Ski Team Busy Wrapping Up Non-College Races

BOULDER—While the Colorado Buffaloes Nordic Ski Team finished up competition at the U.S. National Championships, the alpine teams were spread out at several competitions as the World University Games and Montana State Invitationals draw nearer.

U.S. National Cross Country Ski Championships

The Nordic teams remained in Houghton, Mich., to finish up the second half of the U.S. National Cross Country Ski Championships after the first two races that counted as official college races were over.

On Friday, the 10K junior and 20K men's and women's classic races took place, and the Buffs had participants in all four of the races. In the 20K men's race, senior Magnus Boee finished fifth and unfortunately junior Will Koch did not finish the race. Fredrik Nilsen finished 26th, Alexander Maurer 35th and Hugo Hinckfuss 37th. In the 10K juniors race on the men's side, freshman Luka Riley placed fourth overall, less than 22 seconds off the race winner.

On the women's side, junior Weronika Kaleta took 10th in the 20K women's race and CU's other two women competing there this week took part in the juniors race with Elena Grissom taking 48th and Kili Lehmkuhl 51st.

Saturday concluded action at the U.S. Championships with the freestyle sprint races. On the men's side, Koch (second), Hinckfuss (fourth) and Boee (25th) all advanced out of qualifying into the heats.

The Buffs hit a little trouble in the quarterfinal heats as both Boee and Hinckfuss were eliminated with Koch advancing to the semifinals before he was eliminated prior to the final heat. Koch ended up finishing ninth, Boee 18th and Hinckfuss 21st after the final tabulations were made on the race. Nilsen finished 33rd in the qualifier and Maurer 37th and Riley hit some turbulence and took 79th in the qualifier.

On the women's side for the sprints, Kaleta qualified in fourth place while Lehmkuhl (47th) and Grissom (50th) did not. Kaleta won her quarterfinal heat and took fourth in her semifinal heat but was a lucky loser and advanced to the finals where she ended up finishing fourth.

Forejtek Hits World Cup Circuit

Super senior Filip Forejtek is doing something he hasn't done since before he came to CU and has been skiing on the World Cup Circuit this fall. He made his first World Cup Start since December 2, 2018, just over four years later on Dec. 22, 2022 in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, and in the past week has made two more slalom starts at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and Adelboden, Switzerland. He had DNF's in the first run in the first two and finished the first run but did not qualify Saturday at Adelboden.

Forejtek has been joined by former Buff David Ketterer on the World Cup Circuit. Ketterer has four World Cup slalom starts this season and has not yet qualified for the second run. He did win a slalom race at Telfs, Austria, on Dec. 30.

Dilling Leads NorAm Cup GS Standings, Gets Four More Starts In Past Week

Sophomore Jacob Dilling took part in North American Cup races with four more starts at Burke Mountain over the past week, two in slalom and two in Super G. On the strength of a win and fourth place GS race, he is the current NorAm Cup GS leader with 150 points, and he ranks 11th overall.

At Burke Mountain, he took fifth in a slalom race on Jan. 3, did not finish another slalom race on Jan. 4, and on Saturday he took 25th and 19th in a pair of Super G races.

In the slalom races at Burke, he was joined by Birkner (27th on Jan. 3, 26th on Jan. 4) and Fausa (13th on Jan. 3, DNF on Jan. 4) on the NorAm Cup circuit.

In women's NorAM Cup action, Exenberger was the only Buff that took part in the Stratton Mountain series, and she took 19th and 13th in two slalom races on Jan. 3-4.

Buffs Dominate Copper Series

Several Buffs also took part in a GS series at Copper Mountain over the weekend and senior Emma Hammergaard took full advantage by winning both races on Saturday and Sunday. Cleo Braun was also impressive, taking second on Saturday and seventh on Sunday. Sophomore Elena Exenberger was sixth Sunday and Katie Fleckenstein took 15th on Saturday.

For Hammergaard, it was her first win in an FIS race since February 2020 when she won back to back slalom races at Snowbird and her first GS win since January 2020 when she took the top of the podium at Steamboat Springs.

On the men's side, Alex Birkner won the GS race on Sunday with Reich taking second. Freshman Sebastian Kohlhofer took ninth, Seymour was 15th and Louis Fausa did not finish. On Saturday's GS race, Seymour was eighth and Kohlhofer 18th.

World Pro Ski Tour

The World Pro Ski Tour got underway this past week in Steamboat Springs with the City of Steamboat Springs Pro Open. A parallel slalom competition, CU Buffs Jack Reich, Chase Seymour and Kaitlyn Harsch took part.

On Jan. 6, Reich was seeded 20th and Seymour 23rd and neither advanced out of the first round on the men's side. On the women's side, Harsch earned a three seed but was upset in the first round. She had her revenge on Jan. 7, however, beating the top seed in the first round to advance to the semifinals, where she went to the consolation round and again won to finish in third place. Reich again held a 20 seed on Jan. 7 but fell again in the first round.

Steamboat Springs was the first of four events scheduled for the 2023 season, with Bear Valley, Calif, hosting races Feb. 10-12 and Taos hosting the World Championships March 30-April 1. There will also be an east cost event at some point earlier in March.

Reid Continues Biathlon Career

Former Buff Joanne Reid began her seventh season on the World Cup Biathlon tour and is putting together one of her best seasons to date. She has 10 starts so far this season and earlier this season on Hochfilzen, she took 26th in the 7.5K sprint race, her best sprint finish on the World Cup.

Up Next

Up next for the Buffs will be the World University Games for both disciplines and the Montana State Invitational for the remaining Nordic skiers not skiing at WUG.

A total of 14 Buffs are expected to compete at World University Games, the most in program history. Expected to compete are, for women's alpine, Birkner (United States), Exenberger (Austria), Hammergaard (Sweden), Harsch (United States). Men's alpine Dilling (United States), Fausa (Norway) and Reich (United States).

In women's Nordic action, Anna-Maria Dietze (Germany) and Weronika Kaleta (Poland) will be competing alongside, for the men, Boee (Norway), Haugan (Norway), Koch (United States), Maurer (United States) and Nilsen (Norway).

World University Games kick off Thursday evening with the Opening Ceremonies. Nordic races take place Jan. 13-22 and alpine racing is from Jan. 13-21. Former CU coach Richard Rokos will be the coach for the U.S. alpine teams and assistant coach Chad Wolk will be coaching Norway and some other Scandinavian teams on the alpine side.

That will also leave the Buffs a little short-handed for the first team-scored meet of the year, the Montana State Invitational, which takes place on the Nordic side Jan. 13-14 at Crosscut. The Buffs will send four women, Hanna Abrahamsson, Grissom, Karolina Kaleta and Lehmkuhl along with the two remaining men, Riley and Hinckfuss, to compete.

Players Mentioned

Hanna Abrahamsson

Alex Birkner

Magnus Boee

Cleo Braun

Anna-Maria Dietze

Jacob Dilling

Elena Exenberger

Louis Fausa

Katie Fleckenstein

Filip Forejtek

Elena Grissom

Emma Hammergaard

Kaitlyn Harsch

Hugo Hinckfuss

Karolina Kaleta

Weronika Kaleta

Will Koch

Sebastian Kohlhofer

Kili Lehmkuhl

Alexander Maurer

Fredrik Nilsen

Jack Reich

Luka Riley

Chase Seymour

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