Wednesday, March 10
Francona, N.H.
All Day
University of Colorado
vs
Giant Slalom
Stef Fleckenstein (left) and Cassidy Gray (right) on the podium after Gray won and Fleckenstein was second in the women's GS race Wednesday.
Gray Wins NCAA Championship, Buffs Third After Day 1
March 10, 2021 | Skiing
FRANCONIA, N.H. – Freshman Cassidy Gray won the Individual NCAA Championship and junior Stef Fleckenstein was second in the women's giant slalom race, propelling the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team into third place after the first day of the NCAA Championships here at Mittersill-Cannon Mountain Ski Resort Wednesday.
On the strength of Gray and Fleckenstein, the Buffs won the women's GS race as a team with 94 points, 15 ahead of second place Westminster and 35 ahead of third place Vermont. The men's team had a series of unfortunate events that lead to junior Filip Forejtek being the only team scorer. His seventh place finish gave the Buffs 25 points in that race for a total of 119. Montana State and Westminster, both out of the RMISA, are tied for the lead with 137 points, 18 ahead of the Buffs, while Utah is 11 points behind the Buffs with 108 points and Denver rounds out an all-RMISA top five with 97 points.
Gray became the Buffs 98th Individual National Champion (96th NCAA) in program history and the first in women's alpine since CU Hall of Famer Lucie Zikova swept both races at the 2008 NCAA Championships. Fleckenstein's second place finish gave the Buffs their first 1-2 finish at the NCAA Championships since 2013 when Joanne Reid and Eliska Hajkova finished 1-2 in the women's freestyle at Middlebury enabling the Buffs to pull off the largest final day comeback in NCAA history.
Gray's performance was particularly impressive given the fact she started the race 26th out of a possible 33 racers. Even though she had a GS win earlier in the season at Park City, she didn't have a good NCAA seed because it was the only GS race she finished this season. Despite starting near the back of the field, she had the third-fastest first run and then her second run was over a second faster than every other skier in the field to get the win. Fleckenstein started sixth and had the lead after the first run and her second-place time was nearly a second ahead of third place Francesca English from Vermont. Sophomore Emma Hammergaard had a solid race, finishing 14th and moving up six spots from her starting position of 22nd.
In the men's race, the Buffs were in solid position after the first run with Forejtek in fourth place, freshman Louis Fausa in 11th and senior Joey Young in 13th. In the second race, there was a stoppage on the lift and many of the skiers that finished in the top 13 of the first run were stuck, causing an approximate 25 minute delay in the race. Young and Fausa were both stuck on the lift, and when the race resumed, the rhythm of the day was off and Young didn't finish and Fausa went down but recovered, both at the exact same spot of the course. Young was the first skier to ski after the delay and Fausa was the third, and the skier in second, Vermont's Declan McCormack, also had an issue on his second run that cost him dearly.
By the time Forejtek was able to make his second run about eight skiers later, he slipped three spots into seventh place, still earning second-team All-America honors. Gray and Fleckenstein both earned first-team All-America honors.
WHAT IT MEANS: The Buffs put on a show on the women's side, winning a race for the first time this season and in impressive fashion. The potential was always there, but national team commitments and injuries made it hard for the team to live up to its potential all season. The unfortunate part is the Buffs could've not only been in the first day lead, but could've had a comfortable lead if the race delay hadn't happened. If Fausa and Young had held their first run positions, the Buffs would've scored in the range of 150 points and had a 10-15 point lead over Montana State and Westminster and more importantly about a 45-50 point lead over Utah.
The Utes left the door open in the women's race, having the exact opposite day of the Buffs with two women's skiers not earning any team points but putting together a solid men's race. As it stands, the Buffs are 11 points up on Utah entering Nordic action on Thursday, where the Utes are extremely tough. Anything can happen, but it's not out of the question for both the Buffs and Utes to pass first day leaders on the strength of their Nordic teams Thursday. Regardless, the Buffs are in a solid position. There have been several seasons where a bad first day put the Buffs out of title contention, and as it stands now, the Buffs are very much in title contention.
UP NEXT: The Nordic teams now take center stage Thursday with the 5K women's and 10K men's classic races at Jackson Nordic Center in Jackson, N.H. The men's race will start at 8 a.m. MT followed by the women's race at 10 a.m. MT. Friday it will be back to the alpine teams with slalom races and Saturday the championships will conclude with Nordic freestyle races.
QUOTABLE:
Richard Rokos: "It's a great feeling to have 1-2 in a race, I don't think we've ever had a placement like that. Most of our women's skiers are capable of doing it, so it was good to see. They switched places between the first run and second run. We had a similar situation last year with Stef and MIkaela Tommy, but both went out. It's always a gamble, in this race it was a calculated gamble and both ladies capitalized on the opportunity.
"The guys didn't have it today. All three are capable of skiing in the top 10, there's no way to put a finger on it, the snow was the same as the first run. You either ski to your potential and ski where you're supposed to be or you ski out. It would say that part of the course is the CU section. Four years ago Ola Johansson crashed at the spot that both Joey and Louis did today. In a national championship, the last race of his career for college, the same way with Joey today, it's a heartbreaking situation. There are a lot of ambitions. In a few years, he won't be as affected by it, but right now we're heartbroken.
"Stef was on track for a while, and she obviously put lots of investment in it, she trained harder than anybody else, she has the goal and focus to make the Canadian National Team. Hopefully she will make it. Cassidy is there, she's already had a great season on the World Cup, finishing in the top 30 in almost every GS race she's competed in, those ladies are both on their way to glory."
Cassidy Gray: "I was really nervous for today, probably the most nervous I was all season. It kind of showed on the first run, I was playing it safe. It was cool to see the girls all put two runs down today, it was such awesome energy the whole day. It was cool for me to come on such a quick timeline from Europe and have success in both places.
"I got to New Hampshire not last night but the night before. I came straight from the World Cup in Slovakia, it was pretty chaotic couple of days with all the traveling. I'm really grateful for my team here and my team in Europe that gave me the most opportunities to be successful in both places.
"There have been a lot of highlights, but this is definitely one of the biggest ones, it's so great to have such great support from everybody. Today was so cool because I felt that from the coaches and the team. That made the results so much better because everybody was so happy about it.
"Any one of our skiers has the ability to put down and get on the podium in any race. It's really cool to be able to have so much confidence in all your teammates.
"I'm lucky I've had great teammates on the national team. The difference is this feels more like a team sport, like soccer or volleyball, football kind of sport, because we're all so dependent on each other's results. But if somebody's day doesn't go the way that's planned, everybody wants you to do well, but they won't hate you if you don't. It's honestly such a cool environment, it's my first time on a team like this and I'm blown away with people always cheering for you and being in your corner."
Stef Fleckenstein: "I think Cass was the reason I was pushing so hard today. On the training day, she said she wasn't feeling it, then I watched the tape and she was crushing it, so I felt like we could both go for it today. Same with Emma (Hammergaard). Everybody was really feeling it today. I'm happy if anybody had to beat me it was Cass.
"I actually didn't know, I kind of had a feeling Cass went into first, because the starters kind of indicated it. I knew she was going to go for it in the second run. I knew I'd be battling her going into it, so I went for it.
"I think it's important to have a good first day, it gives us confidence the rest of the week and gives the Nordic team confidence in us. The guys struggled, but it's rare for everybody to have a good day on the same day. Hopefully we have good says for both genders on Friday.
"I think we both knew the GS was our best shot at winning. I think we're both good slalom skiers and we'll see how it goes, but we picked up some confidence. I'm confident in the whole team, it's a cool feeling.
"You don't realize how much a good team dynamic impacts the whole team result until you have a good team dynamic. Everybody's been on the same page this week, everything is much more meshed together. Everybody has each other's backs, that's something that's really important. It seems to be working. We haven't had any bad days, everybody is supportive of each other. There's no blame, no judgement, we just want everybody to have their best day. It's different than the national team because you're competing for yourself. There's more pressure competing for yourself, but if you know the whole team is doing well, it's more meaningful."
ALL-AMERICAN NOTES:
MEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM STANDINGS (Through 2 of 8 Races): 1. Montana State & Westminster, 137; 3. Colorado 119; 4. Utah 108; 5. Denver 97; 6. Vermont 94; 7. New Hampshire & Plymouth State 77; 9. Alaska Anchorage 63; 10. Boston College 54; 11. St. Lawrence 32.
WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM (28 collegiate finishers)—1. Cassidy Gray, CU, 2:07.18; 2. Stef Fleckenstein, CU, 2:07.66; 3. Francesca English, UVM, 2:08.58; 4. Julia Toiviainen, WMC, 2:08.67; 5. Mathilde Nelles, PSU, 2:08.96; 6. Hannah Saethereng, WMC, 2:09.05; 7. Josefine Selvaag, UVM, 2:09.36; 8. Katie Parker, UU, 2:09.49; 9. Nellie Talbot, MSU, 2:09.84; 10. Lana Zbasnik, WMC, 2:10.07. Other CU Finisher: 16. Emma Hammergaard, 2:10.83.
MEN'S GIANT SLALOM (31 collegiate finishers)—1. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 2:01.57; 2. Tobias Kogler, DU, 2:02.16; 3. Gustav Vollo, UU, 2:02.28; 4. Aage Solheim, MSU, 2:02.86; 5. Joachim Lein, UU, 2:03.16; 6. Riley Seger, MSU, 2:03.41; 7. Filip Forejtek, CU, 2:03.46; 8. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 2:03.84; 9. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 2:04.16; 10. Mathias Tefre, UVM, 2:04.32. Other CU Finisher: 31. Louis Fausa, 2:09.61. Did Not Finish Second Run: Joey Young.
On the strength of Gray and Fleckenstein, the Buffs won the women's GS race as a team with 94 points, 15 ahead of second place Westminster and 35 ahead of third place Vermont. The men's team had a series of unfortunate events that lead to junior Filip Forejtek being the only team scorer. His seventh place finish gave the Buffs 25 points in that race for a total of 119. Montana State and Westminster, both out of the RMISA, are tied for the lead with 137 points, 18 ahead of the Buffs, while Utah is 11 points behind the Buffs with 108 points and Denver rounds out an all-RMISA top five with 97 points.
Gray became the Buffs 98th Individual National Champion (96th NCAA) in program history and the first in women's alpine since CU Hall of Famer Lucie Zikova swept both races at the 2008 NCAA Championships. Fleckenstein's second place finish gave the Buffs their first 1-2 finish at the NCAA Championships since 2013 when Joanne Reid and Eliska Hajkova finished 1-2 in the women's freestyle at Middlebury enabling the Buffs to pull off the largest final day comeback in NCAA history.
Gray's performance was particularly impressive given the fact she started the race 26th out of a possible 33 racers. Even though she had a GS win earlier in the season at Park City, she didn't have a good NCAA seed because it was the only GS race she finished this season. Despite starting near the back of the field, she had the third-fastest first run and then her second run was over a second faster than every other skier in the field to get the win. Fleckenstein started sixth and had the lead after the first run and her second-place time was nearly a second ahead of third place Francesca English from Vermont. Sophomore Emma Hammergaard had a solid race, finishing 14th and moving up six spots from her starting position of 22nd.
In the men's race, the Buffs were in solid position after the first run with Forejtek in fourth place, freshman Louis Fausa in 11th and senior Joey Young in 13th. In the second race, there was a stoppage on the lift and many of the skiers that finished in the top 13 of the first run were stuck, causing an approximate 25 minute delay in the race. Young and Fausa were both stuck on the lift, and when the race resumed, the rhythm of the day was off and Young didn't finish and Fausa went down but recovered, both at the exact same spot of the course. Young was the first skier to ski after the delay and Fausa was the third, and the skier in second, Vermont's Declan McCormack, also had an issue on his second run that cost him dearly.
By the time Forejtek was able to make his second run about eight skiers later, he slipped three spots into seventh place, still earning second-team All-America honors. Gray and Fleckenstein both earned first-team All-America honors.
WHAT IT MEANS: The Buffs put on a show on the women's side, winning a race for the first time this season and in impressive fashion. The potential was always there, but national team commitments and injuries made it hard for the team to live up to its potential all season. The unfortunate part is the Buffs could've not only been in the first day lead, but could've had a comfortable lead if the race delay hadn't happened. If Fausa and Young had held their first run positions, the Buffs would've scored in the range of 150 points and had a 10-15 point lead over Montana State and Westminster and more importantly about a 45-50 point lead over Utah.
The Utes left the door open in the women's race, having the exact opposite day of the Buffs with two women's skiers not earning any team points but putting together a solid men's race. As it stands, the Buffs are 11 points up on Utah entering Nordic action on Thursday, where the Utes are extremely tough. Anything can happen, but it's not out of the question for both the Buffs and Utes to pass first day leaders on the strength of their Nordic teams Thursday. Regardless, the Buffs are in a solid position. There have been several seasons where a bad first day put the Buffs out of title contention, and as it stands now, the Buffs are very much in title contention.
UP NEXT: The Nordic teams now take center stage Thursday with the 5K women's and 10K men's classic races at Jackson Nordic Center in Jackson, N.H. The men's race will start at 8 a.m. MT followed by the women's race at 10 a.m. MT. Friday it will be back to the alpine teams with slalom races and Saturday the championships will conclude with Nordic freestyle races.
QUOTABLE:
Richard Rokos: "It's a great feeling to have 1-2 in a race, I don't think we've ever had a placement like that. Most of our women's skiers are capable of doing it, so it was good to see. They switched places between the first run and second run. We had a similar situation last year with Stef and MIkaela Tommy, but both went out. It's always a gamble, in this race it was a calculated gamble and both ladies capitalized on the opportunity.
"The guys didn't have it today. All three are capable of skiing in the top 10, there's no way to put a finger on it, the snow was the same as the first run. You either ski to your potential and ski where you're supposed to be or you ski out. It would say that part of the course is the CU section. Four years ago Ola Johansson crashed at the spot that both Joey and Louis did today. In a national championship, the last race of his career for college, the same way with Joey today, it's a heartbreaking situation. There are a lot of ambitions. In a few years, he won't be as affected by it, but right now we're heartbroken.
"Stef was on track for a while, and she obviously put lots of investment in it, she trained harder than anybody else, she has the goal and focus to make the Canadian National Team. Hopefully she will make it. Cassidy is there, she's already had a great season on the World Cup, finishing in the top 30 in almost every GS race she's competed in, those ladies are both on their way to glory."
Cassidy Gray: "I was really nervous for today, probably the most nervous I was all season. It kind of showed on the first run, I was playing it safe. It was cool to see the girls all put two runs down today, it was such awesome energy the whole day. It was cool for me to come on such a quick timeline from Europe and have success in both places.
"I got to New Hampshire not last night but the night before. I came straight from the World Cup in Slovakia, it was pretty chaotic couple of days with all the traveling. I'm really grateful for my team here and my team in Europe that gave me the most opportunities to be successful in both places.
"There have been a lot of highlights, but this is definitely one of the biggest ones, it's so great to have such great support from everybody. Today was so cool because I felt that from the coaches and the team. That made the results so much better because everybody was so happy about it.
"Any one of our skiers has the ability to put down and get on the podium in any race. It's really cool to be able to have so much confidence in all your teammates.
"I'm lucky I've had great teammates on the national team. The difference is this feels more like a team sport, like soccer or volleyball, football kind of sport, because we're all so dependent on each other's results. But if somebody's day doesn't go the way that's planned, everybody wants you to do well, but they won't hate you if you don't. It's honestly such a cool environment, it's my first time on a team like this and I'm blown away with people always cheering for you and being in your corner."
Stef Fleckenstein: "I think Cass was the reason I was pushing so hard today. On the training day, she said she wasn't feeling it, then I watched the tape and she was crushing it, so I felt like we could both go for it today. Same with Emma (Hammergaard). Everybody was really feeling it today. I'm happy if anybody had to beat me it was Cass.
"I actually didn't know, I kind of had a feeling Cass went into first, because the starters kind of indicated it. I knew she was going to go for it in the second run. I knew I'd be battling her going into it, so I went for it.
"I think it's important to have a good first day, it gives us confidence the rest of the week and gives the Nordic team confidence in us. The guys struggled, but it's rare for everybody to have a good day on the same day. Hopefully we have good says for both genders on Friday.
"I think we both knew the GS was our best shot at winning. I think we're both good slalom skiers and we'll see how it goes, but we picked up some confidence. I'm confident in the whole team, it's a cool feeling.
"You don't realize how much a good team dynamic impacts the whole team result until you have a good team dynamic. Everybody's been on the same page this week, everything is much more meshed together. Everybody has each other's backs, that's something that's really important. It seems to be working. We haven't had any bad days, everybody is supportive of each other. There's no blame, no judgement, we just want everybody to have their best day. It's different than the national team because you're competing for yourself. There's more pressure competing for yourself, but if you know the whole team is doing well, it's more meaningful."
ALL-AMERICAN NOTES:
- The Buffs picked up three All-America honors, the 514th, 515th and 516th in CU history, the 292nd honor by a men's skier and the 223rd and 224th by a women's skier.
- Forejtek picked up second-team honors in GS, his second career honor after earning first-team honors last season in the GS race.
- Fleckenstein picked up first team honors, her first, first-team honor and second overall after picking up second-team honors in the slalom in 2019.
- Gray picked up first-team honors for the first time, becoming the 199th skier in CU history to become an All-American. She is also the 82nd women's skier.
- Along with Fleckenstein's first, first-team honor, the two become the 148th and 149th skiers in CU history to earn first-team honors and the 61st and 62nd women's skier to earn first-team honors.
- The Buffs now have 101 All-America honors in giant slalom, 50 in men's and 51 in women's action.
- The Buffs now have 130 women's first-team honors and 106 men's second team honors.
- The Buffs scored 119 points on the day and are in third place, 18 points behind Montana State and Westminster's total of 137 points. CU is then 11 points ahead of Utah (108) and 22 up on Denver (97). The RMISA holds the top five spots, as sixth place Vermont (94) followed by host New Hampshire (77) and Plymouth State (77) as the top teams out of the EISA.
- Buffs won the women's race with 94 points, outscoring Westminster (79) by 15 and third place Vermont (59) by 35.
- The Buffs were bit by the unlucky bug in the men's race, scoring just 25 points. Young skied out and Fausa fell at the same point that Young did, and while he rebounded, he finished 31st, one place out of team scoring position. The Buffs finished ninth as a team in the men's race.
- The win in the women's race was the first women's GS win at the NCAA Championships since 2012. It's the ninth time the Buffs have won the women's GS race under coach Richard Rokos, also doing so in 1991, '95, '97, '98, '99, 2007, '11 and '12. It's the first race win in any discipline since the men's Nordic team won the freestyle race at the 2019 Championships.
- In 2020, the women's team was 12th after Fleckenstein and race favorite Mikaela Tommy both did not finish the race.
- Gray and Fleckenstein's 1-2 finish were the first for the Buffs at the NCAA Championships since 2013 when Joanne Reid and Eliska Hajkova went 1-2 in the women's freestyle race on the final day, helping the Buffs to the largest final day comeback in NCAA history.
- It's also the first 1-2 finish at the NCAA Championships since 2014 when Vermont swept the podium in the women's slalom race.
- Scoring for the Buffs were Gray (40), Fleckenstein (37) and Hammergaard (17) for the women and just Forejtek (25) for the men. Fausa finished the race, but in 31st place, the first non-scoring position.
- Cassidy Gray won the Buffs 98th Individual National Championship, which includes 96 NCAA and two AIAW titles.
- The 98 overall and 96 NCAA are both the most in the nation.
- She is the first women's alpine skier since 2008 to win an individual title, when Lucie Zikova won both the GS and slalom titles.
- It's the Buffs 28 individual title for a women's skier and the 16th title in giant slalom and the Buffs sixth women's GS title, joining Lynda McGenee (1986), Caroline Gedde-Dahl (1998), Aime-Noel Hartley (1999, 2000) and Zikova (2008).
- It's the first giant slalom title since David Ketterer won the men's GS race in 2017.
- It's the first individual title overall since 2019 when Erik Dengerud won the men's freestyle title.
- It's her second race win of the season in just her third GS race of the season. She has won three GS runs this season, one in each race. The one race she didn't finish she held the lead after the first run. The two races she's won she has won the second run in both of them.
- Gray is the first women's alpine skier to win in her first NCAA Championship race. Overall, she's the 12th skier to do so since 1983 and first since David Ketterer swept the men's alpine races at the 2017 NCAA Championships on this same course.
- Gray's win is the Buffs 11th win on the season and is the 660th in CU history.
- In the past three seasons, the Buffs have won 10 women's GS races, which Gray's two this season in addition to Tommy's eight over the past two seasons.
- Stef Fleckenstein finished second behind Gray, having the fastest first run and fourth-fastest second run to hold a 94-hundredths of a second advantage over third place. It's her eighth career podium appearance and second of the season, including her second straight in GS races after finishing second at the RMISA Championships in the GS race. In her last 16 finished races, she's finished on the podium eight times and either first or second a total of five times. She earns first-team All-America honors, her second overall honor and first honor on the first-team.
- Emma Hammergaard finished 14th, giving her seven top 15 finishes in seven races finished this season. She improved six spots from her 20th place finish in the GS race as a freshman in 2020. She now has 17 top 20 finishes in her career in 18 races finished and 24 overall races.
MEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:
- Filip Forejtek finished seventh in the men's GS race to earn his second career All-America honor. He's now finished 10 of 11 races on the season, all in the top seven, and in his last 18 races, he's finished 16 of them all in the top seven.
- Louis Fausa had a bit of bad luck with the race delay, going on his hip and losing all his momentum near the bottom of his second run, eventually finishing in 31st place. He was in 11th after the first run and looking to hit the top 10 for All-America honors.
- Joey Young did not finish, having the unfortunate luck of being the first skier on course after a lengthy delay, and did not finish the second run. He and Fausa fell at the same spot, but he was unable to pull out of it. He was knocking on the door for All-America honors after being in 13th place after the first run. It was his 50th career race and just the ninth he hasn't finished in his four seasons.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM STANDINGS (Through 2 of 8 Races): 1. Montana State & Westminster, 137; 3. Colorado 119; 4. Utah 108; 5. Denver 97; 6. Vermont 94; 7. New Hampshire & Plymouth State 77; 9. Alaska Anchorage 63; 10. Boston College 54; 11. St. Lawrence 32.
WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM (28 collegiate finishers)—1. Cassidy Gray, CU, 2:07.18; 2. Stef Fleckenstein, CU, 2:07.66; 3. Francesca English, UVM, 2:08.58; 4. Julia Toiviainen, WMC, 2:08.67; 5. Mathilde Nelles, PSU, 2:08.96; 6. Hannah Saethereng, WMC, 2:09.05; 7. Josefine Selvaag, UVM, 2:09.36; 8. Katie Parker, UU, 2:09.49; 9. Nellie Talbot, MSU, 2:09.84; 10. Lana Zbasnik, WMC, 2:10.07. Other CU Finisher: 16. Emma Hammergaard, 2:10.83.
MEN'S GIANT SLALOM (31 collegiate finishers)—1. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 2:01.57; 2. Tobias Kogler, DU, 2:02.16; 3. Gustav Vollo, UU, 2:02.28; 4. Aage Solheim, MSU, 2:02.86; 5. Joachim Lein, UU, 2:03.16; 6. Riley Seger, MSU, 2:03.41; 7. Filip Forejtek, CU, 2:03.46; 8. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 2:03.84; 9. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 2:04.16; 10. Mathias Tefre, UVM, 2:04.32. Other CU Finisher: 31. Louis Fausa, 2:09.61. Did Not Finish Second Run: Joey Young.