Dingsleder Wins RMISA GS, Buffs In Second

BIG SKY, Mont. – Colorado's Denise Dingsleder won the Individual RMISA Giant Slalom Championship and the Buffaloes sit in second place Friday after the first day of competition in the 75th Annual RMISA Championships at Big Sky Resort.

The Buffs are just seven points behind Denver with two of eight races completed in the championship. CU won the women's GS race with 85 points and was third in the men's race with 79. The Pioneers finished second in both but hold the overall lead with 171 points to CU's 164. Utah is third with 147, 17 back of CU and 24 behind Denver as it appears it will be a three-team race for the title.

Dingsleder picked up her first career GS win in her 24th career race a day after picking up her first podium in GS Thursday. She does have two race wins and four podiums in slalom action in her career. This is her second RMISA championship, as she also claimed the slalom championship in 2022 skiing for Westminster.

Three other women's skiers finished in the top 10 for the Buffaloes with Emma Hammergaard taking eighth, Elena Exenberger ninth and Julia Toiviainen 10th while Caroline Jones (12th) and Ashley Campbell (19th) also finished in the top 20. The Buffs won the race 85-82 over Denver with no other team scoring more than 66 points.

On the men's side, Filip Wahlqvist and Etienne Mazellier finished fourth and fifth, respectively, Mazellier using the third-fastest first run to earn his top five finish while Wahlqvist had the second fastest second run to move up from sixth to fourth after the first run. Jacob Dilling was the third team scorer in 13th place with Ryder Sarchett just behind in 14th. Jack Reich also took home a top 20 in 18th position and Chase Seymour finished 30th. Louis Fausa did not finish his first run.

As important as the team standings for the conference and regional championship are the NCAA qualification lists, and with the GS races now complete, it was Dingsleder that made the most of her two GS races in Montana and she now sits in sixth position on the qualification list. Magdalena Luczak, who is not with the team in Montana, is in a five way tie for first ahead of Dingsleder, and four more Buffs are on the top 20 of that GS list.

On the men's side, Wahlqvist finished fourth and four Buffs sit in the top 10 of the GS list as Sarchett is tied for seventh and both Mazellier and Fausa are tied for ninth. Jack Reich and Jacob Dilling also sit in the top 20.

The GS list will be combined with the slalom list after Saturday's races to put together the overall qualification list from the RMISA. Half of the field's 34 skiers at NCAA Championships will come from the RMISA, and no team can qualify more than three skiers across both disciplines, so among the seven alpine teams, the league will be four short of fully qualifying three skiers from each team.

UP NEXT: The RMISA Championships continue with slalom races concluding the championship at Big Sky Resort and the 7.5K freestyle interval start races opening up Nordic competition at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center. Nordic teams will close out the championship Sunday with 20K classic mass start races.

WHAT IT MEANS: The ultimate goal is winning an NCAA Championship, so ensuring you qualify a full team for the NCAAs is paramount, as only a handful of teams have won the title short-handed. With one set of slalom races remaining, the Buffs seem to be in good shape qualifying a full team on the alpine side. But almost as important is securing good seeding, better starting positions, for each race, and that's where the Buffs could use a good day in men's slalom. The Buffs have four in the top nine of the men's GS list but just one in the top 15 on the men's slalom list.

TEAM NOTES

The Buffs scored 164 points and sit seven behind Denver (171) and 17 ahead of Utah (147) as it again appears to be a three-team tango for the title.
CU won the women's race with 85 points on the strength of Dingsleder's win (40 points), with Hammergaard (23) and Exenberger (22) also scoring. CU beat DU by three, 85-82, with no other team scoring more than 66 points.
CU was third in the men's race, but it was much closer at the top with just 11 points separating Utah (90), Denver (89) and Colorado (79).

WOMEN'S ALPINE NOTES:

Dingsleder's win is her third career and first in GS, and first while at Colorado. It's the ninth win for the Buffs this season and it's CU's 692nd win all time and she's the 205th skier to win a race at Colorado. She also secured the program's 127th individual RMISA Championship with the win and the first in three years since Magnus Boee swept the Nordic races in 2021. It's the 57th overall alpine RMISA individual championship, 41st women's, 23rd in GS and 11th for women's GS. It's also the 10th women's GS title in the coed era since 1983, but just the third this century joining Carolina Nordh (2009) and Mikaela Tommy (2020). She beat out Sara Rask, who won Thursday's GS qualifier and stopped her from repeating as champion. CU's 10 women's GS RMISA individual championship ranks second to Denver's total of 11.
Hammergaard picked up her 28th top 10 performance in her career, which now includes 63 race starts, and in 32 GS race starts, she has 16 top 10s.
Exenberger finished ninth, her fifth career top 10 and third in GS action. It's her best finish of the season and best since taking sixth in the GS at the UAA Invitational almost exactly one season ago.
Toiviainen finished 10th, her 34th career top 10 performances and 18th in 26 career GS races.
Jones matched 12th for her career best GS finish, also accomplishing that at the Westminster Invitational to open the season in GS. Prior to this year, her best GS was a 14th place finish in her second career GS race back in 2020 while at Vermont.
Campbell finished 19th, her fifth top 20 of the season and her career in six finished races.

MEN'S ALPINE NOTES:

Wahlqvist finished fourth, his fourth straight top five finish and eighth on the season in 10 races finished. He hasn't finished lower than 12th in those 10 races and has nine top 10 finishes, including four top five GS and five top 10 GS finishes in six races.
Mazellier finished second for the second straight race and now has three top five GS finishes this season. He has three top five and four top 10 GS finishes in five races finished.
Dilling finished 13th as CU's third scorer, his 14th career top 20 GS finish in 15 starts.
Sarchett finished 14th, up eight spots from his 22nd place finish on Thursday. He now has four top 20 finishes in five career races finished, which includes two top 10 and one race win.
Reich finished 18th, his sixth career top 10 and second straight after taking 11th on Thursday.

TEAM STANDINGS (Thru 2 of 8 Races): 1. Denver 171, 2. Colorado 164, 3. Utah 147; 4. Montana State 132; 5. Westminster 114; 6. Alaska Anchorage 78; 7. Colorado Mountain 64; 8. Nevada 62.

WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM (31 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Denise Dingsleder, CU, 1:53.40; 2. Sara Rask, DU, 1:53.98; 3. Nora Brand, DU, 1:54.49; 4. Kristiane Bekkestad, MSU, 1:54.87; 5. Nicola Rountree-Williams, CMC, 1:54.94. Other CU Finishers: 8. Emma Hammergaard, 1:55.18; 9. Elena Exenberger, 1:55.20; 10. Julia Toiviainen, 1:55.63; 12. Caroline Jones, 1:55.77; 19. Ashley Campbell, 1:56.80.

MEN'S GIANT SLALOM (45 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Mikkel Solbakken, UU, 1:52.94; 2. Christian Soevik, DU, 1:53.06; 3. Sindre Myklebust, UU, 1:53.14; 4. Filip Wahlqvist, CU, 1:53.22; 5. Etienne Mazellier, CU, 1:53.58. Other CU Finishers: 13. Jacob Dilling, 1:54.26; 14. Ryder Sarchett, 1:54.46; 18. Jack Reich, 1:54.64; 30. Chase Seymour, 1:56.57. Did Not Finish First Run: Louis Fausa.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Magnus Boee

Ashley Campbell

Jacob Dilling

Denise Dingsleder

Elena Exenberger

Louis Fausa

Emma Hammergaard

Caroline Jones

Magdalena Luczak

Etienne Mazellier

Jack Reich

Ryder Sarchett

Chase Seymour

Julia Toiviainen

Filip Wahlqvist