Forejtek has been knocking on the door of picking up his first win for a while. In his career, he has six second place finishes and Wednesday's win is his ninth career podium (top three) appearance. At the end of last season, he finished second in the slalom race at the RMISA Championships by one-hundredth of a second and in the GS race at the NCAA Championships by two-hundredths of a second.
"Overall, our results were up and down today," CU coach Richard Rokos said. "Filip's win is obviously the up. Unfortunately he didn't finish the first race of the day. He was in the mix after the first run and skied out on the second run. Louis Fausa also had a solid day, he started pretty far back and moved up. He's a very good skier, technically solid. Being from Norway, he's still getting used to our snow and the best way to navigate it. He's used to icy conditions and it's softer here."
The Buffs were able to move into fourth place and again tighten the team standings to close out the alpine portion of the meet. As a team, the Buffs were third in the first race and second in the second race, picking up 144.5 points on the day for a total of 271 in the meet. Westminster, which only fields an alpine team, leads the standings with 362 points followed by Montana State (302) and Utah (301.5) just a half-point apart ahead of the Buffs. Alaska Anchorage (242.5), Colorado Mountain (174) and Denver (17) round out the team standings behind CU.
Individually, the Buffs were without senior Joey Young, who traditionally has skied very well at Eldora. He was injured in a fall Monday in Aspen, hitting the base of a GS gate. He was expecting to ski as of Tuesday night but woke up Wednesday with some lingering effects and it was decided he shouldn't ski. Last season in two slalom races at Eldora, he finished first and third.
Fausa began both races in 37th place and in the first race he moved all the way up to sixth place and in the second run of the second race, he had a little mishap but still finished 17th, moving up 20 spots. Junior Max Bervy also had a solid day, starting 21st in both races and moving up to finish 10th in both races, a new career best and his first two top 10 finishes in his career. In the second race, he had the fifth-fastest second run and was able to move up 14 spots after having the 24th-fastest first run. Junior Alex Birkner was the team's third scorer in both races, finishing 16th in the first race and 14th in the second.
Utah's Bjorn Brudevoll won the morning race and was disqualified in the afternoon race.
WHAT IT MEANS: A mixed day that included a high of Forejtek winning his first college race and low of Young not being able to ski ended with the Buffs moving into fourth place after starting fifth. A little bit of deja vu from the DU Invitational the previous two days, the Buffs moved up one spot but more than that, the standings significantly tightened. The difference between Montana State, Utah and the Buffs are just 31 points, an even smaller margin than the DU Invitational. When the Nordic teams pick up the remainder of the CU meet in early February, those three teams and Alaska Anchorage (59.5 points behind Montana State) will all be in contention for the meet title.
UP NEXT: Just four days into the 2021 season, the alpine teams are now 50 percent complete with the regular season while the Nordic teams have yet to compete. Alpine teams will pick up action in February in Utah and in five days from Feb. 8-12 will close out the regular season before commencing the RMISA Championships, also in Utah, from Feb. 18-19. Nordic teams meanwhile will begin a stretch with three meets in three weeks starting this weekend at an RMISA Invitational at Soldier Hollow, then two meets in Colorado to close out the DU Invitational (Jan. 22-23) at Minturn and the CU meet Feb. 5-6 at Aspen High School.
TEAM NOTES:
- The Buffs scored 144.5 points on the day, third most in the field behind Westminster (181) and Montana State (163) and just ahead of Utah (136.5). CU was third in the first race with 64 points despite Young not skiing and Forejtek not finishing, and was second in the second race with 80.5 points.
- CU was two points behind UAA entering the race and outscored the Seawolves by a single point in the first race, closing the gap to 191.5-190.5, before moving past them in the second race by 29.5 points to move into fourth place.
- Scorers were, in the first race, Fausa (27 points), Bervy (21) and Birkner (16) and in the second Forejtek (40), Bervy (22) and Birkner (18.5).
INDIVIDUAL:
- Forejtek won his first collegiate race after finishing second six times prior, including by .01 and .02 seconds last post season at the RMISA and NCAA Championships.
- Forejtek is the 175th skier in CU history to win a race and it's the 650th race victory by a CU skier in program history. He joins current Buffs Magnus Boee, Stef Fleckenstein and Joey Young to have won races.
- Forejtek was also fourth after the first run of the morning race, and in three of the four races, had the fourth, second and third fastest times in the field.
- Fausa made the biggest jump in the field in the first race, finishing sixth after starting 37th, moving up 31 spots. He edged out UAA's Moro Bamber, who started 39th and finished ninth. In the second race, his 20 place improvement was the fourth best among collegians in the race.
- Bervy picked up his first two top 10 finishes, taking 10th in both races. He got there on the strength of his second run in both races. In the morning, he had the 17th best first run and then the ninth best second run to move up and in the second race, he had the 20th best first run and fifth best second run.
- Bervy's previous career best finish was 12th in the second GS race on Monday in Aspen. His previous best slalom finish was a pair of 14th place finishes at Eldora last year at the CU Invitational.
- Birkner was the Buffs third scorer in both races. In the morning, he finished 16th and then moved up two spots to a tie for 14th in the second race. Ironically, he tied with his cousin, Tomas Birkner, in the second race with a time of 1:31.24. The extended Birkner family includes nine Olympians and 20 Olympic appearances.
- Sky Kelsey had a solid morning race, finishing 18th after starting in 35th despite a mishap in his second run. Unfortunately, he did not finish the afternoon race, skiing out in the first run.
- Bobby Ryan did not finish the morning race and finished 20th in the afternoon.
- Similarly, Chase Seymour did not finish the morning race and he finished 21st in the afternoon.
TEAM STANDINGS (Thru 4 of 8 events): 1. Westminster 362; 2. Montana State 302; 3. Utah 301.5; 4. Colorado 271; 5. Alaska Anchorage 242.5; 6. Colorado Mountain 174; 7. Denver 17.
MEN'S SLALOM #1 (20 collegiate finishers)—1. Bjorn Brudevoll, UU, 1:27.51; 2. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 1:27.87; 3. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 1:28.09; 4. Francesco Gori, WMC, 1:28.27; 5. Aage Solheim, MSU, 1:28.42; 6. Louis Fausa, CU, 1:30.06; 7. Dawson Yates, MSU, 1:30.10; 8. Michael Soetaert, UAA, 1:30.23; 9. Moro Bamber, 1:30.59; 10. Max Bervy, CU, 1:30.60. Other CU Finishers: 16. Alex Birkner, 1:31.71; 18. Sky Kelsey, 1:42.66. Did Not Start First Run: Joey Young. Did Not Finish Second Run: Filip Forejtek, Bobby Ryan, Chase Seymour.
MEN'S SLALOM #2 (25 collegiate finishers)—1. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:28.30; 2. Franesco Gori, WMC, 1:28.49; 3. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:28.86; 4. Aage Solheim, MSU, 1:29.00; 5. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 1:29.10; 6. Martin Arene, WMC, 1:29.45; 7. Gustav Voello, UU, 1:29.52; 8. Gustav Dalmalm, WMC, 1:30.26; 9. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 1:30.29; 10. Max Bervy, CU, 1:30.72; Other CU Finishers: 14. Alex Birkner, 1:31.24; 17. Louis Fausa, 1:31.80; 20. Bobby Ryan, 1:34.10; 21. Chase Seymour, 1:34.13. Did Not Start First Run: Joey Young. Did Not FInish First Run: Sky Kelsey.
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