Best wishes to the team this weekend at their RMISA (The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association) conference championships (which also function as the NCAA Western Regionals), hosted by Montana State (MSU) and being held in and around Bozeman Montana!
Today are just individual qualifier Alpine races, while the RMISA Championships team competition itself will be competed Friday and Saturday, with both Nordic and Alpine teams in action both of those days.
As usual, assume the Buffs overall have probably already earned an NCAA Championship berth. But, in addition to just wanting to beat its rivals in every competition, things I can think of on the line this weekend include-
Formal cubuffs.com preview- https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/2/26/skiing-buffs-head-to-bozeman-to-begin-postseason.aspx
"
BOZEMAN, Mont.--On to the postseason.
Just like that, the regular season is over. From the final race in Park City on Monday to the first race in Bozeman on Thursday, the transformation has happened. Things are kicked up a notch.
And while every RMISA team headed to Bozeman wants to win a league championship, there's always an element with regionals that are still building toward the other race in Bozeman - the NCAA Championships.
One unique aspect of the NCAA Championships is the quota system by which the participants are selected. The maximum number of participants one school can send is the same number as can score for the team, unlike any other event of the season including conference championships.
Because of that, even teams that qualify a full allotment of 12 skiers (three men and three women for both alpine and Nordic) are sending less than half their team to compete for the ultimate prize.
The domino effect on the RMISA Championships, which double as the NCAA West Regional, means that teams are more focused on getting the best possible qualification numbers for the NCAA Championships than they are about actually winning that championship.
Specifically for the Buffs, there are still questions on each team about who will represent the Buffs at the NCAA Championships.
On the men's alpine team, both Joey Young and Filip Forejtek have solidified qualification spots as Young currently sits second on the slalom list and eighth on the GS list and Forejtek is fourth on the slalom list and second GS and sixth on the GS list. The Buffs need a third member of the men's alpine team to separate from the others to complete the team for NCAAs.
The women's alpine team similarily has two skiers who have separated from the field. Mikaela Tommy has locked up the top GS seed in the west and is fifth in slalom while Stef Fleckenstein is second on both lists. On the men's Nordic side, Magnus Boee is currently second on the qualification list with four of the other five sitting between No. 12 and 21 on the list.
On the women's Nordic side, four Buffs are seeded in the top 13 with Anne Siri Lervik No. 5, Hedda Baangman No. 7, Anna-Maria Dietze No. 8 and Ezra Smith No. 13.
The Buffs have won 28 RMISA Championships in their history, 10 more than the next team on the list, both Utah and Denver with 18. The Buffs last won a championship in 2017 and have won five in the last 10 years. The Buffs also have 123 individual RMISA Champions with at least one in 13 of the last 14 years including a combined 33 in those 13 years. Erik Dengerud won last year's men's freestyle championship.
"
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As I type this, I can't find links to live timings for any of the races, but will add them as I find them.
Schedule - I can't find anything for sure, and don't know how accurate it is, but overall the MSU season schedule (https://msubobcats.com/sports/ski/schedule) has each day's competition starting at 9:00 AM.
Live Timings (will add more links as they become available. EDIT - looks like a good general link for the Nordic races is http://summittiming.com/races/race_results.php.) :
Thursday (Individual Qualifying Giant Slalom's only. Races don't count towards Team or Individual RMISA Championships.):
Women's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al6930.htm#/short
Men's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al2003.htm#/short
Friday-
Alpine (Both genders racing the giant slalom):
Men's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al2005.htm#/
Women's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al6932.htm#/
Nordic:
Men's (10K freestyle) - http://summittiming.com/race_result...l_start/live_results_with_splits_for_men.html
Women's (5k freestyle) - http://summittiming.com/race_results/2020/rmisa_regionals/interval_start/live_results_for_women.html
Saturday-
Alpine (Both genders racing the Slalom):
Men's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al2006.htm#/
Women's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al6933.htm#/
Nordic:
Men's (20K Classic) - http://summittiming.com/race_result...s_start/live_results_with_splits_for_men.html
Women's )15K Classic) - http://summittiming.com/race_result...start/live_results_with_splits_for_women.html
Today are just individual qualifier Alpine races, while the RMISA Championships team competition itself will be competed Friday and Saturday, with both Nordic and Alpine teams in action both of those days.
As usual, assume the Buffs overall have probably already earned an NCAA Championship berth. But, in addition to just wanting to beat its rivals in every competition, things I can think of on the line this weekend include-
- Especially in Alpine, getting high finishes in these races are important to help the various Buff individual skiers earn or keep better/ top national ratings to have low bib #'s at the NCAA Championships, which is important so they get to ski in as clean as snow as possible in their 1st runs there.
- The Nordic team, especially the men's, had one of if not their worst overall finishes I can remember their last races a couple weeks ago at an Invitational hosted by the Utes. From articles after those races, I got the feeling that illness and wax issues may have been in play. Hopefully they're closer to 100% now, and I'm sure they'll want to show improvement this weekend.
- Utah had a VERY dominant regular season, not only winning every overall overall Invitational, but winning pretty much every one of the 4 individual elements (slalom, giant slalom, shorter and longer (one each freestyle and classic style) Nordic races) within the competitions each time. (Looking at their schedule, they won 11 of 12 individual elements at the 3 big invitationals.) Be interesting to see if the Buffs can start changing that narrative in RMISA's. The Buffs also came in 3rd at Utah behind DU, so it will also be fun to see how they compete against them.
- Hopefully the west coast teams will be developing an extra advantage this weekend in that they'll be competing at the same locations as NCAA's, as MSU is also hosting those in a couple weeks. (Those Championships begin March 11th. I hope they'll be racing similar if not the exact same runs/ trails in both Championships, but don't know for sure.)
Formal cubuffs.com preview- https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/2/26/skiing-buffs-head-to-bozeman-to-begin-postseason.aspx
"
BOZEMAN, Mont.--On to the postseason.
Just like that, the regular season is over. From the final race in Park City on Monday to the first race in Bozeman on Thursday, the transformation has happened. Things are kicked up a notch.
And while every RMISA team headed to Bozeman wants to win a league championship, there's always an element with regionals that are still building toward the other race in Bozeman - the NCAA Championships.
One unique aspect of the NCAA Championships is the quota system by which the participants are selected. The maximum number of participants one school can send is the same number as can score for the team, unlike any other event of the season including conference championships.
Because of that, even teams that qualify a full allotment of 12 skiers (three men and three women for both alpine and Nordic) are sending less than half their team to compete for the ultimate prize.
The domino effect on the RMISA Championships, which double as the NCAA West Regional, means that teams are more focused on getting the best possible qualification numbers for the NCAA Championships than they are about actually winning that championship.
Specifically for the Buffs, there are still questions on each team about who will represent the Buffs at the NCAA Championships.
On the men's alpine team, both Joey Young and Filip Forejtek have solidified qualification spots as Young currently sits second on the slalom list and eighth on the GS list and Forejtek is fourth on the slalom list and second GS and sixth on the GS list. The Buffs need a third member of the men's alpine team to separate from the others to complete the team for NCAAs.
The women's alpine team similarily has two skiers who have separated from the field. Mikaela Tommy has locked up the top GS seed in the west and is fifth in slalom while Stef Fleckenstein is second on both lists. On the men's Nordic side, Magnus Boee is currently second on the qualification list with four of the other five sitting between No. 12 and 21 on the list.
On the women's Nordic side, four Buffs are seeded in the top 13 with Anne Siri Lervik No. 5, Hedda Baangman No. 7, Anna-Maria Dietze No. 8 and Ezra Smith No. 13.
The Buffs have won 28 RMISA Championships in their history, 10 more than the next team on the list, both Utah and Denver with 18. The Buffs last won a championship in 2017 and have won five in the last 10 years. The Buffs also have 123 individual RMISA Champions with at least one in 13 of the last 14 years including a combined 33 in those 13 years. Erik Dengerud won last year's men's freestyle championship.
"
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As I type this, I can't find links to live timings for any of the races, but will add them as I find them.
Schedule - I can't find anything for sure, and don't know how accurate it is, but overall the MSU season schedule (https://msubobcats.com/sports/ski/schedule) has each day's competition starting at 9:00 AM.
Live Timings (will add more links as they become available. EDIT - looks like a good general link for the Nordic races is http://summittiming.com/races/race_results.php.) :
Thursday (Individual Qualifying Giant Slalom's only. Races don't count towards Team or Individual RMISA Championships.):
Women's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al6930.htm#/short
Men's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al2003.htm#/short
Friday-
Alpine (Both genders racing the giant slalom):
Men's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al2005.htm#/
Women's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al6932.htm#/
Nordic:
Men's (10K freestyle) - http://summittiming.com/race_result...l_start/live_results_with_splits_for_men.html
Women's (5k freestyle) - http://summittiming.com/race_results/2020/rmisa_regionals/interval_start/live_results_for_women.html
Saturday-
Alpine (Both genders racing the Slalom):
Men's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al2006.htm#/
Women's - http://live.fis-ski.com/lv-al6933.htm#/
Nordic:
Men's (20K Classic) - http://summittiming.com/race_result...s_start/live_results_with_splits_for_men.html
Women's )15K Classic) - http://summittiming.com/race_result...start/live_results_with_splits_for_women.html
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