Tommy Wins, Forejtek Second As Buffs Move From Fourth To Second In Utah

Saturday, February 22

Park City, Utah

All Day

Colorado

Giant Slalom

Photo by: Brooke Fredrickson

Tommy Wins, Forejtek Second As Buffs Move From Fourth To Second In Utah

February 22, 2020 | Skiing

Results (PDF)

By: Curtis Snyder, Assistant AD/Sports Information

PARK CITY, Utah--Mikaela Tommy set a couple of records and Filip Forejtek finished second as the Colorado Ski Team moved from fourth to second after the first day of alpine action in the 2020 Utah Invitational in giant slalom races here at Park City Mountain Resort.

Tommy won her fourth GS race in as many tries this season. She becomes the first women's alpine skier to win four straight races in one discipline in CU history. Her four GS race wins ties the single-season record and her seven career GS races give her the CU record and she moved into second place for most overall wins in women's alpine history.

Her win propelled the women's team to the second-best team score with 91 points with Stef Fleckenstein finishing fourth and Emma Hammergaard 11th. All three had a top-five second run as Fleckenstein moved up from sixth to fourth and Hammergaard from 20th to 11th.

"It was overall a good day," head coach Richard Rokos said. "Mikaela, Filip and Stef were outstanding and we had solid results all the way down. Utah is formidable but I think it will be a fight tomorrow."

On the strength of Forejtek's silver, the men's team scored 74 points to push the Buffs total to 420.5, passing both Denver and Alaska Anchorage to move from fourth to second, but still some 165.5 points behind Utah's total of 584 including the Nordic races last week. The Buffs have just a two-point cushion on Denver (418.5) while Alaska Anchorage is just 9.5 points back with 411.

Behind Forejtek, Joey Young finished ninth and Teddy Takki 17th for the Buffs three team scorers.

The Buffs were dealt a bit of a blow with Isabelle Fidjeland, who was slated to race for the first time since the 2018 season. She had a recurrence of her back injury and will undergo further testing early next week.

"We were lucky that Dr. Eric McCarty was here in Park City for a convention," Rokos said. "So she could see him today. We'll have further tests done early next week."

The Utah Invitational will conclude Sunday with slalom races here at Park City. Teams will stick around, however, and participate in another slalom race on Monday that will only count toward individual achievements like MVP points and NCAA Qualification.

WHAT IT MEANS: Mikaela Tommy is having one of the most dominant and special seasons in CU history. She has won every GS race this season. With slalom races she has been right on the cusp of getting her first win in that discipline, finishing third and then second in the two races at Eldora the last time out. Forejtek's dominant performance today also helps and the signs are there that the Buffs will be able to put a formidable team together for the NCAA Championships when only 12 skiers can participate for all teams.

TEAM NOTES:

The Buffs finished second in the women's race with 91 points, just nine behind Utah, and third in the men's race with 74, just one behind second-place Montana State's total of 75, and 23 points behind Utah's total of 97.
The Buffs went from fourth to second on the strength of scoring the second-most points in the field Saturday. CU scored 165 points in the two races, behind only Utah's total of 197 and ahead of Denver's total of 136.

MEN'S ALPINE NOTES:

Forejtek's second-place matches the best finish of his career, which happened last season at the Alaska Anchorage Invitational. It's his fourth top-five finish and second career podium. He now has a second and fourth-place finish in GS this season, which will bode well for NCAA Qualification purposes.
Young put together yet another top 10 finish, taking ninth. He has now finished in the top 10 a total of 19 times in 27 career races, including six times in seven races this season and in 15 times in the 21 races since the start of the 2019 season.

WOMEN'S ALPINE NOTES:

Tommy's win gives her four GS wins this season and seven in her career. She has now won four straight GS races and her seven career GS wins come in just nine GS starts.
Her four straight wins in GS mark the most in CU history for a women's skier in GS, and matches Lucie Zikova's streak of four straight slalom wins she put together over the 2006-07 seasons.
Her four wins in GS in a season match the CU record, set by Caroline Gedde-Dahl in 1998.
Her seven wins in GS are the most in CU history and second-most for women's alpine overall, behind Lucie Zikova's total of 16 (12 slalom, four GS).
Her four wins in one discipline is tied for the third-most in women's alpine history with Gedde-Dahl in 1998. Zikova won five slalom races in both 2006 and '08.
Fleckenstein's fourth-place finish is her sixth top-five finish in as many finished races this season and her fourth in GS. She now has one win, one runner up, one third place, two fourth places and a fifth-place this season.

UP NEXT: Teams will remain in Park City for the next two days with slalom races on tap. Sunday's slalom races will count for the Utah Invitational and Monday's as an extra qualifier race for individual accolades and NCAA Championship qualification. It will be a quick turn-around as the teams will head straight from Park City to Bozeman where the RMISA Championships will take place Thursday through Sunday.

TEAM STANDINGS (Through 6 of 8 Races): 1. Utah 584, 2. Colorado 420.5; 3. Denver 418.5; 4. Alaska Anchorage 411; 5. Montana State 361; 6. Alaska Fairbanks 195; 7. Wyoming 132; 8. Westminster 113; 9. Colorado Mountain 59.

WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM (30 collegiate finishers)—1. Mikaela Tommy, CU, 2:04.33; 2. Eirin Engeset, UU, 2:05.23; 3. Kathryn Parker, UU, 2:05.85; 4. Stef Fleckenstein, CU, 2:05.86; 5. Sona Moravcikova, UU, 2:05.87; 6. Storm Klomhaus, DU, 2:06.46; 7. Andrea Komsic, DU, 2:06.52; 8. Julia Toivianen, WMC, 2:06.93; 9. Lana Zbasnik, WMC, 2:07.23; 10. Henreitte Resen, WMC, 2:07.42. Other CU Finishers: 11. Emma Hammergaard, 2:07.48; 14. Kaitlyn Harsch, 2:08.32; 28. Olivia Gerrard, 2:14.62. Did Not Start First Run: Isabelle Fidjeland. Did Not Finish First Run: Andrea Arnold.

MEN'S GIANT SLALOM (30 collegiate finishers)—1. Joachim Lein, UU, 1:51.67; 2. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:52.31; 3. Addison Dvoracek, UU, 1:52.57; 4. Tobias Kogler, DU, 1:52.61; 5. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 1:52.68; 6. Joachim Mjelde, WMC, 1:52.82; 7. Riley Seger, MSU, 1:52.85; 8. Gustav Voello, UU, 1:53.16; 9. Joey Young, CU, 1:53.31; 10. Tomas Birkner de Miguel, UU, 1:53.33. Other CU Finishers: 17. Teddy Takki, 1:54.29; 24. Max Bervy, 1:56.09; 26. Alex Birkner, 1:56.25; 28. Bobby Ryan, 1:58.61.