NCAA Championships SL Recap

University of Utah Celebrate slalom victories: Photo Credit Stephen Cloutier

Lake Placid, N.Y. – The Collegiate ski season came to a thrilling conclusion on Friday with the slalom portion of the NCAA Championships. The favorites, the University of Utah, were in the rare position of trailing going into the day. The Utes sat behind the University of Colorado at the halfway mark, but the margins were incredibly close, with neither team having anything locked up.

Men’s Race

The men got the action underway amidst a beautiful day at Whiteface Mountain. Temperatures sat in the mid-30s as overcast skies gave way to sunshine. The snow was soft, a more familiar surface for the western skiers. However, the small field meant it never truly deteriorated, and a few racers from the back could produce All-American performances.

Any follower of Eastern collegiate skiing this year would have definitely heard of Mathias Tefre, the Senior from the University of Vermont who has been near dominant on the EISA circuit. He has won all but one of the Slalom races as he helped lead Vermont to another dominant season. He stamped his authority on the race, making up a four-tenths deficit on Wilhelm Normannseth from the University of Utah to win by nearly eight-tenths of a second. 

Tefre took advantage of a set by his coach Bill Reichelt to snag the National Championship title. “First run was good, solid skiing and in second place” he commented, then “I was charging for first in the second run.” His full-attack skiing proved enough and was made even sweeter by the performance of his teammate Joachim Jagge Lindstoel. Lindstoel earned his first Championship podium, skiing into third on the second run and adding even more points to the Catamounts total.

Locked in a battle at the top, neither the Buffaloes nor the Utes could make a significant impression. Normannseth’s second-place finish added some much-needed points. In their absence, a few other teams took advantage. Mikkel Solbakken from Westminster and Oscar Zimmer from Dartmouth finished fourth and fifth, securing first-team All-American honors. Eirik Kveno from Saint Michaels will be a two-time All-American, backing up his result in the GS with a 9th-place finish on the day.

Women’s Race

For the women, all eyes were on Madison Hoffman. She skied to near perfection in her win on Wednesday in the GS, but she would be up against some tough competition in Sarah Rask and Nora Brand from the Denver University Pioneers. Others were also capable of taking the win, including Allie Resnick from Dartmouth and the trio of Moa Clementson, Justine Clement, and Caroline Jones from UVM.

Hoffman shook off any jitters she may have had, winning both runs en route to another National Championship title. Brand and Rask were still able to grab a podium performance out of the day, securing valuable points for their team. Rounding out the top 5 was Ella Bromlee from the University of Alaska Anchorage and Kristiane Bekkestad from Montana State. The top-placed Eastern skier was Justine Clement from UVM, who finished in 9th and took second-team All-American honors. 

For Hoffman, the end of NCAAs was the culmination of a stressful week. “The nerves were high, [but] I was so happy I was able to perform for my team,” she said. She did so in the face of intense competition, “I knew the girls competing were going to bring the heat, so there was no holding back.” She certainly did not hold back, winning both runs by a comfortable margin. Hoffman believes she would not have been able to perform without the support from her teammates, “even though I was standing at the top of the second run all by myself, I felt the support from all my teammates, and that feeling is something I won’t soon forget.” 

In another dominating day from the Europeans who now call the NCAA circuit home, not a single American received All-American honors. Mia Hunt from DU finished as the top-placed American on the women’s side in 12th, and US Ski Team member Cooper Puckett finished in 11th.

Team Standings

A strong day by the UVM men’s team and DU women’s team consolidated their positions in the team standings. The Pioneers finish NCAAs on the podium in third, and the Catamounts finish in fourth. The battle between the Utes and Buffaloes would go on for another day as the Nordic teams battled it out in the 20k Classic race. It was here that the Utes pulled away to win a fourth consecutive National Championships by a slim 35 points. Colorado finishes as the runner-up for the fifth time in eight years that they have finished in second place.

It’s been a long season for the college racers. Many student-athletes return to school just in time for midterm exams. After that, they will prepare for the final push of races, including Nor-Am Finals and US Nationals. The full team results can be viewed here.