Buffs, Utes Battling Tough At RMISA Championships

ANCHORAGE & GIRDWOOD, Alaska—In what has essentially turned out to be a Pac-12 Championship, the University of Colorado ski team battled throughout the day with Utah to take control of the 70th Annual RMISA Championships here Friday at Kincaid Park and Aleyska Resort.

At the end of the day, the Utes extended their two-point lead entering the day over the Buffs to 33.5 points by bettering the Buffs in three of the four races, although not by much in any of them. What's more, those two teams have an almost 100 point lead on the rest of the competition.

On the strength of a 3-4 finish from Erik Dengerud and Alvar Alev in the men's 20K classic race, the Buffs beat Utah by seven points, 84-77. The two teams comprised the top five spots in the women's 15K classic race as Hedda Baangman took second and Christina Rolandsen fifth but a Utah 1-3-4 finish gave the Utes the edge, 105-87.5. In the men's giant slalom race, Utah went 1-2 while CU went 3-4 with Max Luukko hitting the podium in third and Filip Forejtek taking fourth, as Utah outscored the Buffs, 93-85.

It was the women's giant slalom race where the Buffs had a chance to cut into the Utes lead, but an unlikely series of unfortunate events prohibited that from taking place. After the first run, CU held the second, sixth and seventh spots and only one Utah skier was in the top 10. But after Olivia Gerrard and Stef Fleckenstein both lost their skis, a rare occurrence, that put a damper on the Buffs hopes. Further, Nora Christensen was skiing right behind Gerrard and had to take a rerun later on a course that was in worse shape than her initial run. And even further, Mikaela Tommy didn't finish her second run despite having the second-fastest first run. The Utes took advantage of the Buffs misfortune, outscoring CU 72-59 in the race.

"I can honestly say I've never seen anything like that," CU coach Richard Rokos said. "Olivia, Stef and Max Bervy all lost their skis today, no other skier from any other team had that happen. The mechanics of the bindings are the same, it's hard to put a finger on it, but it happened. We took more than our share of back luck."

Still, the Buffs had a solid day. Andrea Arnold had her career best finish of eighth in the women's GS race while the Buffs had a pair of top five finishers and a podium appearance in each of the other three races.

With Nordic action now complete, the remaining two days of races here in Alaska will both feature slalom action. Saturday's slalom races will be part of the UAA Invitational and Sunday's will conclude the RMISA Championships.

TEAM: Colorado scored 315.5 points on the day while the Utes totaled 347 points as now other team hit the 300 point plateau. Utah leads with 517 points to the Buffs 483.5. Host Alaska Anchorage is third with 386 points, just 10.5 points ahead of New Mexico's total of 375.5. Denver sits fifth with 331 points and Montana State's total of 314 is good for sixth. Alaska Fairbanks (182), Westminster College (65) and Colorado Mountain College (10) round out the team scoring.

NORDIC WOMEN: Hedda Baangman hit the podium once again for the Buffs, taking second in the women's 15K classic race in a time of 45:31.3. She was 43.1 seconds behind the race winner but herself almost 15 seconds ahead of third place. Christina Rolandsen's fifth place time came in 46:30.6, about a minute behind Baangman. Junior Anne Siri Lervik took 11th with 47:20.4, freshman Ezra Smith gave the Buffs four in the top 15 with a time of 48:38.0. Junior Quinn Lehmkuhl rounded out the Buffs scoring in 32nd in 56:57.1.

NORDIC MEN: Erik Dengerud continued his hot streak up in Alaska, taking another podium in 52.44.7, losing an exciting sprint to a pair of UNM skiers that were both less than a second apart. Alvar Alev was about nine seconds behind Dengerud in a time of 52:53.9, himself holding off a group of four other skiers that came in within five seconds of his time. Sophomore Sondre Bollum finished 14th in a time of 54:46.8 while junior Andrew Potyk took 24th in 56:39.2, freshman Wyatt Gebhardt took 29th in 58:12.6 and freshman Tyler Terranova finished 35th in 59:40.5.

ALPINE WOMEN: With Mikaela Tommy not finishing and Stef Fleckenstein and Olivia Gerrard losing their skis, the Buffs were left with three finishers in a race that only saw 17 finisher in the entire collegiate field. Andrea Arnold had her best collegiate finish in eighth place in a time of 2:38.76 while Nora Christensen took 12th in 2:40.02 and freshman Kaitlyn Harsch also had her best career finish in 14th in 2:41.34.

ALPINE MEN: Max Luukko had the sixth-fastest first run and used the third fastest second run to move into third place and get on the podium in a time of 2:26.31, just 26-hundredths ahead of teammate Filip Forejtek in fourth in 2:26.57, his second straight solid GS performance here in Alaska after finishing second in the UAA meet on Thursday. Joey Young had the second-fastest time in the field on the first run and slipped back a bit on his second, taking 11th in 2:27.42 while freshman Teddy Takki finished17th in 2:28.57. Freshman Max Bervy also lost his ski much like Gerrard and Fleckenstein in the women's race, a bit of bad luck, and junior Bobby Moyer didn't start the race.

WHAT IT MEANS: While it's never good to have bad luck in late February, it would've served the Buffs better to have bad luck here in the UAA Invitational as opposed to the RMISA Championships. Despite that, there are still several silver linings that came out of Friday's races. With Nordic action now complete ahead of NCAA Championships, the Buffs have nine skiers in the top 13 of the final NCAA Qualification lists with Dengerud, Alev and Rolandsen all making movement up the list throughout the week in Alaska. With two days of slalom racing left, the Buffs have a very slim 1.5 point lead over Utah in the UAA Invitational and are behind the Utes by 33.5 points in the RMISA Championships. Coach Richard Rokos always says slalom is the great equalizer, so the final weekend of action should prove to be very exciting.

NORDIC QUALIFICATION: With Nordic action now complete, it's time for CU Nordic coach Jana Weinberger and assistant coach Austin Caldwell to pick the six Buffs that will represent CU at the 2019 NCAA Championships. On the men's side, Erik Dengerud and Alvar Alev both dramatically improved their qualification standings, Dengerud moving all the way up to fourth with four top six finishes in Alaska, including one win and two podiums. Alev had three top seven finishes, including one fourth place, to also move up to eighth place. Freshman Wyatt Gebhardt, who struggled a bit in Alaska but had a great start to his freshman season, sits 11th on the final qualification list while junior Sondre Bollum is just two spots back in 13th.

On the women's side, the Buffs have been strong all season with Hedda Baangman (third), Anne Siri Lervik (fourth) and Christina Rolandsen (sixth) all turning in outstanding seasons to date. Freshman Ezra Smith also had an outstanding season and sits in 13th place in the final standings. On the alpine side, Luukko not only got back into the top 10 for the first time in the last six races, but he got his first podium of the season. Forejtek taking fourth is absolutely huge for the Buffs on the NCAA Qualification front since it's just his third finish of the season and along with yesterday, he now has two solid GS finishes with a second and fourth.

NOTEWORTHY: Arnold and Harsch both had their career best finishes despite all the bad luck in the women's race, with Arnold taking eighth, betting her best by two spots and giving her the third top 10 finish of her career, all this season. Harsch got her fourth top 20 finish of the season and lowered her career best finish from 17th to 14th, both coming in the last two days. With Christensen awarded a rerun, she now has 47 career finishes in 52 career races, including nine of 10 this season. Baangman's second place finish gives her six podium appearances this season and 10 in her career, with eight of those 10 coming in classic action. Rolandsen got her fourth top 5 finish of the season and second in classic action. In men's GS action, Luukko ended a streak of five straight races outside the top 10 and had the best finish of the season, his first podium of the year and ninth of his career. He had 33 top 10 finishes in his career in 52 career races. Dengerud continued his hot streak and his third place finish is the second podium of his career and second in a row after winning the freestyle race on Wednesday. He now has eight top 10 finishes this season, including seven in a row. Alev got back into the top five for the second time this season and ninth time in his two-year career, and finished strong after struggling Wednesday in the freestyle race. He has finished in the top 10 in six of the last seven races.

QUOTEWORTHY:
Richard Rokos: "I can honestly say I've never seen anything like that," CU coach Richard Rokos said. "Olivia, Stef and Max Bervy all lost their skis today, no other skier from any other team had that happen. The mechanics of the bindings are the same, it's hard to put a finger on it, but it happened. We took more than our share of back luck."

"The guys really stepped up today. Max third and Filip fourth and Joey had a great first run before slipping back a bit in his second. Andrea was our standard today on the women's side and eighth place is great for her, a bright spot for us."

"We'll turn our attention to the UAA slalom tomorrow. It's a little bit of a tryout, a practice run for Sunday's slalom that will be part of regionals. But it will be on a different hill, so we won't have much advantage of seeing what the course will look like. Tomorrow it's on a different hill that doesn't have a lot of terrain where Sunday's hill has far more terrain involved to make it more challenging."

UP NEXT: All of the Nordic and half of the alpine action is now done in Alaska, and all that remains is the slalom races. Saturday's slalom races will conclude the UAA Invitational while Sunday's will put finishing touches on the RMISA Championships.

RMISA CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM RESULTS (through 6 of 8 events)—1. Utah 517; 2. Colorado 483.5; 3. Alaska Anchorage 386; 4. New Mexico 375.5; 5. Denver 331; 6. Montana State 331; 7. Alaska Fairbanks 182; 8. Westminster 65; 9. Colorado Moutain 10.

WOMEN'S 15K CLASSIC (32 collegiate finishers)—1. Julia Richter, UU, 44:48.2; 2. Hedda Baangman, CU, 45:31.3; 3. Karianne Moe, UU, 45:46.1; 4. Guro Jordheim, UU, 45:47.2; 5. Christina Rolandsen, CU, 46:30.6; 6. Anna Fake, MSU, 46:39.9; 7. Leah Lange, UU, 46:55.3; 8. Emma Tarbath, MSU, 47:00.8; 9. Casey Wright, UAA, 47:16.9; 10. Mariah Bredal, UU, 47:19.8. Other CU Finishers: 11. Anne Siri Lervik, 47:20.4; 15. Ezra Smith, 48:38.0; 32. Quinn Lehmkuhl, 56:57.1.

MEN'S 20K CLASSIC (41 collegiate finishers)—1. Kornelius Grov, UNM, 52:44.0; 2. Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier, UNM, 52:44.5; 3. Erik Dengerud, CU, 52:44.7; 4. Alvar Alev, CU, 52:53.9; 5. Logan Diekmann, UU, 52:55.2; 6. Ty Godfrey, MSU, 52:56.7; 7. Maximilian Bie, UU, 52:58.8; 8. Ola Jordheim, UU, 53:08.2; 9. Borgar Norrud, DU, 53:57.1; 10. Toomas Kollo, UAA, 54:14.6. Other CU Finishers: 14. Sondre Bollum, 54:46.8; 24. Andrew Potyk, 56:39.2; 29. Wyatt Gebhardt, 58:12.6; 35. Tyler Terranova, 59:40.5.

WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM (17 collegiate finishers)—1. Andrea Komsic, DU, 2:33.69; 2. Tuva Norbye, DU, 2:34.45; 3. Eirin Engeset, UU, 2:34.69; 4. Sona Moravcikova, UNM, 2:35.01; 5. Georgia Burgess, UAA, 2:37.44; 6. Li Djurestaal, UAA, 2:37.97; 7. Mia Henry, MSU, 2:37.98; 8. Andrea Arnold, CU, 2:38.76; 9. Kathryn Parker, UU, 2:39.20; 10. Kristina Natalenko, UAA, 2:39.54. Other CU Finishers: 12. Nora Christensen, 2:40.02; 14. Kaitlyn Harsch, 2:41.34. Did Not Finish Second Run: Stef Fleckenstein, Olivia Gerrard, Mikaela Tommy.

MEN'S GIANT SLALOM (29 collegiate finishers)—1. Addison Dvoracek, UU, 2:25.06; 2. Joachim Lein, UU, 2:25.84; 3. Max Luukko, CU, 2:26.31; 4. Filip Forejtek, CU, 2:26.57; 5. Tobias Kogler, DU, 2:27.03; 6. Aage Solheim, MSU, 2:27.22; 7. SKy Kelsey, UAA & Liam Wallace, UAA, 2:27.24; 9. Vegard Busengdal, UNM, 2:27.30; 10. Florian Szwebel, MSU, 2:27.33. Other CU Finishers: 11. Joey Young, 2:27.42; 17. Teddy Takki, 2:28.57. Did Not Finish First Run: Max Bervy. Did Not Start First Run: Bobby Moyer.

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Players Mentioned

Alvar Alev

Andrea Arnold

Hedda Baangman

Max Bervy

Sondre Bollum

Nora Christensen

Erik Dengerud

Stef Fleckenstein

Filip Forejtek

Wyatt Gebhardt

Olivia Gerrard

Kaitlyn Harsch

Quinn Lehmkuhl

Anne Siri Lervik

Max Luukko

Bobby Moyer

Andrew Potyk

Christina Rolandsen

Ezra Smith

Teddy Takki

Tyler Terranova

Mikaela Tommy

Joey Young