Buffs In Third At UAA Invitational

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Will Koch took third and Hugo Hinckfuss fourth, leading the Colorado Buffaloes ski team in the 20K men's classic race here at the UAA Invitational, of which results were taking from the 2025 U.S. Cross Country Ski National Championships here Sunday at Kincaid Park.

When the dust settled at the end of the Nordic competition in the UAA Invitational, the Buffs took third place behind Denver and Utah, as the Buffs stayed tight with the other two teams after the men's 20K classic race but fell to a margin of 47 points after the women's 20K race.

On the strength of that 3-4 finish from Koch and Hinckfuss, Luka Riley also set a new career best finish for the second straight race, taking eighth and all six Buffs finished in the top 17.

Hanna Abrahamsson was the top women's finisher in 10th place with Karolina Kaleta (14th) and Elena Grissom (16th) also scoring for the team. CU's Tilde Baangman, who had a top five finish in the season opening race Thursday, did not finish the race as she's still recovering from injuries.

WHAT IT MEANS: The men's team looks strong and will be boosted further by the return of Johannes Flaaten, who will join the team for the Utah series in two weeks. The women's team will also be bolstered by the debut of Astri Lunde and return of Sophie Spalding for the Utah races, along with Baangman and Abrahamsson's expected return to full strength as the season progresses.

UP NEXT: The Nordic teams will wrap up U.S. National Championships Tuesday with freestyle sprint races and for college racing, will next appear in Utah to open up the Utah Invitational on Jan. 18-19 at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. The alpine teams are up next, with an RMISA Qualifier race Monday at Loveland ahead of the alpine portion of the Denver Invitational with slalom races taking place Monday and Tuesday and then at GS race at copper Mountain closing out the first alpine series. The UAA meet will be the last regular season meet to finish on Feb. 21 with the alpine races take place in conjunction with the RMISA Championships.

US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: On Friday, the classic sprint races took place at the US National Championships and the CU men again showed out strong with Will Koch, Hugo Hinckfuss and Trey Jones all advancing to the heats. Koch finished 13th as the top skier that didn't advance to the semifinals and Jones took seventh and Hinckfuss eighth as the two top times that didn't advance to the final heat. On the women's side, Karolina Kaleta was the only Buff to qualify into the heats and ended up finishing 20th overall. At the US National Championships, the college cup is given to the top performing team out of all colleges entered into the race, and CU won the men's college cup based on results from Thursday's 10K freestyle race and Saturdays' classic sprint races.

TEAM NOTES:
•   Colorado scored 143 points on the day, third most in the field, scoring 88 points, second most, in the men's race and 55 points in the women's race.
•   CU's 88 points in the men's race was on the strength of Koch (34), Hinckfuss (31) and Riley (23).
•   CU's women's scorers were Abrahamsson (21), Kaleta (18) and Grissom (16).

MEN'S NORDIC NOTES:
•   Koch finished third to open the season with a pair of top five finishes. He now has eight career podium appearances, 13 top 5, 33 top 10 and 40 top 20 finishes in 41 career races.
•   Hinckfuss finished fourth for his second straight top five to open the season, and he now has seven career top five finishes, 11 top 10 and 16 top 20 finishes in 19 finished races.
•   Riley finished eighth, the second straight race he attained his career-best finish, having finished ninth for his first career top 10 in the men's 10K freestyle race Thursday. He now has two career top 10 finishes and six top 20s in 12 finished races.
•   Eemil Juntunen finished 12th for the second straight race to open his career.
•   Alexander Maurer finished 15th for his 22nd career top 20 performances, and 10 in his last 11 races.
•   Trey Jones finished 17th for his second straight top 20 of the season and fifth of his career.

WOMEN'S NORDIC NOTES:
•   Abrahamsson finished 10th for her 30th career top 10 finish and she has 35 top 20s in 37 career races.
•   Kaleta finished 14th for her 23rd career top 20 finish in 26 career races.
•   Grissom finished 16th for her 12th career top 20 finish in 24 career races.
•   Lehmkuhl finished 20th for her 11th career top 20 finish in 35 career races.

TEAM STANDINGS (Thru 4 of 8 Races): 1. Denver 341; 2. Utah 334; 3. Colorado 294; 4. Alaska Anchorage 242; 5. Alaska Fairbanks 231; 6. Montana State 229.

Men's 20K Classic (27 collegiate finishers): 1. Andreas Kirkeng, DU, 50:47.5; 2. Florian Knopf, DU, 51:03.3; 3. Will Koch, CU, 51:11.2; 4. Hugo Hinckfuss, CU, 51:40.0; 5. Walker Hall, UU, 51:40.4; 6. Brian Bushey, UU, 51:46.8; 7. Peter Hinds, UAA, 52:14.4; 8. Luka Riley, CU, 52:38.2; 9. Erling Bjoernstad, UAA, 52:55.2; 10. Benjamin Dohlby, UAF, 52:56.3. Other CU Finishers: 12. Eemil Juntunen, 53:33.6; 15. Alexander Maurer, 54:26.3; 17. Trey Jones, 54:30.8.

Women's 20K Classic (22 collegiate finishers): 1. Kendall Kramer, UAF, 58:17.2; 2. Erica Laven, UU, 58:18.6; 3. Kate Oldham, MSU, 59:51.6; 4. E.O. Duchsufour, DU, 1:00:01.2; 5. Selma Nevin, UU, 1:00:06.5; 6. Anna Stewart, DU, 1:00:57.1; 7. Lea Wenaas, DU, 1:01:02.3; 8. Beth Granstrom, UAA, 1:01:05.7; 9. Celine Mayer, UU, 1:01:06.1; 10. Hanna Abrahamsson, CU, 1:01:07.3. Other CU Finishers: 14. Karolina Kaleta, 1:03:19.5; 16. Elena Grissom, 1:03:47.1; 20. Kili Lehmkuhl, 1:08:05.1.

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Players Mentioned

Hanna Abrahamsson

Tilde Baangman

Johannes Flaaten

Elena Grissom

Hugo Hinckfuss

Trey Jones

Eemil Juntunen

Karolina Kaleta

Will Koch

Kili Lehmkuhl

Astri Lunde

Alexander Maurer

Luka Riley

Sophie Spalding