Buffs Open In Fifth Place At Own Invitational

NEDERLAND, Colo.—The University of Colorado ski team sits in fifth place at the CU Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational after the giant slalom races here at Eldora Mountain Resort on Thursday.

While the Buffs improved from yesterday's races that saw just four of 11 skiers finish (all 10 skiers finished both runs Thursday), the results still aren't quite what coach Richard Rokos expects from the Buffs.

"Coaches are agonizing over it, the athletes are puzzled," Rokos said. "The bottom line is this is our hill and we always expect a certain home advantage. It turned against us. Today was better than yesterday; from where we are we can't get any worse."

Four Buffs did record four top 11 finishes; freshman Stef Fleckenstein on the women's side and sophomore Joey Young and freshman Teddy Takki on the men's side each got in the top 10 while senior Max Luukko was just outside in 11th place in the men's race.

TEAM: Denver leads the way after winning both the men's and women's GS races with a combined 169 points with Utah coming in second 10 points back at 159. Montana State scored exactly 65 points in both races for its total of 130, just four points ahead of New Mexico in fourth with 126. The Buffs are fifth with 119 points, just ahead of Alaska Anchorage with 117. New NCAA member Westminster is sixth with 77 points and affiliate member Colorado Mountain College rounds out the team scoring with 28 points.

WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM: Fleckenstein led the way for the women's team in ninth place in a time of 1:57.21, moving up 10 spots from her starting position of 19th. Junior Andrea Arnold was 18th in a time of 1:58.60 with senior Nora Christensen one spot back in 18th in a time of 1:58.99. Freshmen Olivia Gerrard (23rd in 2:00.78) and Kaitlyn Harsch (24th in 2:02.38) rounded out the CU scorers.

Arnold, Fleckenstein and Gerrard are all back on the hill after recovering from injuries and the Buffs are still missing three members of the team in Mikaela Tommy, Isabella Fidjeland and Megan McGrew. Tommy will make her collegiate debut in Friday's slalom race and Fidjeland is week to week with an injury she suffered in training recently.

MEN'S GIANT SLALOM: Young had his career best GS finish in seventh in a time of 1:53.83. He had a slight mistake on the second run that may have cost him a few places as he was two-tenths of a second out of fourth place. Takki, who didn't finish Wednesday's qualifier race, redeemed himself with an eighth place finish in 1:53.87 and Luukko took 11th in 1:54.44.

Freshman Max Bervy had a solid race. After starting 42nd, he had the 30th-best first run to make the flip for the second run and then threw down the fifth-fastest second run to move up to 24th with a time of 1:55.35. Junior Bobby Moyer finished 32nd in a time of 1:57.44, also moving up 18 spots from his starting spot of 50. Freshman Filip Forejtek did not race Thursday after suffering an injury in Wednesday's races.

WHAT IT MEANS: While fifth place at its own invitational is not where the Buffs want to be after the GS races, the Buffs certainly performed better than Wednesday in the GS Qualifier races and it's still early with just two of eight races completed in the CU Invitational. As a team, the Buffs are usually strong in slalom and could move up Friday, especially with the debut of freshman Mikaela Tommy in her strongest event. The Nordic team will then get underway Saturday.

NOTEWORTHY: Young had his career best GS performance in seventh place, bettering two 10th place finishes in GS races in 2018 as a freshman … He now has six career top 10 finishes … Fleckenstein and Takki both recorded a top 10 finish in their first career finish ... After finishing just four of 11 racers in yesterday's GS Qualifier races, all 10 Buffs who competed today finished the race.

QUOTEWORTHY
Richard Rokos: "Coaches are agonizing over it, the athletes are puzzled. The bottom line is this is our hill and we always expect a certain home advantage. It turned against us, with injuries and other things we can hardly explain, we end up being in the dust yesterday and today. Today was better than yesterday, it's the college race and it counts, but the only way we can redeem and get better; from where we are we can't get any worse."

"We have two or three key skiers out. The snow is tricky, the hill is a little tricky, and this was the first race coming back from injury for Olivia and Stef; after months of not training and coming slowly to it. Stef just proved her ability to ski fast today, I can see people are a little more cautious today. The expectation is that we will start learning from this, we have had enough bad luck early for the whole season."

Stef Fleckenstein: "I just got here right after New Year's, but the team's been great, I got to forerun a few races earlier in the week so it was good to get on the hill before competing. Yesterday was a lot of nerves and getting used to it again, today I felt more comfortable and like myself."

"As a team, everybody got the first-race jitters out of the way. We're all meshing as a team really well. We had a pep talk last night as a team to get everybody fired up. The first step was getting everybody down, now we can start pushing it. Today was the first day that the team points counted, we talked last night about not just racing for yourself, but the whole team, and I think that got everybody's motivation up and really got everybody to fight today."

Joey Young: "The team stepped it up from yesterday. Bobby (Moyer) one of our team captains got up and talked last night. Everybody came together and everybody smarted-up today. Everybody on this team has the potential to win this race. In training I've been skiing faster, I feel a lot more confidence this year, especially on our own hill. Our team, we're a little strong in slalom, we're looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow night will be fun, too, I've never raced a dual slalom, just trained it, and I think a lot of people are coming up to watch, it should be a lot of fun.

NEXT UP: The third day of alpine skiing will be the busiest at Eldora on Friday with men's and women's slalom races starting at 8:30 a.m. and skiers staying to race a dual slalom exhibition at 6 p.m. Many festivities are planned for the dual slalom including a live band from 4-6 p.m., food and beverages will be available and CU's costumed mascot Chip will be in attendance.

SPENCER JAMES NELSON MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL TEAM RESULTS (through 2 of 8 events)—1. Denver 169; 2. Utah 159; 3. Montana State 130; 4. New Mexico 126; 5. Colorado 119; 6. Alaska Anchorage 117; 7. Westminster 77; 8. Colorado Mountain 28.

WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM RESULTS (26 collegiate finishers)—1. Tuva Norbye, DU, 1:54.98; 2. Eirin Engeset, UU, 1:55.44; 3. Roni Remme, UU, 1:55.92; 4. Rebecca Fiegl, UNM, 1:56.44; 5. Georgia Burgess, UAA, 1:56.74; 6. Sona Moravcikova, UNM, 1:57.03; 7. Jocelyn McCarthy, MSU, 1:57.05; 8. Stephanie Gartner, MSU, 1:57.20; 9. Stef Fleckenstein, CU, 1:57.21; 10. Amelia Smart, DU, 1:57.44; 11. Petra Smaldore, WMC, 1:57.46; 12. Katie Hensien, DU, 1:57.49; 13. Li Djurestaal, UAA, 1:57.70; 14. Mia Henry, MSU, 1:57.95; 15. Katharine Irwin, UNM, 1:58.07; 16. Beatrix Lever, MSU, 1:58.49; 17. Haley Cutler, UNM, 1:58.58; 18. Andrea Arnold, CU, 1:58.60; 19. Nora Christensen, CU, 1:58.99; 20. Chloe Margue, UNM, 1:59.41; 21. Anika Angriman, WMC, 1:59.62; 22. Alix Wells, UAA, 1:59.97; 23. Olivia Gerrard, CU, 2:00.78; 24. Kaitlyn Harsch, CU, 2:01.83; 25. Juliette Gauthier, WMC, 2:02.38; 26. Madison Muxworthy, CMC, 2:10.84. Did Not Start (First Run): Kathryn Parker, UU. Did Not Finish (First Run): Storm Klomhaus, DU; Andrea Komsic, DU; Kristina Natalenko, UAA; Giulia Lorini, WMC; Kaitlyn Vesterstein, UU; Soleil Patterson, UAA. Did Not Finish (Second Run): Antonia Wearmouth, UNM; Julie Mohagen, UU.

MEN'S GIANT SLALOM RESULTS (35 collegiate finishers)—1. Tobias Kogler, DU, 1:52.32; 2. Mark Engel, UU, 1:52.78; 3. Aage Solheim, MSU, 1:53.13; 4. Jett Seymour, DU, 1:53.64; 5. Joachim Lein, UU, 1:53.66; 6. Sky Kelsey, UAA, 1:53.80; 7. Joey Young, CU, 1:53.83; 8. Teddy Takki, CU, 1:53.87; 9. Huston Philp, UU, 1:53.92; 10. Tyler Theis, UNM, 1:53.99; 11. Max Luukko, CU, 1:54.44; 12. Vegard Busengdal, UNM, 1:54.50; 13. Nick Santaniello, DU, 1:54.51; 14. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 1:54.58; 15. *Fredrik Maurstad, UU, 1:54.73; 16. Anthony Naciuk, UAA, 1:54.77; 17. Didrik Nilsen, UAA, 1:54.80; 18. Linus Walch, UU, 1:54.87; 19. *Ty Sprock, UU, 1:55.13; 20. Morten Bakke, MSU, 1:55.15; 21. Rafael Breu, WMC, 1:55.17; 22. Olav Sanderberg, UNM, 1:55.20; 23. Alex Barounos, UNM, 1:55.25; 24. Max Bervy, CU, 1:55.35; 25. Patrick Carry, MSU, 1:55.59; 26. Mikkel Wahl, WMC, 1:55.77; 27. Tommy Anderson, UNM, 1:55.83; 28. Harrison Goss, CMC, 1:56.22; 29. Tomas Birkner De Miguel, UU, 1:56.27; 30. Michael Soetaert, UAA, 1:56.75; 31. Dominic Unterberger, UAA, 1:57.25; 32. Bobby Moyer, CU, 1:57.44; 33. Zak Vinter, MSU, 1:57.81; 34. *Martins Onskulis, UAA, 1:58.73; 35. Jeppe Baardseth, WMC, 2:00.79; 36. Devin Hope, CMC, 2:05.78. Did Not Start (First Run): Dominic Demschar, UU. Did Not Finish (First Run): Addison Dvoracek, UU; Liam Wallace, UAA; Martin Arene, WMC; Tai Juneau, CMC; Sigurdue Hauksson, CMC; Kristinn Audunsson, CMC. Did Not Finish (Second Run): Oskar Voello, WMC; Florian Szwebel, MSU; Martin Grasic, UU; Nicolas Veth, UNM; Garrett Black, CMC.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Andrea Arnold

Max Bervy

Nora Christensen

Isabelle Fidjeland

Stef Fleckenstein

Filip Forejtek

Olivia Gerrard

Kaitlyn Harsch

Max Luukko

Megan McGrew

Bobby Moyer

Teddy Takki

Mikaela Tommy

Joey Young