Three Buffs Pick Up Top 10 Finishes In Park City

PARK CITY, Utah – After traveling from Bozeman, Mont., to Park City, Utah, the last two days, the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team and rest of the RMISA picked up the second half of alpine action in the RMISA Invitational here Sunday. Three Buffs picked up top 10 performances as the Buffs sit in fifth place in the meet.

Utah moved from third to first and lead the meet with 333 points. Denver, which led after the slalom races Thursday, fell to second with 307 points and Westminster is third with 299 points. Montana State is fourth with 288 points and the Buffs sit fifth with 214.

In the women's race, junior Emma Hammergaard led the Buffs in 10th place. Freshman Cleo Braun was second for the women in 22nd place just ahead of senior Kaitlyn Harsch, skiing for the first time this season, in 23rd place.

In men's action, senior Filip Forejtek finished ninth and freshman Jacob Dilling took 10th while graduate student Joey Young finished 16th just ahead of senior Max Bervy in 17th. Louis Fausa injured his shoulder and likely won't race the remainder of the week here in Park City.

Forejtek, who won the first GS race of the season Tuesday, picked up his 23rd career top 10 performance in 28 career races finished, including his 14th top 10 GS performance in 16 career finishes. Dilling finished in the top 10 for the third time in his first four career races, including finishing 10th for the second straight race.

Hammergaard got her second top 10 of the season and now has one in both GS and slalom action.

WHAT IT MEANS: The signs are there for the Buffs, while struggling a bit here to open the regular season, to put together a team that can compete for a national championship. That said, some things will have to come together, and the Buffs will need to remain healthy, so the injury to Fausa hopefully won't derail him for more than these next two races.

UP NEXT: The alpine teams remain in Park City for the next two days to compete in the Utah Invitational. The Nordic portion of Utah's meet took place at U.S. National Championships in early January and the host Utes lead entering alpine competition with 349 points. UAA is second with 333 followed by Colorado (306) and Denver (253) in striking distance.

TEAM NOTES:

The Buffs scored 111 points on the day, eight more than last Thursday with the slalom races. The women scored 51 points compared to just 18 that day and the men fell 25 points from 85 toThe Buffs scored 51 points in the women's race, with Hammergaard (22), Cleon Braun (15) and Katilyn Harsch (14) picking up points.
The Buffs scored 60 points in the men's race with Forejtek (22), Dilling (21) and Joey Young (17) providing the scoring.

WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

Hammergaard started her 29th career race and her 10th place finish is the 10th of her career and second of 2022, giving her one top 10 in each discipline.
Braun finished 22nd for her second finish in four races this season, both of the season's GS races. She bettered her performance from 29th in her first GS race to 22nd in her second.
Harsch finished 23rd in her first race of the season. She has now finished 27 of 32 races with
Fleckenstein did not start the second run. Still not 100 percent from injuries she's sustained the last few years, she elected not to start the second run and she likely won't be in the Buffs lineup for Monday's GS race.
Exenberger picked up her second DNF in four races on the season. She's finished 12th and 15th in the other two races.

MEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Forejtek finished ninth, which is impressively his lowest finish since Jan. 2020. Since that time, he's finished 20 straight races in the top 10 (the first 19 in the top seven). He now has finished three of four races this season with three top 10, two podiums and a win.
Dilling finished 10th and he's finished all four races on the season with three top 10 and all four in the top 15. He now has two GS top 10 finishes on the young season.
Young 16th
Bervy finished 17th for the Buffs to secure his 11th top 20 finish in his last 12 finished races. He's finished between 13th and 20th in all four races this season and 11 of his 16 career top 20 finishes have come in the last 12 races.
Birkner finished 22nd for his best finish of the season in the four races and he improve seven spots from his season-opening GS race in Bozeman.
Ryan finished 30th, his best finish of the season after a 38th place showing in the first GS race and having to hike on both runs in the most recent slalom race on Thursday.
Louis Fausa and Chase Seymour both didn't finish. Fausa fell on his first run and sustained an injury that will likely keep him out of racing the rest of the week. Seymour picked up his third straight DNF, something he also did at the start of his freshman season before finishing five of the last seven races down the stretch for the Buffs

RMSIA Invitational Team Results (Thru 4 of 8 Races): 1. Utah 333; 2. Denver 307; 3. Westminster 299; 4. Montana State 288; 5. Colorado 214; 6. Colorado Mountain 191; 7. Alaska Anchorage 139.

Women's Giant Slalom (27 collegiate finishers): 1. Katie Hensien, DU, 1:58.97; 2. Kaja Norbye, UU, 1:59.01; 3. Julia Toviainen, WMC, 1:59.23; 4. Nellie Talbot, MSU, 1:59.28; 5. Madison Hoffman, UU, 1:59.59; 6. Hannah Saethereng, WMC, 1:59.65; 7. Katie Parker, UU, 2:00.22; 8. Sona Moravcikova, UU, 2:00.71; 9. Eveline Fredricsson, WMC, 2:00.78; 10. Emma Hammergaard, CU, 2:01.23. Other CU Finishers: 22. Cleo Braun, 2:05.01; 23. Kaitlyn Harsch, 2:05.10. Did Not Finish First Run: Elena Exenberger. Did Not Start Second Run: Katie Fleckenstein.

Men's Giant Slalom (35 collegiate finishers): 1. Riley Seger, MSU, 1:55.51; 2. Joachim Lien, UU, 1:56.37; 3. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 1:56.40; 4. Tobias Kogler, DU, 1:56.48; 5. Gustav Voello, UU, 1:56.51; 6. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:56.70; 7. Francesco Galdiolo, UU, 1:56.72; 8. Cooper Cornelius, DU, 1:56.82; 9. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:57.09; 10. Jacob Dilling, CU, 1:57.60. Other CU Finishers: 16. Joey Young, 1:58.42; 17. Max Bervy, 1:58.45; 22. Alex Birkner, 1:59.55; 30. Bobby Ryan, 2:02.37. Did Not Finish First Run: Louis Fausa, Chase Seymour.

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Players Mentioned

Max Bervy

Alex Birkner

Cleo Braun

Jacob Dilling

Elena Exenberger

Louis Fausa

Katie Fleckenstein

Filip Forejtek

Emma Hammergaard

Kaitlyn Harsch

Bobby Ryan

Chase Seymour

Joey Young