Tuesday, February 9
Snowbird, Utah
All Day
Colorado
vs
Men's Slalom (2)
Forejtek Hits The Podium As CU Remains In Third Place
February 09, 2021 | Skiing
SNOWBIRD, Utah – Junior Filip Forejtek finished third and fourth in two slalom races and the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team remained in third place at the conclusion of the alpine events of the RMISA Invitational at Westminster and Soldier Hollow here Tuesday at Snowbird Ski Resort.
In what was very much a "bib race," Forejtek made the most of being in the top seed, meaning he was guaranteed a top seven starting position, and he used that advantage to finish third in the morning race and then he finished fourth in the afternoon race. He has now picked up four podium appearances and five top five finishes in six races this season.
As a team, the Buffs have 283 points at the conclusion of the alpine portion of the meet, and are 17.5 points behind second place Westminster (300.5) and 67 points behind Utah's total of 350. There's then a logjam behind the Buffs with Montana State (265) and Denver (261.5) rounding out the top five, both within 25 points of the Buffs.
Soft snow that leads to poor course conditions not conducive to a high-level race can lead to what's referred to as a bib race, which as coach Richard Rokos put it, "you could just as easily score the race based on the start list (or bib number) and save yourself a lot of time and effort." Essentially, races like this make it hard for any skier not seeded highly and starting early to make a jump up the field.
Aside from Forejtek's high finishes, the Buffs generally skied better in the morning race, much as the women did on Monday, and the team scores for the Buffs were nearly identical to that put up by the women's team. The men's team scored 75 points in the first race, identical to the women on Monday, and 67 points in the afternoon race, one more than the women did.
Freshman Louis Fausa started the first race with bib eight and finished ninth, and Alex Birkner started in 24th and moved his way up to 14th place. Birkner used an early starting position in the second run to his advantage, recording the best second-run time in the field to move up. In the second race behind Forejtek was junior Max Bervy, who finished 14th and Joey Young, who finished 16th, in scoring positions.
Young was perhaps most affected by the course conditions, as he was injured for the first two slalom races in January and thus not seeded for Tuesday's races and had to start 34th overall. He moved up in both races, taking 25th in the morning and 16th in the afternoon, but he's one of the better slalom skiers on the college circuit with two wins and nine top 10 finishes in his career, and normally he has a much better starting position.
All eight Buffs finished the morning race while only four finished the afternoon course, which was not unique among the college skiers. Overall in the morning race, 36 of the 42 college skiers finished while just 27 did so in the afternoon.
WHAT IT MEANS: What's particularly frustrating about a race that's largely determined by your starting position is that there are only so many chances in a college season to improve your seed, and even fewer in 2021. Soft snow quickly leads to big ruts, meaning the first skiers down the course had a decided advantage over the rest of the field, and the more skiers that carve through the course, the worse it becomes. Most seasons, slalom races are spaced out with one in each meet and usually not happening more than once a week. This season, the meets have been spaced closer together and the teams are competing in the same discipline and gender each on one day to help with COVID protocols. Now for 2021, the slalom regular season is done and happened in the span of a combined 10 hours on two days. But there were bright spots for the Buffs as Forejtek continues to prove he's capable of hitting the podium and winning a race each time out and Fausa got an all important second slalom finish under his belt that should help with his seeding for the RMISA and potentially NCAA Championships. Young and Ryan also both improved from the morning to the afternoon races and salvaged finishes that should help them in future seeding.
UP NEXT: The alpine teams now have Wednesday off before embarking on the final regular season meet of the season, finishing up the RMISA Invitational at Utah with giant slalom races at Park City. The women will race in a pair of GS races Thursday and the men Friday. Teams will then remain in Utah for the RMISA Championships, set for next Friday and Saturday, also at Park City.
TEAM NOTES
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
MEN'S SLALOM #1 (36 collegiate finishers)—1. Bjorn Brudevoll, UU, 1:31.96; 2. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:32.74; 3. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:32.92; 4. Francesco Gori, WMC, 1:33.00; 5. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 1:33.14; 6. Joachim Lein, UU, 1:34.01; 7. Martin Arene, WMC, 1:34.21; 8. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 1:34.27; 9. Louis Fausa, CU, 1:34.37; 10. Aage Solheim, MSU, 1:34.87. Other CU Finishers: 14. Alex Birkner, 1:35.80; 19. Max Bervy, 1:36.58; 25. Joey Young, 1:39.80; 28. Sky Kelsey, 1:40.48; 34. Chase Seymour 1:48.00; 36. Bobby Ryan, 2:07.03.
MEN'S SLALOM #2 (27 collegiate finishers)—1. Bjorn Brudevoll, UU, 1:29.32; 2. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:30.40; 3. Francesco Gori, WMC, 1:30.94; 4. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:31.37; 5. Joachim Lein, UU, 1:32.57; 6. Francesco Galdiolo, WMC, 1:32.92; 7. Simon Fournier, DU, 1:33.35; 8. Dawson Yates, MSU, 1:33.65; 9. Alexandre Coultier, WMC, 1:33.71; 10. Didrik Nilsen, UAA, 1:34.01. Other CU Finishers: 14. Max Bervy, 1:34.35; 16. Joey Young, 1:36.52; 19. Bobby Ryan, 1:37.13 Did Not Finish First Run: Louis Fausa, Chase Seymour, Sky Kelsey. Did Not Finish Second Run: Alex Birkner.
In what was very much a "bib race," Forejtek made the most of being in the top seed, meaning he was guaranteed a top seven starting position, and he used that advantage to finish third in the morning race and then he finished fourth in the afternoon race. He has now picked up four podium appearances and five top five finishes in six races this season.
As a team, the Buffs have 283 points at the conclusion of the alpine portion of the meet, and are 17.5 points behind second place Westminster (300.5) and 67 points behind Utah's total of 350. There's then a logjam behind the Buffs with Montana State (265) and Denver (261.5) rounding out the top five, both within 25 points of the Buffs.
Soft snow that leads to poor course conditions not conducive to a high-level race can lead to what's referred to as a bib race, which as coach Richard Rokos put it, "you could just as easily score the race based on the start list (or bib number) and save yourself a lot of time and effort." Essentially, races like this make it hard for any skier not seeded highly and starting early to make a jump up the field.
Aside from Forejtek's high finishes, the Buffs generally skied better in the morning race, much as the women did on Monday, and the team scores for the Buffs were nearly identical to that put up by the women's team. The men's team scored 75 points in the first race, identical to the women on Monday, and 67 points in the afternoon race, one more than the women did.
Freshman Louis Fausa started the first race with bib eight and finished ninth, and Alex Birkner started in 24th and moved his way up to 14th place. Birkner used an early starting position in the second run to his advantage, recording the best second-run time in the field to move up. In the second race behind Forejtek was junior Max Bervy, who finished 14th and Joey Young, who finished 16th, in scoring positions.
Young was perhaps most affected by the course conditions, as he was injured for the first two slalom races in January and thus not seeded for Tuesday's races and had to start 34th overall. He moved up in both races, taking 25th in the morning and 16th in the afternoon, but he's one of the better slalom skiers on the college circuit with two wins and nine top 10 finishes in his career, and normally he has a much better starting position.
All eight Buffs finished the morning race while only four finished the afternoon course, which was not unique among the college skiers. Overall in the morning race, 36 of the 42 college skiers finished while just 27 did so in the afternoon.
WHAT IT MEANS: What's particularly frustrating about a race that's largely determined by your starting position is that there are only so many chances in a college season to improve your seed, and even fewer in 2021. Soft snow quickly leads to big ruts, meaning the first skiers down the course had a decided advantage over the rest of the field, and the more skiers that carve through the course, the worse it becomes. Most seasons, slalom races are spaced out with one in each meet and usually not happening more than once a week. This season, the meets have been spaced closer together and the teams are competing in the same discipline and gender each on one day to help with COVID protocols. Now for 2021, the slalom regular season is done and happened in the span of a combined 10 hours on two days. But there were bright spots for the Buffs as Forejtek continues to prove he's capable of hitting the podium and winning a race each time out and Fausa got an all important second slalom finish under his belt that should help with his seeding for the RMISA and potentially NCAA Championships. Young and Ryan also both improved from the morning to the afternoon races and salvaged finishes that should help them in future seeding.
UP NEXT: The alpine teams now have Wednesday off before embarking on the final regular season meet of the season, finishing up the RMISA Invitational at Utah with giant slalom races at Park City. The women will race in a pair of GS races Thursday and the men Friday. Teams will then remain in Utah for the RMISA Championships, set for next Friday and Saturday, also at Park City.
TEAM NOTES
- For the second straight day, the Buffs finished with exactly 75 points in the morning race and within one point of each other in the afternoon, the men scoring 67 points and the women 66 in the afternoon races. Both teams also finished third, but to different teams, and the Buffs remained in third overall, surpassing Denver but having Westminster surge from fourth to second place.
- Scoring for the Buffs were Forejtek (34 points in the first race, 31 in the second), Fausa (23 points, first race), Birkner (18 points, first race), Bervy (19 points, second race) and Young (17 points, second race).
- Looking ahead to Nordic for this meet, Utah goes in with a healthy advantage and it will be a fight between the Buffs, Montana State and Denver, all within 21.5 points of each other.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Forejtek hit the podium for the 10th time in his career in the morning race, taking third. Four of those 10 podiums have been in slalom races. He has been a force on the slalom circuit since the middle of last season, and has six top four finishes in the last eight races (DNF's in the other two) dating back about a year to February of 2020. This season he has finished five of six races and been in the top four in all five with four podium appearances. He now has 14 career top five finishes, six in slalom, in the 19 college races he's finished.
- Bervy was the most consistent skier of the Buffs aside from Forejtek on the day, taking 19th in the morning race and then improving to 14th in the afternoon. He's now finished five of six races this season and all five in the top 20.
- Fausa finished ninth in the morning race and did not finish in the afternoon. His ninth place finish is a big deal for NCAA Qualification and gives him a sixth and ninth place slalom finish this season, which should bode well for his chances of representing the Buffs in New Hampshire in March at the NCAA Championships.
- Birkner had a solid morning race, taking 14th and having the fastest second run among college skiers to move up from 24th to finish 14th. In the afternoon, he had a solid first run and then unfortunately didn't finish the second run of the second race. He has now finished four of six races and in the top 16 of all four.
- Young has now competed in 45 college races and finished 38 of them with 33 top 20 finishes. He returned to action after not competing in the slalom races at the CU Invitational on Jan. 13 due to injury. Two days prior, he fell and hit a GS gate in the second race of the DU Invitational. The most important thing he did was get two completed slalom races to his name, needed to officially qualify for the NCAA Championships.
- Ryan was 36th in the morning race after having to hike on his first run and then took 19th in the second race, giving him two top 20 slalom finishes on the season and four in six races overall this year.
- Seymour finished one of two races on Tuesday and has now finished two of six on the season to open his collegiate career. He was 34th in the morning race.
- Kelsey finished 28th in the morning race and did not finish in the afternoon. He's now finished four of six races this season, two of four in slalom action.
MEN'S SLALOM #1 (36 collegiate finishers)—1. Bjorn Brudevoll, UU, 1:31.96; 2. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:32.74; 3. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:32.92; 4. Francesco Gori, WMC, 1:33.00; 5. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 1:33.14; 6. Joachim Lein, UU, 1:34.01; 7. Martin Arene, WMC, 1:34.21; 8. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 1:34.27; 9. Louis Fausa, CU, 1:34.37; 10. Aage Solheim, MSU, 1:34.87. Other CU Finishers: 14. Alex Birkner, 1:35.80; 19. Max Bervy, 1:36.58; 25. Joey Young, 1:39.80; 28. Sky Kelsey, 1:40.48; 34. Chase Seymour 1:48.00; 36. Bobby Ryan, 2:07.03.
MEN'S SLALOM #2 (27 collegiate finishers)—1. Bjorn Brudevoll, UU, 1:29.32; 2. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:30.40; 3. Francesco Gori, WMC, 1:30.94; 4. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:31.37; 5. Joachim Lein, UU, 1:32.57; 6. Francesco Galdiolo, WMC, 1:32.92; 7. Simon Fournier, DU, 1:33.35; 8. Dawson Yates, MSU, 1:33.65; 9. Alexandre Coultier, WMC, 1:33.71; 10. Didrik Nilsen, UAA, 1:34.01. Other CU Finishers: 14. Max Bervy, 1:34.35; 16. Joey Young, 1:36.52; 19. Bobby Ryan, 1:37.13 Did Not Finish First Run: Louis Fausa, Chase Seymour, Sky Kelsey. Did Not Finish Second Run: Alex Birkner.
Players Mentioned
ALPINE
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ALPINE
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