Tommy, Young Hit Podium, Buffs Second At Own Invitational

ELDORA—Senior Mikaela Tommy and junior Joey Young both took third place in their respective slalom races and the Colorado Ski Team slipped from first to second after the conclusion of the alpine events in the Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational here Thursday.

There is one more day of alpine racing at Eldora, but it's not connected to the team scoring for CU's annual invitational.  Utah took the lead in the meet, finishing with 324 points through four events, just 12 ahead of the Buffs total of 312. Just behind the Buffs is Denver with 301.5.  Those three separated from the rest of the field as Westminster sits in fourth with 242 points, some 82 points behind Utah.

"The alpine meet is over," CU coach Richard Rokos said. "We didn't finish with the most points, but in many ways we proved that we are strong enough to face any competition.  Today was proof of that, it's a very good confidence builder for the team. We have a couple of stars there and the rest are right behind them filling up the depth of the team."

The Buffs would've potentially been in the lead had it not been for the unfortunate occurrence of sophomore Stef Fleckenstein not finishing her second run.  She had the fastest first run in the field and won the slalom race last weekend at Aspen.

"Stef straddled the gate," Rokos said. "She tried to do a 100 percent run and it doesn't always pay.  But she understands the concept of the team and finishing in our format and this happens once in a while.  It happened to our other skiers, to Mikaela last week in Aspen. It's hard to stay away from those things all the time."

Tommy's podium appearance is the second of her career in slalom and eighth overall.  Senior Andrea Arnold finished 10th, Emma Hammergaard 12th and Kaitlyn Harsch 14th to give the Buffs four in the top 15 on the women's side.

In the men's race, Young earned the second podium of his career, the other coming in a slalom victory last season, and it was a much needed solid result to keep him in the mix for good seeding in future races after he hiked twice in last week's slalom race in Aspen.  The story of the day on the men's side was sophomore Max Bervy, who started the race seeded 52nd, moved his way up to 25th after the first run and then blazed his way down the second run with the fifth-fastest time to move up to 14th, his best career finish in either discipline.

"Joey was the star of the day," Rokos said. "These races have very hard competition with a lot of guys who ski on the World Cup. Joey didn't have that opportunity this year, he went through some local FIS races and suddenly he's facing stiff competition and doing well and isn't intimidated as well.  Max today was a great story, starting so far back and finishing strong. That's what we love to see as coaches."

Sophomore Filip Forejtek took 14th and Alex Birkner 15th as the men also placed four in the top 15.  Birkner had the second-fastest time in the second run in the field

The Buffs will return for one more day of racing at Eldora, a set of slalom races that will count the same as every other race except for team scoring.  They will still count for individual awards and NCAA Championship qualification.

TEAM NOTES:

The Buffs scored 75 points in the women's race and 72 in the men's race, adding 147 points to bring the team total to 312 points after the conclusion of alpine racing in the meet standings.
Utah leads with 324 points and Denver is third with 301.5. Fourth place goes to Westminster with 242 points while Alaska Anchorage (224), Montana State (217.5) and Colorado Mountain (143) round out the team scoring.

ALPINE WOMEN NOTES:

Between Tommy and Fleckenstein, the Buffs now won four of five women's alpine races, have seven of a possible 10 podium appearances and have won eight of the 10 runs in those five races.
Tommy sat in fifth place in the first run and moved up two stops by having the third-fastest second run time.
Tommy had her fourth podium of the season and eighth of her career. It was her second podium in slalom and all six of her GS podiums are race victories.
Arnold got her second straight top 10 in slalom action, finishing 10th today and ninth last week in Aspen. It's her second and third top 10 in slalom races and she now has six top 10 finishes in her career.
Hammergaard finished 12th in her first slalom action, racing or practice, on CU's home hill. She joined the Buffs in January and wasn't able to train on the hill before the Buffs started the season in Aspen last weekend.
Harsch continues to show improvement this season. Her 14th place finish would've been a career best prior to the last set of races in Alaska her freshman season. She now has three races at 14th or better this season with one top 10 in last week's slalom race in Aspen.
Fleckenstein did have the fastest first run, the second time she's had the fastest run in the field in four runs this season.
Olivia Gerrard suffered her second straight DNF (did not finish) as she fell on the second run.

ALPINE MEN NOTES:

Young had the fourth-fastest first run and a pair of Buffs were in the top four in the second run with Alex Birkner having the second-fastest time and Max Bervy the fourth-fastest among college skierse. Birkner moved up from 30th to finish 15th and Bervy moved up from 25th to 14th.
Young had his second career podium with his third place finish, almost exactly one year after he had his first podium and race victory in the slalom race at the Montana State Invitational last year on Jan. 18.
Bobby Ryan was the other finisher on the men's side taking 22nd place. Teddy Takki didn't finish his first run.

WHAT IT MEANS: While it would've been fun to see Fleckenstein finish strong on her second run and perhaps give the Buffs the lead after the alpine events were concluded, the Buffs accomplished quite a bit Thursday nonetheless.  Five of the six women's alpine skiers are now in the top two seeds moving forward, guaranteeing them a starting position no lower than 15th as long as they can maintain those spots. On the men's side, Forejtek and Young are in the second seed and Bervy moved up from a starting position yesterday of 52nd to 22nd for tomorrow's qualifier race.  At the end of the day, the Buffs alpine teams proved they are one of the best alpine teams in the nation.

QUOTEWORTHY:

Richard Rokos: "The alpine meet is over, we didn't win but in many ways we proved we are strong enough to face any competition.  Today was proof of that, taking second by 12 points and sacrificing a first place in women's slalom. It's a very good confidence builder for the team.  We have a couple of stars and the rest are right behind them filling the depth of the team. I'm looking forward to the future."

"Stef straddled in her second run.  She tried to take it to perfection and do a 100 percent run and it doesn't always pay.  She understands the concept of the team and finishing in our format and it happens once in a while.  It happened to Teddy today and Mikaela last week in Aspen, we go through those things, it's hard to get away from it. For Mikaela, slalom used to be her secondary option, but she's becoming fairly balanced. Obviously her GS is excellent but she's coming to terms in slalom and it's great to see."

"Joey was the star of the day. These races have very hard competition with a lot of guys who ski in the World Cup. Joey didn't have that opportunity this year, he went through some local FIS races and suddenly he's facing stiff competition and doing well and isn't intimidated as well.  Max today was a great story, starting so far back and finishing strong. That's what we love to see as coaches."

"Tomorrow is a field day for everybody.  They can ski as fast as they want ant it's not team scoring, so the goal will be to secure the best position for the NCAA Championships.  We're looking to improve our seeding for the rest of the season, we're getting closer to the top seeds. The girls are mostly there and the guys can all get there."

"After tomorrow we've had 12 days of racing with just two off days in between counting training before Aspen.  It's more than other teams do but it's good to work on pace. After tomorrow we will commit to a few good weeks of training and getting ready for the rest of the season."

Stefan Hughes: "The men had a good, solid showing and moved up.  They probably wanted to do better than they did but tomorrow they'll move up in the seeding.  The women did what they could, they were fighting, we had tough luck with Stef going out, but all in all it was a good day.  We have more and we'll stay hungry."

"After tomorrow, we'll complete the first two invites of the season and we'll go into the training block.  Maybe we'll do some FIS races and Nor-Ams there. Then we'll head to Utah and that's the last set of races before Regionals.  Right now it's back to the drawing board and see what we can figure out in training and pick up some more speed and go into Utah with the heat."

Mikaela Tommy: "We had a pretty good day.  The boys did pretty good, we had a strong showing from them compared to last weekend.  Joey and I both got third and we had some top 15s, which is good. The slalom race today was better than the one we had in Aspen, we put our Nordic team in position to do better in the meet, hopefully they can perform their best and we can win the meet."

Joey Young: "Today I finished up third place, which was better than Aspen when I had a couple of mistakes in both runs. Max Bervy started 52 and finished strong and Alex Birkner has been training fast and he had a strong second run and Filip, again consistent.  It was good to see all the guys picking it up in slalom. Teddy was skiing fast in the first run and he'll get one in there. It's our home hill, we've skied this 100 times, all season, especially this year. We know we can do it, we decided today we really had to punch and win it on our home hill.  We have another day tomorrow, we'll see what happens."

UP NEXT: The alpine teams have one more day of racing at Eldora with another set of slalom races Friday.  The CU Invitational then resumes with the first Nordic action of the season at Steamboat Springs.  Saturday will see the women's 5K and men's 10K freestyle races and Sunday the meet concludes with the women's 15K and men's 20K classic races.

TEAM—1. Utah 324; 2. Colorado 312; 3. Denver 301.5; 4. Westminster 242; 5. Alaska Anchorage 224; 6. Montana State 217.5; 7. Colorado Mountain 143. .

MEN'S SLALOM (27 collegiate finishers)—1. Joachim Lien, UU, 1:21.13; 2. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 1:21.99; 3. Joey Young, CU, 1:22.21; 4. Colby Lane, DU, 1:22.29; 5. Aage Solheim, MSU, 1:22.50; 6. Mikkel Wahl, WMC, 1:22.54; 7. Addison Dvoracek, UU, 1:23.31; 8. Tobias Kogler, DU, 1:23.46; 9. Tomas Birkner de Miguel, UU, 1:23.89; 10. Gustav Voello, UU, 1:24.20.  Other CU Finishers: 12. Filip Forejtek, 1:24.35; 14. Max Bervy, 1:24.66; 15. Alex Birkner, 1:24.98; 22. Bobby Ryan, 1:29.49. Did Not Finish First Run: Teddy Takki.

WOMEN'S SLALOM (27 collegiate finishers)—1. Storm Klomhaus, DU, 1:27.73; 2. Roni Remme, UU, 1:28.34; 3. Mikaela Tommy, CU, 1:28.44; 4. Reece Bell, DU, 1:28.56; 5. Julia Toiviainen, WMC, 1:28.68; 6. Andrea Komsic, DU, 1:29.17; 7. Kaitlyn Vesterstein, UU, 1:29.25; 8. Rebecca Fiegl, UAA, 1:29.89; 9. Eirin Engeset, UU, 1:30.06; 10. Andrea Arnold, CU, 1:30.46.  Other CU Finishers: 12. Emma Hammergaard, 1:30.80; 14. Kaitlyn Harsch, 1:31.23. Did Not Finish Second Run: Stef Fleckenstein, Olivia Gerrard.

Tommy, Young Hit Podium, Buffs Second At Own Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Andrea Arnold

Max Bervy

Alex Birkner

Stef Fleckenstein

Filip Forejtek

Olivia Gerrard

Emma Hammergaard

Kaitlyn Harsch

Bobby Ryan

Teddy Takki

Mikaela Tommy

Joey Young

Tommy, Young Hit Podium, Buffs Second At Own Invitational

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Players Mentioned

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Alex Birkner

Stef Fleckenstein

Filip Forejtek

Olivia Gerrard

Emma Hammergaard

Kaitlyn Harsch

Bobby Ryan

Teddy Takki

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