Buffs Remain In Third At Own Invitational

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—Four women's Nordic racers finished in the top 10 and sophomore Hedda Baangman took second place as the University of Colorado ski team remained in third place at the CU/Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational after the conclusion of the 10k Classic races here at Howelsen Hill.

The men's team skied first and struggled after missing the wax. The coaches focuses on waxing that would help on the downhill and the team struggled on the uphill, needing more kick for those portions of the course. The silver lining to that was the adjustment was made for the women's race and four Buffs placed in the top 10 of that race.

"The guys would've had a better race if they had a little more kick on their skis," Nordic coach Jana Weinberger said. "We were focused on the glide a little more than the kick. They would've done better. When the guys got back and they said their skis weren't as good, we added more for the women and they had a really good race. Hedda was great today again. Ezra (Smith) had an amazing race today, I'm really happy about that."

In the end, the Buffs held serve and remained in third place with seven of the eight races now complete in the Invitational. The men's slalom race that was cancelled on Friday will be made up on Saturday, January 19, after the conclusion of the Montana State Invitational.

TEAM: Utah dominated and turned a 10 point lead into an 85 point lead over Denver, 602-517, while the Buffs are 144.5 points back of the Utes in third place with 457.5 points. Alaska Anchorage sits in fourth place with 432 points while Montana State (fifth, 421) and New Mexico (sixth, 358.5) round out the teams that compete in both Nordic and alpine.

NORDIC WOMEN: Baangman hit the podium for the second time in two days, finishing second in what was a sprint with race winner Guro Jordheim at the end. Baangman's time of 33:37.3 was just 1.2 seconds behind Jordheim. A trio of Buffs then rounded out the top 10 and finished within 2.7 seconds of each other with junior Anne Siri Lervik taking eighth in 34:38.5, senior Christina Rolandsen taking ninth in 34.39.1 and freshman Ezra Smith taking 10th in 34:41.2. Sophomore Quinn Lemhkuhl finished the race in 26th place in a time of 37:43.5.

NORDIC MEN: Senior Alvar Alev fought off the wax situation best and was able to finish in 14th place in a time of 30:18.2 while freshman Wyatt Gebhardt took 19th in a time of 30:38.2, just ahead of sophomore Sondre Bollum in 22nd in 30:47.8 and freshman Erik Dengerud in 31:13.3. Junior Andrew Potyk was 26th in 31:15.7 and sophomore Tyler Terranova rounded out the Buffs squad in 33rd in a time of 33:03.3.

WHAT IT MEANS: Missing the wax is an unfortunate situation, but it happens. Despite that, all six men finished the race and enabled the Buffs to hold on to third place in the meet. Had it not happened, the Buffs certainly would be closer to second place Denver, but in all reality still would be in third place with the men's slalom race remaining. The Buffs won't have long to worry about the results form this meet, as the alpine team left for Montana State Sunday afternoon and the Nordic team will follow suit early next week. Once that meet is over, the Buffs can take a breath from a hectic schedule that saw the preseason races butt up against the regular season races. The New Mexico Invitational won't take place until the end of January.

NOTEWORTHY: Baangman hit the podium for the second time in as many races this season, giving her six in her young career. This was just her sixth career classic race and she has five top five finishes with four podiums and two wins. In 34 career races, Rolandsen has now finished in the top 10 a total of 27 times including both in 2019. Lervik's top 10 finish was her 18th in 25 career races. Sunday marked the first time a CU Nordic team didn't have a top 10 finisher since the first women's race of the 2016 season at the Utah Invitational and the first on the men's side since the first four races of the 2014 season before All-American's Rune Oedegaard and Mads Stroem joined the team that season.

QUOTEWORTHY:
Jana Weinberger: "We should be more acclimated to the altitude in Montana. We'll get a little more rest here this week before we head up to Montana. For us, we saw what we had to do after the alpine race. We were a little behind, but we knew what we had to do to move up. We made up some ground on Denver, but Utah had a really good day today."

Hedda Baangman: "It's a good start for me, definitely. My body felt better yesterday, but I was happy to get a second today. Of course I want to win every race. NCAAs is definitely my goal, I want to be in the best shape ever. I'm happy with my skis, I had good kick and I felt strong in the uphills, it was a good race. Four in the top 10 is awesome, we're a strong team. I've never skied at Montana before, I'm happy to get up to Bozeman and my goal is to get at least one win in those two races."

UP NEXT: The Buffs make a quick turnaround for the Montana State Invitational. On the alpine side, a busy four days of competition will begin with an RMISA Qualifier GS race on Wednesday. The GS race as part of the MSU Invitational will happen Thursday with the slalom races taking place Friday. The make-up race for the CU Invitational slalom will take place on Saturday. In Nordic action, the Buffs will have the traditional NCAA format with the 5k women's and 10k men's freestyle races with an interval start on Friday and the 15k women's and 20k men's classic races taking place on Saturday.

SPENCER JAMES NELSON MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL TEAM RESULTS (through 7 of 8 events)—1. Utah 602; 2. Denver 517; 3. Colorado 457.5; 4. Alaska Anchorage 432; 5. Montana State 421; 6. New Mexico 358.5; 7. Alaska Fairbanks 200; 8. Westminster College 138; 9. Wyoming 105; 10. Colorado Mountain College 38.

MEN'S 10K CLASSIC (41 collegiate finishers)—1. Sigurd Roenning, UAA, 29:00.0; 2. Logan Diekmann, UU, 29:00.6; 3. Kornelius Groev, UNM, 29:01.0; 4. Ric Izquierdo-Bernier, UNM, 29:03.2; 5. Ola Jordheim, UU, 29:10.8; 6. Ti Donaldson, MSU, 29:11.7; 7. Ty Godfrey, MSU, 29:16.2; 8. Maximilian Bie, UU, 29:28.1; 9. Borgar Norrud, DU, 29:32.7; 10. Ole Kirkeng, DU, 29:33.1; 11. Karsten Hokanson, MSU, 29:42.1; 12. Nicholas Sweeney, DU, 30:06.7; 13. Lukash Platil, UAF, 30:10.1; 14. Alvar Alev, CU, 30:18.2; 15. Eli Jensen, MSU, 30:22.5; 16. JC Schoonmaker, UAA, 30:22.9; 17. Eivind Kvaale, DU, 30:23.8; 18. Toomas Kollo, UAA, 30:24.5; 19. Wyatt Gebhardt, CU, 30:38.2; 20. Seiji Takagi, UAF, 30:40.4; 21. Tristan Sayre, UAF, 30:42.9; 22. Sondre Bollum, CU, 30:47.8; 23. Erik Dengerud, CU, 31:13.3; 24. Arnaud Guyon, UAF, 31:14.2; 25. Johan Meland, UNM, 31:14.7; 26. Andrew Potyk, CU, 31:15.7; 27. Max Donaldson, UAF, 31:22.5; 28. Jacob Engstroem, UU, 31:41.7; 29. Austin Huneck, UAA, 31:44.0; 30. Logan Mowry, UAF, 31:57.4; 31. Ben Berend, UNM, 32:33.3; 32. James Colfer, DU, 33:01.4; 33. Tyler Terranova, CU, 33:03.0; 34. Marcus Deuling, UAA, 33:17.2; 35. Brandon Herhusky, UAA, 33:20.3; 36. Tracen Knopp, UAA, 33:20.8; 37. Evan Barbier, DU, 34:49.6; 38. Trevor Willoughby, WYO, 35:19.4; 39. Silas Goetz, WYO, 35:27.4; 40. Matt Williams, WYO, 38:10.8; 41. Ben Romanjenko, WYO, 40:58.4. DID NOT START: Noel Keeffe, UU; Simon Zink, DU.

WOMEN'S 10K CLASSIC (37 collegiate finishers)—1. Guro Jordheim, UU, 33:36.1; 2. Hedda Baangman, CU, 33:37.3; 3. Karianne Moe, UU, 33:56.0; 4. Kati Roivas, UAF, 33:57.2; 5. Mariah Bredal, UU, 34:28.2; 6. Leah Lange, UU, 34:34.3; 7. Kathleen O'Connell, MSU, 34:37.0; 8. Anne Siri Lervik, CU, 34:38.5; 9. Christina Rolandsen, CU, 34:39.1; 10. Ezra Smith, CU, 34:41.2; 11. Emma Tarbath, MSU, 34:41.7; 12. Natalie Hynes, UAA, 35:01.0; 13. Taeler Mccrerey, DU, 35:03.7; 14. Natalia Mueller, DU, 35:22.4; 15. Michaela Keller-Miller, UAA, 35:29.4; 16. Hannah Rudd UAA, 35:47.6; 17. Anna Darnell, UAA, 35:49.5; 18. Jenna Difolco, UAA, 35:56.9; 19. Casey Wright, UAA, 36:15.4; 20. Marte Haakenstad-Braaten, UAA, 36:23.1; 21. Linn Eriksen, DU, 36:29.4; 22. Jordi Floyd, MSU, 36:39.2; 23. Anja Maijala, UAF, 36:45.4; 24. Savanna Fassio, UNM, 36:57.3; 25. Kristine Karsrud, DU, 37:40.3; 26. Quinn Lehmkuhl, CU, 37:43.5; 27. Kelly Koch, MSU, 38:49.5; 28. Hannah Deuling, UAF, 38:57.4; 29. Sadie Cotton, DU, 39:13.9; 30. Kirsys Campbell, UAF, 39:32.6; 31. Maggie Meeds, UAF, 39:40.6; 32. Gracelynn Shanley, DU, 39:46.6; 33. Ella Dewolf, WYO, 41:20.8; 34. Sage Robine, UAF, 41:37.5; 35. Sydney Wiswell, WYO, 43:14.5; 36. Madison Tinker, WYO, 44:39.7; 37. Morgan Robins, WYO, 47:36.9. DID NOT START: Julia Richter, UU; Anna Fake, MSU; Dariya Kuznetsova, UNM.

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Players Mentioned

Alvar Alev

Hedda Baangman

Sondre Bollum

Erik Dengerud

Wyatt Gebhardt

Quinn Lehmkuhl

Anne Siri Lervik

Andrew Potyk

Christina Rolandsen

Ezra Smith

Mads Stroem

Tyler Terranova