Abrahamsson Podiums At MSU Invitational

BOZEMAN, Mont.—Sophomore Hanna Abrahamsson finished on the podium in second place and the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team sits just nine points out of second after the 15K Classic races Friday here at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center.

All five Buffs that competed in races either set or tied a new career best or finished in the top 10. Abrahamsson and Karolina Kaleta both matched their career best finishes, Luka Riley set a new career best and Kili Lehmkuhl set her career best for classic races. Hugo Hinckfuss finished ninth in another impressive performance for the Australian freshman.

"Hanna was awesome, just seeing her beat all the Utes but one was awesome," Nordic coach Jana Weinberger said. "Karolina did well, she just got back from Europe and raced pretty well. Even without the full squad here we're less than 10 points out of second, so overall I'd say it was a good day."

Abrahamsson battled with a trio of Utes and came in second behind Utah's Novie McCabe by just 3.2 seconds as the two battled to the end. Two other Utah skiers, who swept the classic race at last year's NCAA Championships, took third and fourth and those four skiers were all within a minute of each other. There was then over three minutes to the next skier, which happened to be CU sophomore Karolina Kaleta in fifth place, as she led the second wave of skiers through the finish line.

The CU women only had three skiers race today with freshman Elena Grissom not starting and Weronika Kaleta and Anna-Maria Dietze participating in the World University Games.

The men's team is even more depleted than the women's due to the World University Games, with CU's two freshmen competing Friday in Bozeman. Hinckfuss took ninth and Riley earned his best collegiate finish in 11th.

Team scoring consists of the top three skiers in each race earning points, and the CU men are the only team in either gender to be one skier short. Despite that the Buffs are in fourth place and just nine points out of second, finishing the day with 127 points. Utah leads with 199 and is 63 points ahead of second place Alaska Anchorage (136) with Alaska Fairbanks (133) just ahead of the Buffs and Denver (127) just behind. Host Montana State rounds out the team scoring with 110 points.

WHAT IT MEANS

With most of CU's Nordic team at the World University Games (see a recap of action below), specifically only scoring two men's skiers, the fact the Buffs are just nine points out of second place is encouraging. Abrahamsson hanging tough with the Utah trio is a great sign for the Buffs and Kaleta taking fifth and the men's freshmen skiers both in the top 11 all point to the depth of the team. Once the Nordic team is together and fully healthy, they should be able to significantly close that gap on the Utes.

UP NEXT

The Nordic portion of the MSU Invitational will conclude Saturday with the 5K women's and 10K men's freestyle races. Both will be interval start races and are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. for the women's race and 11 a.m. for the men's race. After Saturday, focus will shift fully to World University Games as the next collegiate race is Jan. 26.

TEAM NOTES

The Buffs scored 127 points on the day, 83 in the women's race and 44 in the men's race.
The 83 points scored by the women's team was the second-most in the field.
Abrahamsson accounted for 37 points, Karolina Kaleta 29 and Kili Lehmkuhl 17.
Hinckfuss scored 23 points and Riley 21 for the men's team.
The Buffs finished nine points out of second place, and if the men's team had a third skier participating, the lowest score they could've obtained would have been 13 points, thus the Buffs would be in second place if not for not fielding a full men's team.

WOMEN'S NORDIC NOTES

Abrahamsson matched her career-best finish of second place which she obtained twice last season as a freshman, once each in classic and freestyle races. She now has four career podium appearances and in her 12th career collegiate race, she has never finished lower than seventh.
Karolina Kaleta matched her career best finish of fifth, which she obtained twice as a freshman last season. She took fifth in one freestyle and one classic race a season ago. It is her third career top five finish and sixth top 10 in nine career races.
Lehmkuhl had her career best classic finish with 15th, just one off her overall career best finish of 14th in the freestyle race at the RMISA Championships last season. She now has six career top 20 finishes, including five in the past six races dating back to the end of last season.

MEN'S NORDIC NOTES

Hinckfuss finished ninth for his second top 10 finish in his first three collegiate races, both in classic action as he took fifth in the classic sprints RMISA qualifier at the U.S. National Championships last week.
Riley finished 11th for the best finish of his young career, bettering a 16th place finish in the freestyle race that was an RMISA Qualifier and part of the U.S. National Championships.

MONTANA STATE INVITATIONAL TEAM SCORES (Thru 2 of 8 races)—1. Utah 199; 2. Alaska Anchorage 136; 3. Alaska Fairbanks 133; 4. Colorado 127; 5. Denver 124; 6. Montana State 110.

MEN'S 15K CLASSIC RESULTS (23 collegiate finishers)—1. Mike Ophoff, UAF, 41:17.2; 2. Joe Davies, UAF, 41:17.2; 3. Samuel Hendry, UU, 41:18.3; 4. Brian Bushey, UU, 41:40.2; 5. Luke Jager, UU, 41:46.3; 6. Bernhard Flaschberger, DU, 42:02.8; 7. Ari Endestad, UAA, 43:02.5; 8. Walker Hall, UU, 43:03.0; 9. Hugo Hinckfuss, CU, 43:45.3; 10. Magnus Noroey, UAA, 44:17.7. Other CU Finisher: 11. Luka Riley, 44:26.3.

WOMEN'S 15K CLASSIC RESULTS (20 collegiate finishers)—1. Novie McCabe, UU, 47:53.6; 2. Hanna Abrahamsson, CU, 47:57.8; 3. Sophia Laulki, UU, 48:17.3; 4. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU, 48:55.8; 5. Karolina Kaleta, CU, 52:18.5; 6. Astrid Stav, UAA, 52:36.1; 7. Tuva Bygrave, UAA, 52:41.0; 8. Tilde Baangman, MSU, 52:52.3; 9. Emma Larsson, DU, 53:56.5; 10. Ezra Smith, UU, 54:33.6. Other CU Finisher: 15. Kili Lehmkuhl, 56:18.7.

WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES

The 31st Winter World University Games got underway Friday, as well, and on the alpine side the Super-G races were postponed until Saturday. Sophomore Jacob Dilling and freshman Jack Reich are both participating in that discipline.

In Cross Country action, four Buffs were in action in the Mixed Team Sprint races. Junior Weronika Kaleta finished just off the podium for the Poland 1 team as her and countrymate Mateusz Haratyk took fourth place. Each skier had three legs around the 1.3K loop and on Kaleta's second loop, she moved the team from eighth to fifth. Haratyk held fifth place on his final leg and then Kaleta moved up one final spot before the finish as the duo missed the podium by just 45-hundredths of a second.

Senior Anna-Maria Dietze and her teammate Marius Bauer advanced to the final and ended up in eighth place for the Germany 1 team. Junior Will Koch teamed with Kendall Kramer on the United States 1 team and finished fourth in the second semifinal but did not advance to the final. The top two teams from each semifinal and then next six teams by time advanced, and all six "lucky losers" came from the first semifinal. Senior Magnus Boee teamed with Henriette Semb on the Norway 2 team and they finished eighth in the second semifinal.

Next up for the Buffs at World University Games will be the postponed Super-G races on Saturday. Sunday action will return to the Cross Country side with the Freestyle Sprint races.

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Players Mentioned

Hanna Abrahamsson

Magnus Boee

Anna-Maria Dietze

Jacob Dilling

Elena Grissom

Hugo Hinckfuss

Karolina Kaleta

Weronika Kaleta

Will Koch

Kili Lehmkuhl

Jack Reich

Luka Riley