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Ski team- 2020 season pre-season and pre-Championships news and results (Home Invitational begins Jan. 15, 2020)

AztecBuff

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The ski team has released its schedule today, so thought I'd start this thread, where all ski team news and races will be reported and discussed until the NCAA Championships, which will have their own thread. (Those championships are scheduled to be competed in Bozeman Montana from March 11-14, 2020.)

Best wishes to the ski team - may they all stay (or get) healthy and get faster!!!



Direct link to article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2019/7/10/skiing-rmisa-releases-2020-ski-schedule.aspx

"
By: Curtis Snyder, Assistant AD/Sports Information
Release: July 10, 2019


DENVER—The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association released the 2020 schedule for the western region schools Tuesday and the University of Colorado will host the Eighth Annual Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational at Eldora (alpine) and Steamboat Springs (Nordic) January 15-19.

With New Mexico dropping skiing, there are only three scheduled regular season team meets on the books for 2020 instead of the regular total of four. The same number of races will be held in terms of NCAA Qualifying with an extra Nordic qualifier in Aspen and then every meet including the RMISA Championships hosting an extra alpine qualifier.

The teams will open up with the alpine portion of the Denver Invitational on January 10-12 in Aspen with an extra giant slalom race kicking the season off on Friday, Jan. 10 and then GS and slalom races as part of the DU meet on Jan. 11-12. The DU meet will conclude two weeks later with Nordic races at Maloit Park in Minturn, Colo., near Vail. A 5K women's and 10K men's classic race will take place on Jan. 25 followed by a 10K pursuit race on Jan. 26.
...
"
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Link to schedule itself - https://cubuffs.com/schedule.aspx?path=ski

And pasted below:
 


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Also, I already noted the freshmen class in the recruiting thread (back in early November), but since they are also obviously relevant to this thread, thought I'd also list them here. (Mr. Birkner is an Alpine skier, while the other 3 are on the Nordic side. Again, welcome and congrats to all of them!):

WOMEN'S 2020 SKIING ROSTER
NAME HT. CLASS HOMETOWN / HIGH SCHOOL
Anna-Maria Dietze 5-5 Fr. Seiffen, Germany / Eliteschule des Wintersports Oberwiesenthal
Bridget Donovan 5-8 Fr. Vail, Colo. / Vail Mountain School

MEN'S 2020 SKIING ROSTER
NAME HT. CLASS HOMETOWN / HIGH SCHOOL
Alex Birkner 5-8 Fr. Logan, Utah / Sky View
Magnus Boee 5-11 Fr. Oslo, Norway / Norges Toppidrettsgymnas Geilo
 
Congrats to late Alpine skiing roster additions Emma Hammergaard (freshman from Gavle, Sweden) and Bobby Ryan (sophomore transfer from Boston College, hometown - Hurley, NY)! (I will be adding a little more info on them in the Olympic sport recruiting and transfer threads soon.)

And, preview of this season's team, as well as this weekend's 1st races of the year.



Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/8/skiing-2020-skiers-looking-for-schools-21st-title.aspx

"
BOULDER—The goal never changes. In each of his previous 29 seasons as head coach, Richard Rokos has never shied away from publicly announcing the team's goal for the season: Win a national championship. And the 2020 season is no different.

As a new decade dawns, Rokos and the Buffs will look to continue the success of last decade, where the team was arguably the best and most consistent in the nation, winning three NCAA Championships, five RMISA Championships and three RMISA Regular Season Championships, not to mention numerous individual NCAA Championships and All-America honors.

But all that is in the past now. What's in store for this 2020 squad? We'll take a look at each team within the team.
...

The Schedule

The season kicks off later this week at the alpine portion of the Denver Invitational, set for Jan. 10-12 in Aspen. The Nordic teams will kickoff their season and alpine will continue its the following week at the CU's Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational in Eldora and Steamboat Springs Jan. 15-19. The Nordic portion of the DU meet will then take place Jan. 25-26 at Maloit Park in Minturn, Colo.

February kicks off with an RMISA Nordic Qualifier as part of the Owl Creek Chase in Aspen on Feb. 8-9 and the following week the Nordic teams will travel to Soldier Hollow to kickoff the Utah Invitational Feb. 14-15. The alpine teams will conclude the Utah meet Feb. 22-24 and then immediately travel to Bozeman where the RMISA Championships will take place for both disciplines Feb. 27-29. Montana State serves as host of those championships and the NCAA Championships, which will take place March 11-14 to close out the season.
"
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What looks to be potentially a live timing link for this weekend's races - https://livetiming.usskiandsnowboard.org/
 
Review of today's races -


"
ASPEN—Senior Mikaela Tommy won her fourth career race and Stef Fleckenstein got her first career podium appearance as the Canadian duo finished first and second, helping the Colorado Ski Team put together a solid performance at the RMISA Alpine Qualifier races here Friday at Aspen Highlands Ski Resort.

While there was no team scoring, the women's team certainly took the honors on the first day. On top of Tommy's gold and Fleckenstein's silver, freshman Emma Hammergaard was eighth. Tommy had almost a second lead over the field after the first run and was third in the second run to hold on for the win. Fleckenstein was second in the first run and won the second run to cut into Tommy's lead a bit but remain in second. Hammergaard started in 33rd position, moved up to 18th after the first run and had the fifth-fastest second run to move into the top 10.
...

QUOTEWORTHY:
Richard Rokos: "Overall, it was a good day for the Buffs. The women's team did exceptionally well, but they are good so we expect them to. The men have more potential, no question, they didn't quite hit their capacity."

"Mikaela and Stef absolutely the power to do it, at this point it's more about the people behind them, who will step up into the third spot. Today it looks like Emma is getting there, starting 33rd and finishing eighth and with that start, she had to deal content with ruts in the course more than the others."

"On the men's side, Joey had his fairly standard performance and Teddy had a solid race. Filip was out of luck a little bit right before the finish line."

"It was cold today, almost exceptionally cold, but the visibility was good, the course was a little bumpy, but the snow was good, overall a fine day. We're looking forward to tomorrow. It was pretty much a day you could go out and try your limits, there's no consequences but tomorrow comes the real format where it counts for team scoring."

UP NEXT: Friday essentially being a warm-up day, tomorrow more important action begins with another GS race that will count toward the team scores for the 2020 Denver Invitational. Sunday's slalom action will conclude the alpine portion of the DU meet, the only college racing taking place this season.
...
"
 
Article after today's races-


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/11/...nd-straight-gs-buffs-second-at-du-invite.aspx

"
ASPEN—Senior Mikaela Tommy won her second straight race to open the 2020 season and the Colorado Ski Team sits in second place after the first day of the Denver Invitational here Saturday at Aspen Highlands Ski Resort.

Behind Tommy's win and sophomore Stef Fleckenstein taking fifth place, a big story of the day was Bobby Ryan finishing sixth on the men's side, a career-best finish for the newcomer from the east. The Buffs won the women's race, edging Utah 85-83 and then the Utes then won the men's race to take the meet lead with 176 points to CU's 153.
...

"The women did well and skied to their potential," CU coach Richard Rokos said. "In many ways we were spread all over the field and I think we can get in a little more of a bundle a little higher up. Between Mikaela and Stef, another outstanding result. It was a consistent performance. This was a difficult and demanding hill, but the snow was perfect so that helped us generally ski well. It was good to see Bobby coming and presenting himself immediately as a factor in the game. He contributed to our happiness on the men's side."
...

"On the second run I wanted to light the fire, so I did that and it turned out pretty good," Tommy said. "It was a lot of fun to race that hard and I ended up winning so that was good. Bobby finishing fifth was really cool to see."

The alpine teams will conclude the Denver Invitational Sunday with the slalom races here at Aspen Highlands.
...

WHAT IT MEANS: It was a good day for the Buffs, but the good news is that the potential is there to be even better. Tommy continues to show her dominance on the women's side and Ryan looks like a solid addition to the team on the men's side. All 12 Buffs finished both runs, which was a bit of a thorn in the side of the men's team last season.
...

UP NEXT: The alpine teams will close out the DU Invitational with the first set of slalom races Saturday. Teams will then only have two days off before commencing CU's own Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational, with alpine action in that meet taking place Wednesday-Friday at Eldora Mountain Resort. The Nordic teams will then open the season Saturday and Sunday in the CU meet in Steamboat Springs.

TEAM—1. Utah 176; 2. Colorado 153; 3. Montana State 145; 4. Westminster 134; 5. Denver 129; 6. Alaska Anchorage 100; 7. Colorado Mountain 71.
...
'
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Review of today's action-


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/12/...-buffs-slip-to-fourth-at-du-invitational.aspx

"
ASPEN—Sophomore Stef Fleckenstein won her first collegiate race and the women's team put up another solid performance but it wasn't enough for the Colorado Ski Team not to slip from second to fourth place as alpine action is now concluded for the Denver Invitational here Sunday at the Aspen Highlands Ski Resort.

The Buffs took the lead after the conclusion of the women's race on the strength of three top 10 finishers, but then fell to fourth after the atypical men's race in which the Buffs top finisher was Filip Forejtek in 14th place. When all the dust settled, CU was fourth with 278 points behind Utah (317), Denver (306) and Westminster (288) and just ahead of fifth place Montana State (274). The good news for the Buffs is they are just 39 points behind Utah as all five teams are bunched together at the top of the standings.
...

Foejtek and sophomore Max Bervy were the only two Buffs that didn't either ski out or have to hike on the men's side. Bervy finished 20th while junior Joey Young (22nd) and sophomore Bobby Ryan (23rd) both had to hike twice to stay in the race.

"This race wasn't a typical race given what we've done the past few weeks training and racing," Rokos said. "We have a little misfortune of our younger skiers being seeded back further in the field, it's just a matter of time and we'll earn our spots. We'll put this behind us and plan for a better future."

That future will come quickly. With classes starting for the spring semester on Monday for the University of Colorado, the skiers will have an off day before heading to Eldora Tuesday to start getting ready for the Buffs' Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational that starts Wednesday. Alpine action takes place at Eldora Wednesday to Friday with Nordic teams finally starting their collegiate season in Steamboat Springs on Saturday and Sunday.

TEAM: The Buffs earned 83 points to finish second in the women's race and then just 42 points in the men's race to finish sixth of seven teams. Utah leads with 317 points followed by host Denver with 305. Westminster (288) is just 10 points ahead of the Buffs total of 278 while Montana State is just four points back in fifth place with 274. Alaska Anchorage (181) and Colorado Mountain (152) round out the team scoring.
...

QUOTEWORTHY:

Richard Rokos:
"It was sweet and sour today. On the ladies side it was sweet and could've been sweeter if Mikaela had finished her second run after we were first and second in the first run. Overall, the ladies did very well. Olivia (Gerrard) had a little misfortune. On the men's side, sour, unfortunately. It was a tough day for the guys, one after another. Joey (Young) ended up hiking in the first run, he's our strongest slalom skier and it snowballed from there. Filip (Forejtek) was a standout on that side. We had a few good races before we came here, they were confidence builders and I hope the confidence is still here. On the ladies side, we'll try to emphasize this as a good race and the men's side we will forget it quickly, this isn't how it should be."

"I can't put my finger on it. This race wasn't not typical to have a performance like that given the last few weeks. It wasn't technical skiing, it was a little misfortune and for the newer skiers being seeded further back in the field, it's just a matter of time where we'll earn our spot. Bobby hiked twice, Joey same thing. Something that isn't typical, they're both solid skiers. We'll put this behind us and plan for a better future.

"It's great to see both Mikaela(Tommy) and Stef (Fleckenstein) coming so strong. They had a great shot of being 1-2 today. Mikaela had a little misfortune on the second run. A great day for Stef and Andrea and they all put together a great race. Emma (Hammergaard) is moving out of the wood with our skiing and seeding system. It will take another race before she gets where she deserves and will be in a position to attack. Kaitlyn has had some revival this year, in Winter Park she was winning races against reasonable competition, these races are even higher competition. Her getting a top 10 is awesome and we'll build on it."

"We have to get to school first tomorrow, that's a reality check. Then on Tuesday we have training, everybody at Eldora, all teams in the Invitational, and then on Wednesday we'll get into it. We'll come up for a couple runs on Tuesday. We had some races right before the college season, we've been in the car a lot. Everybody's holding up well in terms of physical appearance and health, so it looks like we're fairly well set for the rest of the season.

Stef Fleckenstein: "I was second after the first run behind Mikeala, but unfortunately she didn't finish her second run and I ended up winning. We had three in the top 10 of the women's race which is awesome. We need to work on the whole team getting down the course, we had a few people who didn't finish which affects our ranking. Overall I think the women have a good energy coming into the CU race and the guys know they have to step it up. We know the team has a lot of potential, we just have to get everybody down the course on the same day. Everybody is excited to race at home, hopefully the school comes out to support us. We know the hill really well and the conditions should be good, so we're excited to race. The next races are Wednesday to Friday at Eldora.

UP NEXT: The alpine teams will have two days off before commencing the next set of races at CU's own Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational, slated to start Wednesday at Eldora Mountain Resort. There will be three days of racing, one giant slalom and two slalom races. The Nordic season then begins in Steamboat Springs on Saturday and Sunday.
...
"
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Highlights and short interviews-
 


(Live timings for today's races -
Men's (scheduled to begin at 8:30 AM, but don't see any times posted yet) - https://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=203836
Women's (9:30 AM scheduled start) - https://www.live-timing.com/race2.php?r=203837 )
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Note - Preview article for the team's 1st home/ hosted races for the year is at https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/14/skiing-buffs-set-to-host-own-invitational.aspx .

"
BOULDER—The Colorado Ski Team will host the Eighth Annual Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational this week at Eldora and Steamboat Springs, bringing together teams from the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association for the second alpine and first Nordic action early in the 2020 season.

The alpine portion of the meet will be hosted at Eldora Mountain Resort on Wednesday to Friday, January 15-17 and the Nordic portion of the meet will take place in Steamboat Springs on Saturday and Sunday, January 18-19. On Wednesday, action starts at 8:30 a.m. with the men's giant slalom first run followed by the women at 9:30 a.m. Second runs will take place early afternoon. Live timing can be found at buffs.me/skilive.

The Invitational is named after Spencer Nelson, who passed away in a hiking accident near Aspen in August 2010, just prior to the start of his sophomore season at CU. His parents, Peter Nelson and Peggy Smith, personally hand out custom made belt buckles as popular podium prizes at the awards ceremonies after each race in the meet.

Wednesday's action will kick off with giant slalom race that will be part of the Colorado Invitational, followed by two days of slalom races on Thursday and Friday. Thursday's slalom race will count toward the Colorado Invitational team standings while Friday's is considered an extra qualifier and will count toward individual accolades and NCAA Championship qualification.

Saturday will mark the first Nordic action for the 2020 season with the women's 5K and men's 10K freestyle races at Howelsen Hill. Action in the CU Invitational will conclude Sunday with the running of the women's 15K and men's 20K classic races.

...
"
 
Article after today's start to the Buff's Invitational-



Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/15/...t-gs-buffs-take-lead-at-own-invitational.aspx

"
ELDORA—Senior Mikaela Tommy won her third straight giant slalom race for the second straight season to power the Colorado Ski Team into the lead after the first day of its own Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational here Wednesday.

Last season, Tommy also won the first three GS races in which she competed, becoming the first women's alpine skier in CU history to win three straight GS races. CU's single season record for GS wins is four and last year Tommy became the second skier to win more than one women's GS race in a season. Her six career GS wins ranks tied for first in CU history and is tied for second for overall wins by a women's alpine skier.

Sophomore Stef Fleckenstein continued her impressive start to the season, hitting the podium in third place, her third podium in four races this season and fourth top-five finish. On the men's side, sophomore Filip Forejtek just missed the podium in fourth place while Joey Young finished eighth and Teddy Takki 11th.

The Buffs scored 165 combined points to open up a 12-point lead over Utah (153) with Montana State (146.5) and Denver (130.5) both in striking distance as just two of eight races in the meet are complete.

CU's meet will continue with two more days of alpine racing in Eldora. Thursday's slalom races will conclude the alpine portion of the team standings for the Spencer Nelson Invitational and Friday's slalom races will be an RMISA Qualifier. The Nordic teams will then get their respective seasons underway Saturday and Sunday in Steamboat Springs to close out the eighth annual running of the meet.
...

QUOTE WORTHY:

Richard Rokos: "It was a good day. This is our home meet, it's our pride, we're at home and we want to do our best."

"For Mikaela, GS is her domain and she's very good at slalom, too. It's good to see her doing so well. And Stef, they're both pushing each other and taking no prisoners. The rest of the women's team had a little misfortune, Kaitlyn and Andrea can both be a little higher, Emma is still adjusting to these conditions and Olivia took a serious tumble today. But they all had great effort and that's good to see."

"Filip is a good skier. The men's side is going to be a dogfight when the first three or four guys come back from the World Cup. Having him is a good comfort for me, to know that he is capable of competing with those guys. Joey can dominate this hill and typically does but had a little misfortune on his second run but still finished in the top 10. We had a solid day all around on the men's side today."

"Emma still doesn't know the way between Boulder and Eldora like well all do by heart. Last week was her first appearance in the Rocky Mountains and today was her first time on our home hill. She's adapting to the dry snow in the Rocky Mountains, it's different than Sweden. She's a very well equipped technical skier and everybody goes through it."

"The next two days are very important, especially for the men's team. We're not seeded as good in slalom as we are in GS, especially on the men's side. Tomorrow that shouldn't be too much of a factor, the hill is in great shape. We will definitely need to improve our seeding, and this is a great chance, on our home hill with good conditions. The guys have a good opportunity to redeem themselves. Tomorrow will be our day to take over."
...

UP NEXT: The alpine teams have two more days of racing at Eldora, both slalom races. Thursday's races will be a part of the team scoring for the CU Invitational and Friday will be an RMISA Qualifier, which won't count for team scores but will for individual accolades including NCAA Championship seeding, MVP and All-RMISA and other awards.

TEAM—1. Colorado 165; 2. Utah 153; 3. Montana State 146.5; 4. Denver 130.5; 5. Alaska Anchorage 115; 6. Westminster College 99; 7. Colorado Mountain 68.
...
"
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Full results - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2020/1/15//2020_Colorado_Invite.pdf

Highlights -

 
Article and highlights of yesterday's races-


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And, there are qualifying giant slalom races today. (Must say it feels kind of weird the Alpine skiers will have gotten 6 races in this season before the Nordic folk start their season tomorrow.)




 


Looks like the 1st men's Nordic race of the season is over, and it was a dominating day for the utes, as they are showing finishing in 2nd-5th (and the winner (listed being with SMS) may not be a college athlete?) and 9th-10th (thankfully believe only their top 3 scorers count?).

The Buff scorers are showing in 6th, 8th and 13th, and look they probably eeked out a 2nd place scoring performance over Alaska-Anchorage. (DU was WAY back with their 1st skier only in 14th, and 2nd in 21st.)
 
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On the women's side, I believe a cubuffs.com preview article before the season started said that both Lervik and Baangman had injury issues in the fall, so a nice sign they were able to race this strongly early in the season when I'd guess (???) they still might not be at 100% fitness.
 
Article after today's Nordic season openers-


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/1/18/...keep-buffs-in-second-at-own-invitational.aspx

"
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS—Senior Anne-Siri Lervik and freshman Magnus Boee both earned top five finishes as the Nordic teams had a solid start to the 2020 season here to remain in second place at the CU Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational at Howelsen HIll.

While the Buffs had a solid day, Utah had an even better day, sweeping the podium in the men's race and earning the top two spots in the women's race. The team standings spread out a bit as Utah leads with 541 points, 71 up on the Buffs total of 470, but the Buffs also opened up a bigger lead over third place Denver, who is third with 395.5 points. Entering the day, those three teams were within 25 points and now the margin is 145.5.
...

QUOTEWORTHY:

Jana Weinberger: "It's always good to get the first race of the season over with, you know where you stand. Utah had a great day today, we had a good day, it's a good start to the season. There's definitely still room for improvement. If we went 1-2-3 today, I 'd be a little worried that we were a little too good a little too early.

"It's a good sign that Magnus was up with the leaders, he can ski with them. Our other new skier, Ryan, is a little better in classic so I'm looking forward to him being up there tomorrow."

"Utah will be strong tomorrow, Ryan is a little better in class, and our women's team is a little better in classic."
...

UP NEXT: The Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational will end tomorrow with the running of the 15K women's and 20K men's classic races. It will be the first complete meet to finish the season. Next weekend the Nordic portion of the Denver Invitational will conclude that meet, which kicked off the alpine season over a week ago.

TEAM—1. Utah 541; 2. Colorado 470; 3. Denver 395.5; 4. Alaska Anchorage 382; 5. Montana State 318.5; 6. Westminster 242; 7. Colorado Mountain 143; 8. Alaska Fairbanks 113; 9. Wyoming 67.

MEN'S 10K FREESTYLE (38 collegiate finishers)—1. Samuel Hendry, UU, 27:29.3; 2. Maximilian Bie, UU, 27:46.4; 3. Luke Jager, UU, 27:59.3; 4. Logan DIekmann, UU, 28:10.6; 5. Magnus Boee, CU, 28:23.9; 6. Espen Persen, UAA, 28:29.2; 7. Wyatt Gebhardt, CU, 28:29.7; 8. Noel Keeffe, UU, 28:42.3; 9. Ola Jordheim, UU, 28:44.8; 10. Sigurd Roenning, UAA, 28:46.1. Other CU Finishers: 12. Sondre Bollum, 28:56.5; 15. Ryan Jackson, 29:12.3; 17. Andrew Potyk, 29:22.2; 22. Tyler Terranova, 30:16.5.

WOMEN'S 5K FREESTYLE (36 collegiate finishers)—1. Guro Jordheim, UU, 15:14.2; 2. Maria Bredal, UU, 15:25.7; 3. Anna Darnell, UAA, 15:33.0; 4. Anne-Siri Lervik, CU, 15:39.5; 5. Leah Lange, UU, 15:44.0; 6. Natalie Hynes, UAA, 15:55.6; 7. Hedda Baangman, CU, 16:00.9; 8. Emma Tarbath, MSU, 16:04.7; 9. Ezra Smith, CU, 16:10.2; 10. Mariel Pulles, UAF, 16:12.7. Other CU Finishers: 13. Anna-Maria Dietze, 16:26.9; 18. Quinn Lehmkuhl, 16:55.5; 24. Bridget Donovan, 17:44.4.
"
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Highlights -
 
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