Fleckenstein Leads Buffs Into Third At RMISA Meet

SNOWBIRD, Utah – Junior Stef Fleckenstein had a pair of top seven finishes to lead the Colorado Buffaloes women's alpine ski team into third place in the RMISA Invitational at Westminster/SoHo after two slalom races here at Snowbird Ski Resort Monday.

Fleckenstein, skiing for the first time in a college race in 2021, finished fourth in the morning race and seventh in the afternoon race. She was joined in the top 10 by sophomore Emma Hammergaard, who was eighth in the morning race and 10th in the afternoon race, while freshman Cassidy Gray made her collegiate debut with a 10th place finish in the morning race and took 12th in the afternoon.

On the day, the Buffs total of 141 points is 22 behind Utah's total of 163 while Denver (157) sits second. The top five teams are all within 35.5 points as Montana State (140) and Westminster (127.5) are just behind Colorado with Alaska Anchorage (97.5) and Colorado Mountain College (72) closing out the scoring.

The Buffs finished second as a team in the morning race, picking up 75 points, just six behind race winner Utah. That race featured a skier from a different school in each of the top six spots. The afternoon race was even tighter at the top, as Denver won with 83 points followed quickly by Utah (82) and Montana State (81). The Buffs slid a little and picked up 64 points in the afternoon race.

To a skier, the Buffs performed better in the morning race. Fleckenstein slid three spots from fourth to seventh, while Hammergaard (eighth to 10th) and Gray (10th to 12th) each slid two spots. It was a little more dramatic for the rest of the team, as junior Kaitlyn Harsch took 15th in the morning race and after hiking on the first run of the second race, she finished 26th in the afternoon. Senior Andrea Arnold was 17th in the morning race and junior Olivia Gerrard was 20th and neither finished the second race. Senior Isabelle Fidjeland had bad luck in both races and didn't finish the second run of either.

WHAT IT MEANS: While approaching the midpoint of the season, the Buffs showed improvement on Monday over early season results in January mainly due to the fact that Fleckenstein returned from injury and Gray competed in a college race for the first time. The Buffs were fifth in women's alpine in the first two meets of the year, and improving to third with still room for more improvement is a great sign. Fleckenstein, who was one of the top slalom skiers in the nation last year, had to start further back in the field due to missing the first two races of the season due to injury. She did enough to secure at least a top 15 starting position at the RMISA Championships. The women's team on the whole is likely to be stronger in GS than slalom this season, so Thursday's races at Park City should be exciting.

UP NEXT: Racing continues here at Snowbird Tuesday with two men's slalom races to close out action in the RMISA Invitational at WMC/SoHo and skiers will then train Wednesday before competing again on Thursday and Friday with giant slalom races at Park City to close out the RMISA Invitational at Utah. Alpine teams will remain in Utah to then compete in the RMISA Championships the following Thursday and Friday, Feb. 18-19, again at Park City.

TEAM NOTES:

The Buffs finished second in the morning race to Utah, 81-75, just edging out Denver (74) by a point. In the afternoon, the Buffs slid a little while Montana State soared, with the Buffs taking fourth with 64 points behind a close race at the top with DU (83), Utah (82) and Montana State (81) just two points apart. Utah leads the way with 163 points followed by Denver's total of 157 and Colorado (141) is just a point ahead of the Bobcats (140).
Scoring for the team were the same three skiers, Fleckenstein (31 points in the morning, 25 in the afternoon), Hammergaard (23, 21) and Gray (21, 20).
The Buffs improved dramatically in women's alpine action over the first two meets nearly a month ago in the DU and CU Invitationals. In the CU Invitational, also slalom races, the Buffs scored 124.5 points, scoring 16.5 more today, and scoring 39 more points than they did in the DU Invitational GS races (112 points).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Fleckenstein competed in her 28th and 29th career races, 14th and 15th in slalom, and she now has 20 top 10 finishes and 11 top five performances. She has 11 top 10 and five top five finishes in slalom races in her career.
Hammergaard broke out of a streak of finishing just one of two races for the first two meets of the year and picked up her second and third top 10 in slalom, and first two of the season, and the second and third top 10 of her career. Overall she has six top 10 finishes now. Her eighth place finish in the morning race matched her career best slalom finish from last season ahead of the RMISA Championships in Bozeman in a qualifier race. In the morning race, she had the second fastest second run in the field.
Gray finished in the top 10 in her first college race and followed that up with a 12th place showing in the afternoon. She missed the first two meets of the year competing in the World Cup in Europe for the first time in GS races, which will be the discipline for Thursday's races at Park City.
Harsch finished both races on the day, having an impressive 15th place in the morning and three impressive runs out of four on the day. In the first run of the second race, she had to hike and lost about 10 seconds. She now has nine top 20 finishes in her career and four in six races on the season.
Arnold continued her good start to the 2021 season with a 17th place finish in the first race, giving her five straight top 20s to start the season with a pair of top 10 performances in GS races. She now has 29 career top 20 finishes in 44 career races.
Gerrard competed for the first time in 2021 after missing the first two meets due to injury. She now has 26 career starts and nine career top 20 finishes after taking 20th in the morning race. She didn't finish the afternoon race.
Fidjeland had a bit of bad luck and after two solid opening runs, she did not finish the second run of either race. She finished ninth in both slalom races at the CU Invitational.

TEAM STANDINGS (Through 2 of 8 Races): 1. Utah, 163; 2. Denver 157; 3. Colorado 141; 4. Montana State 140; 5. Westminster 127.5; 6. Alaska Anchorage 97.5; 7. Colorado Mountain 72.

WOMEN'S SLALOM #1 (29 collegiate finishers)—1. Amelia Smart, DU, 1:35.83; 2. Katie Vesterstein, UU, 1:36.06; 3. Tegan Wold, MSU, 1:36.62; 4. Stef Fleckenstein, CU, 1:36.95; 5. Julia Toiviainen, WMC, 1:37.14; 6. Rebecca Fiegl, UAA, 1:37.56; 7. Michelle Kerven, UU, 1:37.77; 8. Emma Hammergaard, CU, 1:37.78; 9. Li Djurestaal, UAA, 1:37.83; 10. Cassidy Gray, CU, 1:37.85. Other CU Finishers: 15. Kaitlyn Harsch, 1:38.61; 17. Andrea Arnold, 1:38.83; 20. Olivia Gerrard, 1:41.79. Did Not Finish Second Run: Isabelle Fidjeland.

WOMEN'S SLALOM #2 (27 collegiate finishers)—1. Amelia Smart, DU, 1:37.91; 2. Katie Vesterstein, UU, 1:37.93; 3. Tegan Wold, MSU, 1:39.33; 4. Kristiane Bekkestad, MSU, 1:39.44; 5. Reece Bell, DU, 1:39.52; 6. Julia Toiviainen, WMC, 1:39.69; 7. Stef Fleckenstein, CU, 1:39.92; 8. Sona Moravcikova, UU, 1:40.15; 9. Michelle Kerven, UU, 1:40.31; 10. Emma Hammergaard, 1:40.84. Other CU Finishers: 12. Cassidy Gray, 1:41.06; 26. Kaitlyn Harsch, 1:55.29. Did Not Finish First Run: Andrea Arnold, Olivia Gerrard. Did Not Finish Second Run: Isabelle Fidjeland.

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Players Mentioned

Andrea Arnold

Isabelle Fidjeland

Stef Fleckenstein

Olivia Gerrard

Cassidy Gray

Emma Hammergaard

Kaitlyn Harsch