Buffs Sit In Second Heading To Final Day Of NCAA Ski Championships

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The University of Colorado men's and women's alpine teams both finished third in its respective slalom races held under the lights at Howelsen Hill Friday night, dropping the Buffaloes back to into second place after 6-of-8 events here at the 2018 NCAA Ski Championships.

The Denver Pioneers, who as a team won both slalom races, moved into first and now owns a 26-point lead over the Buffaloes who sit in second.

In the always challenging night slalom race, Colorado had a tough going on its first runs in both races. The Buffs for the most part had excellent second runs, but were in too much of a hole and DU skied pretty flawlessly on this night for CU to make up that lost ground.

"If this wasn't the championship race I would feel great about it because the girls and guys they came from behind on the second run, just demonstrated their ability," head coach Richard Rokos said. "Max (Luukko) finishing third, David (Ketterer) second, it was back to the old groove.

"Unfortunately, it takes two runs and the first one was not as good so we have a little deficit to gap and perhaps we can make our Nordic team heroes tomorrow."

The 26-point difference is the 15th smallest through six events in 36 years of coed skiing, but the team in lead held on to win 11 of 14 times.

"It has been done before and the Nordies are a tough breed," Rokos added. "If everything goes right on that side, it is doable. It is not so many and it will be a matter of good preparation, good wax and how everybody feels."

This is just the fifth time there has been a different leader after each of the first three days: 1992, 2000, 2006 and 2017 prior; the winner was one of the teams that led after one of the days (so no four different leaders).

WOMEN'S SLALOM: The women's first runs had Nora Christensen positioned in seventh, Tonje Trulsrud in 12th and Isabella Fidjeland in 19th. DU blazed through the first run and posted the top two times with its third racer in 10th.

The Buffaloes made up ground with their second runs, Trulsrud posting the third fastest time in the field and Fidjeland the sixth. Both moved up in the standings from their first run placement, Trulsrud five spots and Fidjeland seven. Trulsrud finished seventh to earn second-team All-America honors and was joined there by Christensen, who finished ninth overall.

Fidjeland placed 12th, a big jump forward from her freshman season when she finished 21st in the slalom at last winter's championships held in New Hampshire.

The Buffaloes scored 66 points overall in the women's slalom, 12 behind Vermont in second and 25 behind Denver, who had the overall race winner in Amelia Smart. Smart swept both women's alpine titles, as she also won the giant slalom race back on Wednesday.

MEN'S SLALOM: The men's side got off to a slow start on the first run. Ola Johansen led the way for Colorado by putting down the fourth-fastest first run in the field at 38.80. David Ketterer was 14th and Max Luukko 14th.

Just like the women, the men's second run was much better.

Ketterer recorded the second-fastest time in the field on run two at 41.96 that helped him move up seven spots from his first run standing to finish in sixth place.

Max Luukko had the third-fastest second run, moving him up 10 spots to finish in 14th.

Ola Johansen ended up finishing in seventh place overall with a second run time of 43.30. He started out his second run looking fast, but got caught up going over the last pitch and lost his speed and time.

NOTEWORTHY: Colorado earned four more All-America honors Friday and now has 12 total in the championships – four from each day, two in each event. Trulsrud's second-team honor marked the first time she has been an All-American in the slalom, but third time overall (first-team in the giant slalom in 2016, second-team in 2018). Christensen picked up her third career All-America honor; she was a first-team honoree in 2016 and 2017.

Ketterer now has four All-America honors to his name in just his two seasons at CU; one from the giant slalom on Wednesday and two from last year when he swept both alpine national titles. Johansen's second-team honor is the third of his career (second-team in the giant slalom in 2016 and he was a first-teamer in the giant slalom in Wednesday's race).

THE COMEBACKS: The day 3 leader is 28-6 since 1983 when sport went coed (day 3 cancelled in 2014, but second round leader won) … the comebacks have been by Vermont (1992), Vermont (1994), Denver (2008), Denver (2009), Colorado (2013, the biggest comeback from being 54 point down) and Utah (2017)

WHAT IT MEANS: The day 3 leader is 28-6 since 1983 when sport went coed (day 3 canceled in 2014, but second round leader won) … the comebacks have been by Vermont (1992), Vermont (1994), Denver (2008), Denver (2009), Colorado (2013, the biggest comeback from being 54 point down) and Utah (2017).

UP NEXT: Saturday marks the final day of the 2018 NCAA Skiing Championships and the final events on the Nordic side. The men's 20K freestyle skate starts the morning at 9 a.m. and the women's 15K follows at 11 a.m.

2018 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
March 9, 2018 | Howelsen Hill

NCAA Skiing Championship Team Scores (6-of-8 events):
1. Denver 437; 2. Colorado 411; 3. Dartmouth 330½; 4. Utah 288; 5. Vermont 278; 6. New Mexico 238; 7. Montana State 232; 8. Middlebury 185; 9. Alaska-Anchorage 129; 10. New Hampshire 107½; 11. Northern Michigan 86; 12. St. Michael's 73; 13. Williams 41; 14. Plymouth State 35; 15. Alaska-Fairbanks 32; 16. St. Lawrence 28; 17. Colby 23; 18. Bates 15; 19. Michigan Tech 10; 20. Boston College 6; 21. St. Scholastica 4; 22. Bowdoin 3; 23. Harvard 0.

WOMEN'S SLALOM TEAM SCORES (top 10):
Denver 91, Vermont 78, Colorado 66, New Hampshire 50, Montana State 42, New Mexico 41, Dartmouth 39, Utah 32, St. Michael's 19, Alaska Anchorage 16,

WOMEN'S SLALOM (29 finishers): 1. Amelia Smart, DU, 1:19.21; 2. Paula Moltzan, UVM 1:29.75; 3. Francesca English, UVM, 1:20.41; 4. Andrea Komsic, DU, 1:20.70; 5. Stephanie Gartner, MSU, 1:20.93; 6. Genevieve Frigon, UNH, 1:20.94; 7. Tonje Trulsrud, CU, 1:21.02; 8. Rebecca Fiegl, UNM, 1:22.02; 9. Nora Christiansen, CU, 1:22.04; 10. Alexa Dloughy, Dart., 1:22.09. Other CU Finisher: 12. Isabella Fidjeland, 1:22.40.

MEN'S SLALOM (top 10):
Denver 79, Dartmouth 74, Colorado 69, New Mexico 58, Vermont 39, Middlebury 37, Montana State 34, Utah 23.5,
St. Michael's 18, St. Lawrence 16, Alaska Anchorage 16, New Hampshire 11, Plymouth State 10, Williams 9.5, Boston College 5

MEN'S SLALOM (33 finishers):
1. Tanguy Nef, Dart., 1:20.49; 2. Sandy Vietze, UVM, 1:21.26; 3. Tobias Kogler, DU, 1:21.47; 4. Erik Arvidsson, Midd., 1:21.75; 5. Vegard Busengdal, UNM, 1:21.87; 6. David Ketterer, CU, 1:22.07; 7. Ola Johansen, CU, 1:22.10; 8. Alex Leever, DU, 1:22:29; 9. Jeff Seymour, DU, 1:22.32; 10. Rob Greig, UNM, 1:22.56. Other CU Finisher: 14. Max Luukko, 1:22.87.

Buffs Sit In Second Heading To Final Day Of NCAA Ski Championships

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nora Christensen

Isabelle Fidjeland

Ola Johansen

David Ketterer

Max Luukko

Tonje Trulsrud