Luczak, Wahlqvist Sweep Slalom Titles At NCAA Championships

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – In one of the most unique settings in all of ski racing, Colorado's Magdalena Luczak and Filip Wahlqvist swept the slalom Individual National Championships on the third day of the NCAA Ski Championships Friday night at Howelsen Hill.

In the team standings, the Buffs did slip to third but shortened the gap to first. Utah leads with 444.5 points while Denver is second with 401 and Colorado third with 393.5. Utah held a 56-point advantage over CU entering the day and remains 51 points up on the Buffs entering Saturday's 20K classic races.

"I think Magda and Filip are the best skiers and they executed and with all the pressure on, it was pretty awesome to see," Alpine Coach Ian Lochhead said. "We had to do a lot tonight, we maybe didn't do enough but we fought hard. I honestly couldn't be more proud of the team, how they prepared, and I think we're good enough to win the national championship and we may not, but when you have a big goal, that's how it goes. It's not over until it's over, we're still all in, we have our fingers crossed and hoping for something crazy with the Nordic team tomorrow."

Luczak put herself in elite company after winning Wednesday's GS race, she swept the two individual titles and won her third overall individual National Championship. She joins Lucie Zikova as the only two women to do that in CU history and she's just the ninth women's alpine skier in NCAA history to sweep the titles and the eighth women's alpine skier in NCAA history to win three or more individual NCAA championships.

"It's great, but I'm also really proud of the whole team, we handled the pressure really well, especially in the second run," Luczak said. "That's the thing about racing in college that you don't get this feeling anywhere else. I wouldn't be able to do it without my team, they helped me and calmed me down before the second run, I was really nervous, so I couldn't have done it without them."

Walhqvist also put himself in elite company with the title, his fourth win of the season as he becomes just the third skier in CU history to win four or more slalom races in a season, joining John Skajem in 1986 with four and only behind David Ketterer's total of five in 2017.

"It was for sure, super awesome," Wahlqvist said. "That was one of my main goals this season to win races, I feel like I accomplished that. I came here to win races, and I feel like I've done that, and when I stand on the start gate, I know I can win, especially in slalom. This race is by far the coolest, biggest race I've ever skied before. I usually don't get nervous at the start, but I felt it on the second run. It was just me and the start ref, but then I after I won everybody was there, that was awesome."

In the women's race, Julia Toiviainen didn't have the first run she wanted, sitting in 28th, but used the 12th fastest second run to move up six spots to finish 22nd. Dingsleder started 33rd but moved up to 22nd after the first run and then another four spots to 18th.

On the men's side, Ryder Sarchett started 23rd and moved up to 18th after the first run, and then threw down the fourth fastest second run to move up another 10 spots to eighth, where he earned second-team All-America honors. Etienne Mazellier started 29th and was sitting solid in 16th after the first run, but hit some bumps on his second run and fell three spots to 19th.

UP NEXT: The final day of the 2024 collegiate season is Saturday morning back here at Howslesn Hill for the 20K classic mass start races. The women will start the day at 10 a.m. followed by the men at Noon.

WHAT IT MEANS: The largest comeback in NCAA history was in 2013 when CU came back from 53 points down from Vermont to claim the championship. Saturday would take a similar effort, and while it's possible, CU will probably need some help from Utah having an off day. Still, the Buffs goal is to go out and ski to their potential and let the chips fall where they may. Either way, the Buffs have put on a show here in Steamboat and the future under coaches Jana Weinberger and Ian Lochhead look bright.

INDIVIDUAL NCAA CHAMPIONS:

Luczak and Wahlqvist's titles gives CU 106, the most in the nation, with 104 of them NCAA titles (plus two AIAW).
Luczak won her third individual NCAA Championship, joining a list that includes just 10 others in CU history, and only one other women's alpine skier, as she ties Lucie Zikova for the most with three titles.
It's the Buffs 20th and 21st titles in slalom, the 16th men's and just the fifth women's.
Luczak's title is the first in women's slalom for CU since Zikova won in 2008.
Walhqvist's title is the first in men's slalom since David Ketterer won the title in 2017.
Luczak's women's alpine sweep of the NCAA Individual Championships is the ninth in NCAA history, and the second straight after Luczak unseated Utah's Madison Hoffman in both races. Since 2018, the women's alpine titles have been swept four times. This is just the second time it's happened in CU history along with Zikova in 2008.
Luczak became the eighth woman to win three or more individual NCAA Championships in women's alpine, and is just one behind the NCAA record of four from Denver's Kristine Haugen (2013-16). She is the fifth woman in NCAA history to win three titles with at least one in each discipline and she's the eighth woman to win at least one of each discipline.

ALL-AMERICANS:

CU picked up three more All-America honors with Luczak and Wahlqivst earning first team honors for their wins and Sarchett a second place honor for his eighth place finish.
CU now has nine All-America honors at the Championships and the Buffs have 556 in their history, 315 men's and 242 women's.
CU now has 320 first-team All-America honors with 180 from men's skiers and 140 from women's.
Sarchett picks up his first All-America honor and is the 213th skier in CU history to earn All-America honors.
Luczak picked up her third All-America honors, all three first-team honors. Wahlqvist picked up his second honor, the other coming as a second-team honor in GS on Wednesday.
CU now has 103 All-America honors in slalom, 53 in women and 50 in men.

MEN'S ALPINE NOTE

Wahlqvist picked up his fourth collegiate win, all in slalom this season, and finished his stellar freshman season finishing 13 of 14 races with 12 in the top 10 and 10 in the top five including seven podiums and four wins. He won four of seven slalom races this season and is just the third skier in CU history to win more than half his slalom starts in a season.
Sarchett rebounded form a DNF in the GS race to take eighth in the slalom race, his fourth top 10 of the season in nine starts and second in four slalom starts.
Mazellier finished a consistent freshman campaign with his 12th top 20 in 12 finished races out of 14. He finished each of his last 11 races and with five top 10s in that span.

WOMEN'S ALPINE NOTES

Luczak capped one of the most dominant women's alpine seasons in CU history, in six starts she won four races and took second in the other two, winning two NCAA Individual Championships. She sets the CU record for highest percentage of race wins in a season at 67 percent and her record against the field that finished the races was an astounding 176-2, or 98.9%.
Dingsleder capped her only season at CU with another top 20 performance, taking 18th, her 11th of the season. Her incredible career spanning both Westminster and Colorado included finishing 40 of 51 race starts with 38 of the 40 in the top 20 and 26 in the top 10 including 14 top five finishes, eight podium appearances and three race wins.
Toiviainen closed out her career with a 22nd place finish. Like Dingsleder, her storied career had impressive numbers including finishing an astounding 49 of 53 race starts with 48 in the top 20, 35 in the top 10 and 19 in the top five including 12 podium appearances and five race wins.

TEAM STANDINGS (Thru 6-of-8 Races): 1. Utah, 444.5; 2. Denver, 401; 3. Colorado, 393.5; 4. Dartmouth, 278; 5. Montana State, 251; 6. Alaska Anchorage, 227; 7. Vermont, 219; 8. New Hampshire, 149; 9. Westminster, 136; 10. Middlebury, 132; 11. St. Michael's, 81.5; 12. Alaska Fairbanks, 72; 13. Colby, 63.5; 14. Michigan Tech, 43; 15. Harvard, 31; 16. Bowdoin, 17; 17. St. Lawrence, 15; 18. Boston College and Nevada, 10; 20. Plymouth State, 9; 21. Bates, 6; 22. Northern Michigan and Williams, 1.

WOMEN'S SLALOM (30 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Magdalena Luczak, CU, 1:25.43; 2. Madison Hoffman, UU, 1:25.56; 3. Nora Brand, DU, 1:25.91; 4. Sara Rask, DU, 1:25.95 and Ella Bromee, UAA, 1:25.95; 6. Mika Anne Reha, MID, 1:26.07; 7. Kristiane Bekkestad, MSU, 1:26.21; 8. Carmen Nielssen, UAA, 1:26.30; 9. Zoe Zimmermann, DAR, 1:26.32; 10. Allie Resnick, DAR, 1:26.35. Other CU Finishers: 18. Denise Dingsleder, 1:27.09; 22. Julia Toiviainen, 1:27.74.

MEN'S SLALOM (28 Collegiate Finishers): 1. Filip Wahlqvist, CU, 1:19.38; 2. Oscar Zimmer, DAR, 1:19.87; 3. Mikkel Solbakken, UU, 1:19.92; 4. Christian Soevik, DU, 1:20.14; 5. Jeremie Lagier, WMC, 1:20.16; 6. Thomas Hoffman, DU, 1:20.23; 7. Magnus Styren, UVM, 1:20.27; 8. Ryder Sarchett, CU, 1:20.30; 9. Gianluca Boehm, MSU, 1:20.36; 10. Simen Strand, SMC, 1:20.38. Other CU Finisher: 19. Etienne Mazellier, 1:21.16.

Luczak, Wahlqvist Sweep Slalom Titles At NCAA Championships

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Players Mentioned

Denise Dingsleder

Magdalena Luczak

Etienne Mazellier

Ryder Sarchett

Julia Toiviainen

Filip Wahlqvist

Players Mentioned

Denise Dingsleder

Magdalena Luczak

Etienne Mazellier

Ryder Sarchett

Julia Toiviainen

Filip Wahlqvist

Luczak, Wahlqvist Sweep Slalom Titles At NCAA Championships

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