Forejtek Gets GS Silver At Park City

PARK CITY, Utah – Senior Filip Forejtek picked up his third podium of the young season and freshmen Jacob Dilling and Elena Exenberger also finished in the top 10 of the giant slalom races here Monday as action in the Utah Invitational picked back up for the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team.

The men's team placed five skiers in the top 21, but unfortunately for the women, Exenberger was the only finisher, which hurt the team scoring. Still, the Buff remained in third place of the team scoring and are just 23 points behind second place Alaska Anchorage with six of eight races now complete in the meet that started all the way back on Jan. 2.

Utah leads the way with 510 points with UAA in second with 434 for a 76-point lead. The second through fifth teams are then 70 points apart with Colorado (411), Denver (381) and Montana State (364) all within striking distance of the Seawolves.

In finishing second, Forejtek not only picked up his third podium in five races this season but he now has 16 career podium appearances, tied for fifth most in CU history for men's alpine skiers. More importantly, he virtually guaranteed a top 10 bib at the NCAA Championships with is second podium in the discipline. Dilling finished sixth for the best finish of his young career and picked up his fourth top 10 in his first five collegiate races. CU placed five in the top 21 of the men's race with Max Bervy taking 14th, Alex Birkner 18th and Bobby Ryan 21st.

Exenberger, like Dilling, also picked up the best finish of her young career in eighth place, her first collegiate top 10 performance as the only finisher in the women's race for the Buffs. The Buffs weren't alone as only 20 collegiate skiers finished the race out of the 32 that started it.

Dilling and Exenberger also picked up wins on the day with their best finishes of the season. Being new to college skiing, both are working their way up the start lists and Wednesday's results will help both on the NCAA Qualifying rankings, as well.

WHAT IT MEANS: More important than team scoring at this point of the season is for young skiers to continue to hammer away at improving their seeding for both start lists and NCAA Qualification. Several Buffs are accomplishing that feat. Dilling and Exenberger getting into the top 10 will help on both fronts. Forejtek's second GS podium essentially locks him into the top seed at the NCAA Championships, as the top five in each discipline in the west and the top five in the east go into a random draw for the first 10 bibs at the championship. The Buffs can also still push UAA for a second place finish with a solid day of slalom racing Wednesday.

UP NEXT: The alpine teams conclude six days of racing over the past eight days Tuesday, a whirlwind start to the season that included competing in three different team meets in that span. Wednesday's slalom action at Park City will close out the Utah Invitational and mark the halfway point of the alpine season in terms of number of races. Alpine teams will take three-and-a-half weeks off before the Denver Invitational picks back up just ahead of the RMISA Championships.

TEAM NOTES:

The Buffs scored 105 points on the day and remained in third place of the Utah Invitational with 411 points.
The men's team scored 82 points, just two behind Montana State's total of 84, on the strength of Forejtek (37 points), Dilling (27) and Bervy (18).
Exenberger was CU's lone finisher on the day and scored 23 points for her eighth place finish.

WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

Elena Exenberger finished eighth, marking her first career top 10. She's now finished three of five races in her freshman season and has finished between eighth and 15th in the three races. She now has two GS finishes, eighth and 12th, which is a good base for NCAA Qualification as she will look to improve upon that ranking when the season resumes.
Kaitlyn Harsch started her first races of the season but had a DNF. It was her 33rd career race start.
Emma Hammergaard and Cleo Braun both didn't finish the race and Katie Fleckenstein sat the race out after not finishing Sunday's GS race.

MEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Filip Forejtek finished second, his third podium of the season and second in GS. He now has a win and second place finish in GS, securing his NCAA Qualification and likely picking up a top 10 bib for the NCAA Championships.
- Forejtek now has 16 career podium appearances, tied for 16th most in CU history. It also ranks tied for 12th for men's skiers and tied for fifth for men's alpine skiers in CU history.
- In his last 21 finished races, Forejtek finished in the top 10 every race with 15 podium appearances in that time.
- He now has nine GS podium appearances, tied for third-most in CU history with Ola Johansen. Only John Walsh (12) and Niklas Scherrer (10) have more GS podiums at CU.
Jacob Dilling finished sixth, the top finish of his young career. He has finished all five races to open his career with four top 10 finishes which include Monday's sixth place finish along with an eighth and two 10th place finishes. He now has a sixth and eighth place finish in GS races, a solid start for NCAA Qualification purposes.
Max Bervy finished 14th for his 16th career top 20 finish. It marks his best GS finish of the season and second best overall along with a 13th place slalom finish at Bridger Bowl Saturday. He has three top 20 GS finishes this season in three races, matching the total he had entering the season in 17 career races.
Alex Birkner finished tied for 18th, his best finish of the season and first top 20 performance. He's finished all five races and in the last two has finished 22nd and 18th. It marks his fourth career top 20 GS finish and 11th top 20 overall.
Bobby Ryan finished 21st and missed a top 20 by just one-hundredth of a second. It's his best finish of the season.
Joey Young and Chase Seymour both didn't finish the race. Louis Fausa didn't after sustaining an injury in Sunday's GS race. Young didn't finish, but the race was the 54th of his career, just two away from the most by a CU alpine skier since 1989.

Utah Invitational Team Results (Thru 6 of 8 Races): 1. Utah 510; 2. Alaska Anchorage 434; 3. Colorado 411; 4. Denver 381; 5. Montana State 364; 6. Alaska Fairbanks 224; 7. Westminster 137; 8. Wyoming 97; 9. Colorado Mountain 68.

Women's Giant Slalom (20 collegiate finishers): 1. Katie Hensien, DU, 2:03.76; 2. Nellie Talbot, MSU, 2:05.02; 3. Hanna Saethereng, WMC, 2:05.27; 4. Katie Parker, UU, 2:06.56; 5. Sona Moravcikova, UU, 2:07.64; 6. Denise Dingsleder, WMC, 2:08.68; 7. Alyssa Hill, UAA, 2:09.31; 8. Elena Exenberger, CU, 2:09.46; 9. Claire Timmermann, UU, 2:09.56; 10. Kristiane Bekkestad, MSU, 2:09.59. Other CU Skiers: Did Not Finish First Run: Emma Hammergaard, Kaitlyn Harsch. Did Not Finish Second Run: Cleo Braun.

Men's Giant Slalom (31 collegiate finishers): 1. Riley Seger, MSU, 2:00.06; 2. Filip Forejtek, CU, 2:01.29; 3. Tobias Kogler, DU, 2:01.49; 4. Gustav Voello, UU, 2:02.12; 5. Joachim Lein, UU, 2:02.16; 6. Jacob Dilling, CU, 2:02.17; 8. Joachim Mjelde, WMC, 2:02.58; 9. Cooper Cornelius, DU, 2:02.82; 10. Jamie Casselman, MSU, 2:03.31. Other CU Finishers: 14. Max Bervy, 2:03.95; t-18. Alex Birkner, 2:04.72; 21. Bobby Ryan, 2:04.96. Did Not Finish First Run: Joey Young, 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