injury), which was the fourth top 15 finish in the event in her career.

"(Nora) ski's like a different person," Rokos said. "She looks solid like no one else and it is obviously showing in her skiing. She is very confident with even not taking any chances, so on that side it is fantastic. Everybody else, Tonje, slalom is typically not her best one and she skied to victory in Montana and today Isabella made it up (the leaderboard) and Megan returning after injury, so it was very good day for the ladies."

MEN'S SLALOM RACE: Johansen continued on with his elite-level skiing and his second place finish Saturday has given him four podium finishes in five races this season.

Freshman Joey Young, the pleasant surprise of the MSU Invite where he placed fourth in the slalom despite a No. 45 seed, had another good day in the event and tied for sixth on Saturday when he held the No. 9 bib. Sophomore Bobby Moyer was the third scorer who earned 12 points for the Buffs with his 23rd place finish. Max Luukko did not finish his second slalom run, but had the ninth fastest run in the field the first time down the hill.

NOTEWORTHY: Nora Christensen's 1.45 second margin of victory in the women's slalom is the largest margin of victory in the RMISA in almost two years. Utah's Julie Mohagen on Feb. 21, 2016 in the New Mexico Invitational won with a time of 1:39.29 ahead of second place Tuva Norbye of DU at 1:40.78, a difference of 1.49 seconds. It's also the third largest margin in the last four years, also trailing the 1.97 seconds that DU's Monica Hubner (1:45.71) beat Westminster's Anna Goodman (1.47.68) by on Jan. 25, 2015 at the University of Colorado's Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational.

WHAT IT MEANS: The Buffs are closing in on the Montana State Invitational title for the second consecutive season. CU has won six of the previous 14 running's of the MSU Invite, which is more wins than any other RMISA program has (Denver is second with four wins).

NEXT UP: The Nordic teams will compete in the 15/20K freestyle races on Sunday at the Rendezvous Ski Trails.

QUOTEABLE:
Head Coach Richard Rokos

On Being Shorthanded On The Alpine Teams Due To Injuries And Being Without David Ketterer
"We are still, especially on alpine, we have to ski cautiously but with more responsibility than a team with six or seven racers because they can go for it and lose a racer here and there. We don't have that margin or luxury. That is one thing. Another is not having David, that is probably on average 40 or 50 points per race, at least based on last year that is what he was scoring, it is something that makes us a little bit leaner, but in the end of it I think it is good mental training because we have to be a little bit more responsible for our action on the hill."

On Megan McGrew's Return From Injury
"She came back and surprisingly very strong. Both runs were very solid, not as good in GS yesterday when she had a little bit of bad luck right on the top of the course on the first run, but today she was very solid on both runs and looked very active, so it was a good showing."

RESULTS
Available at the link above

Players Mentioned

Hedda Baangman

Sondre Bollum

Ian Boucher

Nora Christensen

Isabelle Fidjeland

Petra Hyncicova

Ola Johansen

David Ketterer

Quinn Lehmkuhl

Anne Siri Lervik

Max Luukko

Megan McGrew

Bobby Moyer

Andrew Potyk

Petter Reistad

Christina Rolandsen

Tyler Terranova

Tonje Trulsrud

Joey Young