Buffs Take Lead At RMISA Championships, Wahlqvist Wins Slalom Title

BIG SKY & BOZEMAN, Mont. – Colorado's Filip Wahlqvist won the slalom title and six Buffaloes finished in the top six as CU took the lead at the 75th Annual RMISA Championships with the full team competing in slalom and freestyle races Saturday at Big Sky Resort and Crosscut Mountain Sports Center.

Wahlqvist's title is the Buffs second in two days, joining Denise Dingsleder as an RMISA Individual Champion, and the six top five finishes helped propel the Buffs past Denver into the lead of the RMISA Championships with just Sunday's 20K classic races remaining.

But perhaps the best feel good news of the day was Katie Fleckenstein returning to the course and skiing in a college race for the first time in over two years. Fleckenstein missed the entire 2021 and 2023 seasons due to injury and in 2022 started just three races with one finish. Sunday was her fourth college start and second finish out of a possible 45 races.

In Saturday's four races, men's and women's slalom and 7.5K freestyle races, the Buffs had the most points with 334, 29.5 ahead of second place Utah and 78 points ahead of Denver, who held the first-day lead. CU won both slalom races, took second in the men's freestyle race and third in the women's freestyle, scoring at least 74 points in all four races.

Through six races, the Buffs have 498 points, a 46.5 point lead on Utah (451.5) and 71 up on third place Denver (427). Host Montana State (378.5) and Alaska Anchorage (312) round out the top five.

Magnus Boee finished second in the men's 7.5K freestyle race, just three-tenths of a second out of the lead, and picked up the Buffs other podium on the day, and he was joined by Johannes Flaaten in fourth place while Will Koch also finished 10th place as the third team scorer and Alexander Maurer finished 16th. In the women's 7.5K freestyle race, Anna-Maria Dietze finished fifth and Weronika Kaleta took seventh with Karolina Kaleta taking 11th and Hanna Abrahamsson 13th.

Three Buffs finished in the top eight of the women's slalom ace led by Julia Toiviainen in fourth place with Caroline Jones taking seventh and Denise Dingsleder eighth, and three more Buffs earned top 20 performances. Wahlqvist was joined in the top five of the men's slalom race by Ryder Sarchett, who finished fourth, while Louis Fausa's 11th place finish was the third scoring position for the Buffs. Etienna Mazellier took 15th place.

UP NEXT: The RMSIA Championships come to a close Sunday with the 20K classic races, set to start at 9:30 a.m. at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center. At that point, just the NCAA Championships remain, which the Buffs will host at Steamboat Springs March 6-9.

WHAT IT MEANS: There are two perspectives of how Saturday went for the Buffs, and both are differing levels of positive. In terms of the team standings and performance, the Buffs knocked it out of the park and set up the Nordic teams to make a run at the team's first postseason RMISA Championship in seven years. The Buffs have been stronger in GS throughout the season, but two win both slalom races was a clutch performance that will need to continue at next month's NCAA Championships.

While the Nordic teams didn't win the races, they still scored about the same amount of points as the alpine team, which is the consistency needed to win meets. In terms of NCAA qualification, the overall news is positive, as the Buffs will qualify a full alpine team for the Championships, and several Buffs improved their placement Saturday including Ryder Sarchett and Louis Fausa on the men's side and Julia Toiviainen, Caroline Jones and Denise Dingsleder on the women's side. The hard part now is which three of each gender do you select for the NCAA Championships, a good, but still very tough, problem to have. For Nordic, Boee and Flaaten both improved their freestyle seeding on the men's side as did Karolina Kaleta on the women's side. Both Nordic teams are safely qualified and the Buffs will be represented by a full 12-skier squad in Steamboat Springs.

FINAL ALPINE NCAA QUALIFICATION PLACEMENTS:

Women's Slalom: Magdalena Luczak 3, Julia Toiviainen 8, Caroline Jones 10, Denise Dingsleder 18, Elena Exenberger 23, Ashley Campbell 27, Emma Hammergaard 30, Katie Fleckenstein 37, Cleon Braun 39.
Men's Slalom: Filip Wahlqvist 1, Ryder Sarchett 14, Louis Fausa 15, Etienne Mazellier 20, Jacob Dilling 23, Jack Reich 39, Chase Seymour 48.
Women's Giant Slalom: Magdalena Luczak 1, Denise Dingsleder 6, Emma Hammergaard 12, Julia Toiviainen 15, Elena Exenberger 16, Caroline Jones 20, Ashley Campbell 23, Cleo Braun 38, Katie Fleckenstein 38.
Men's Giant Slalom: Filip Wahlqvist 4, Ryder Sarchett 7, Etienne Mazellier 9, Louis Fausa 9, Jack Reich 18, Jacob Dilling 18, Chase Seymour 40.

TEAM NOTES:

The Buffs are in first place with 498 points through six of eight races, holding a 46.5 point lead on Utah and 71 over Denver.
In the final alpine standings, the Buffs won three of the four alpine races, hold the overall alpine lead with 334 points, 33.5 over Denver, and had the most for both men's alpine (170) and women's alpine (164).
Despite finishing second in the men's Nordic race and third in the women's, the Buffs had the most Nordic points on the day with 164, edging out the host Bobcats by four points.
Overall on the day, the Buffs scored 334 points, 29.5 more than Utah and 88 more than Denver.

WOMEN'S NORDIC NOTES:

Anna-Maria Dietze finished fifth, her third straight top five finish and fifth straight top 10. She has finished in the top 5 a total of 19 times now, including 12 in freestyle races.
Weronika Kaleta finished seventh, her 15th straight top 10 finish dating back to the 2022 season, and in all nine races so far this season. She now has 26 career top 10s in 34 race starts, and 14 freestyle top 10s in 18 freestyle races.
Karolina Kaleta finished 11th for her 20th career top 20 finish, including 11 in 12 career freestyle races.
Hanna Abrahamsson finished 13th, her 32nd career top 20 finish in 32 career races.

MEN'S NORDIC NOTES:

Magnus Boee finished second, just three-tenths of a second behind Joe Davies from Utah. It's Boee's second straight runner-up finish and third podium of the season. He now has 29 career podium finishes in his career to go with 38 overall top fives and 47 career top 10 finishes in 55 races. In Freestyle, he now had 13 career podium performances to go with 17 top fives and 22 top 10s in 28 races. His 29 career podiums ranked tied for sixth in CU history, tied for third among men's skiers and tied for second among men's Nordic skiers alongside Mads Stroem (2014-17). His 38 top five finishes ranks fifth most in CU history and one out of a three-way tie for second place. The 38 ranks third for men's skiers and second for men's Nordic skiers. His 47 top 10 finishes is third most in CU history, and third most among men's skiers in CU history and he holds the record for most by a men's Nordic skier. He broke a tie with Maria Grevsgaard (2006-09) and now has the most top 10 finishes by any skier in the past 74 years, as the only two with more are Frank Brown (70, 1957-59) and Dave Butts (51, 1958-60), both of whom were four-way skiers competing in both alpine and Nordic events.
Johannes Flaaten finished fourth, the best finish of his young career topping two fifth place finishes at the DU Invitational. On top of three straight top five finishes, he has six straight top 10s and has finished in the top 11 in nine of 10 races to date this season.
Will Koch finished 10th for his 13th straight top 10 performance and 28th career top 10 finish. He now has 14 career top 10s in 18 career freestyle races and hasn't finished outside the top 10 in a freestyle race since the 2022 season.
Alexander Maurer picked up his 20th career top 20 finish in 16th place and his ninth top 20 in 13 career freestyle races. He's finished in the top 20 in eight of nine races he's started this season.

WOMEN'S ALPINE NOTES

Julia Toiviainen finished fourth, her 19th career top five finish and eighth in slalom races. In 51 career races, she has finished 47, all 47 in the top 20 and 35 in the top 20 with her 19 career fop fives. In 25 slalom races, she has finished 24, all in the top 20 and 17 in the top 10.
Caroline Jones finished seventh, her 16th career top 10 finish, all in her 22 career slalom finishes. She has finished 37 race in the top 20 in her career with 47 race starts and 45 finishes, and has 22 top 20 slalom finishes in as many finishes in 24 race starts.
Denise Dingsleder finished eighth and now has 25 top 10 finishes in her career and 11 in slalom races.
Elena Exenberger finished 16th, her 25th career top 20 finish and 12th in 13 slalom finishes.
Emma Hammergaard finished 19th, her 44th career top 20 finish. She now has started 64 races at CU, finishing 47 with 44 in the top 20.
Ashley Campbell finished 20th for her second straight top 20 and fourth straight top 20 in races she's finished. She has six top 20 performances in seven races finished this season and three in three slalom races.
Katie Fleckenstein returned to the slopes, skiing in a college race for the first time since Jan. 20, 2022 and finished a race for just the second time since Jan. 19, 2022. She has missed 41 of a possible 45 college races, not counting NCAA Championships, and has finished two of those four, both in slalom.

MEN'S ALPINE NOTES

Filip Wahlqvist won the slalom race, his third win of the season, all in slalom. He now has five straight top five finishes, and nine this season. His three wins ranks 10th most in CU history for men's slalom races and third most for a season. He's the ninth men's skier to win three or more slalom races in a season and it's the most since David Ketterer won five in 2017. He also ranks 10th in CU history for most top five finishes by a men's alpine skier. It's the 693rd race win in CU history and it's CU's 128th individual RMSIA Championship. It's the 58th overall alpine individual RMISA Championship and 88th for men's skiers in CU. For men's slalom, it's the first title since David Ketterer in 2017 and 12th time CU has won the men's slalom individual title.
Ryder Sarchett finished fourth, the best slalom finish of his young career second top five finish alongside a GS win earlier in the season.
Louis Fausa finished 11th for her 32nd career top 20 finish and 16th in 17 slalom finishes. He has finished 34 of 49 races in his career, including 17 of 25 in slalom.
Etienne Mazellier finished 15th, his 10th top 20 this season, all of which have come in the top 15. He has finished 10 of 12 races this season.

RMISA CHAMPIONSHIPS TEAM STANDINGS: (Thru 6-of-8 Races): 1. Colorado 498; 2. Utah 451.5; 3. Denver 427; 4. Montana State 378.5; 5. Alaska Anchorage 312; 6. Westminster 256.5; 7. Alaska Fairbanks 129; 8. Nevada 128.5; 9. Colorado Mountain 125.

WOMEN'S 7.5K FREESTYLE (35 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Kate Oldham, MSU, 20:54.2; 2. Tilde Baangman, MSU, 20:55.8; 3. Kendall Kramer, UAF, 21:11.2; 4. Rosie Fordham, UAF, 21:22.6; 5. Anna-Maria Dietze, CU, 21:23.1. Other CU Finishers: 7. Weronika Kaleta, 21:42.3; 11. Karolina Kaleta, 22:10.7; 13. Hanna Abrahamsson, 22:20.6; 25. Elena Grissom, 23:30.2; 26. Sophie Spalding, 23:39.3; 28. Kili Lehmkuhl, 23:48.8.

MEN'S 7.5K FREESTYLE (34 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Joe Davies, UU, 18:40.3; 2. Magnus Boee, CU, 18:40.6; 3. Tom Mancini, UU, 18:58.3; 4. Johannes Flaaten, CU, 19:11.1; 5. Brian Bushey, UU, 19:11.7. Other CU Finishers: 10. Will Koch, 19:29.3; 16. Alexander Maurer, 20:28.3; 27. Hugo Hinckfuss, 21:19.8; 29. Trey Jones, 21:26.7.

WOMEN'S SLALOM (30 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Kaja Norbye, UU, 1:41.68; 2. Sara Rask, DU, 1:41.79; 3. Carlotta Marcora, WMC, 1:41.82; 4. Julia Toiviainen, CU, 1:42.24; 5. Carmen Nielssen, UAA, 1:42.37. Other CU Finishers: 7. Caroline Jones, 1:42.47; 8. Denise Dingsleder, 1:42.63; 16. Elena Exenberger, 1:43.50; 19. Emma Hammergaard, 1:43.79; 20. Ashley Campbell, 1:44.07; 29. Katie Fleckenstein, 1:49.09.

MEN'S SLALOM (42 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Filip Wahlqvist, CU, 1:35.12; 2. Thomas Hoffman, DU, 1:36.12; 3. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:36.20; 4. Ryder Sarchett, CU, 1:36.29; 5. Jan Ronner, UAA, 1:36.32. Other CU Finishers: 11. Louis Fausa, 1:36.91; 15. Etienne Mazellier, 1:37.38; 25. Jacob Dilling, 1:38.48; 36. Jack Reich, 1:41.67; 40. Chase Seymour, 1:43.68.

Buffs Take Lead At RMISA Championships, Wahlqvist Wins Slalom Title

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Players Mentioned

Hanna Abrahamsson

Magnus Boee

Cleo Braun

Ashley Campbell

Anna-Maria Dietze

Jacob Dilling

Denise Dingsleder

Elena Exenberger

Louis Fausa

Johannes Flaaten

Katie Fleckenstein

Elena Grissom

Emma Hammergaard

Hugo Hinckfuss

Caroline Jones

Trey Jones

Karolina Kaleta

Weronika Kaleta

Will Koch

Kili Lehmkuhl

Magdalena Luczak

Alexander Maurer

Etienne Mazellier

Jack Reich

Ryder Sarchett

Chase Seymour

Sophie Spalding

Julia Toiviainen

Filip Wahlqvist