Buffs Qualify Full 12-Skier Squad For NCAAs

BOULDER—Colorado will be represented by a full 12-skier squad at the 72nd Annual NCAA Championships. The association announced the 144 skiers representing 23 institutions March 5-8 in Hanover, N.H., hosted by Dartmouth.

The men's alpine team will be represented by Louis Fausa, Etienne Mazellier and Filip Wahlqvist, the women's alpine team by Louison Accambray, Ashley Campbell and Magdalena Luczak, the men's Nordic team by Johannes Flaaten, Hugo Hinckfuss and Will Koch, and the women's Nordic team by Hanna Abrahamsson, Tilde Baangman and Astri Lunde.

Accambray will be making her first appearance at the championships in her first year in Boulder and enters NCAAs after finishing 10 of 12 races this season, all in the top eight. She won three GS races this season and had four podiums in GS, and another podium in slalom, where she had three top 5 finishes.

Campbell finished the season by winning two podiums in six of 12 races, finishing third in the first two slalom races, and finishing in the top 15 in all six races, four of which were in the top 10.

Luczak joined the Buffs for the recent Alaska series, winning both GS races and finishing fourth and sixth in her two slalom races. She is the defending individual champion in both disciplines and already has three individual NCAA championships.

Fausa had his best collegiate season in his fifth season in Boulder, finishing 11 of 12 races with three wins, all in GS, and six top-five finishes, two of which came in slalom. He finished the last 10 races, nine times in the top 10. He has 61 starts in his CU career, matching the CU career record, and his first three collegiate wins have come this season, as have four of his eight career podium appearances.

Mazellier is making his second straight appearance at the championships, finishing 12th and 19th in the two races there last season. This season, he has finished in the top 10 in each of his six finished races out of eight starts. He had his first collegiate win in the GS race at Utah and two other podium appearances, taking second and third to open the season in a pair of slalom races.

Walhqvist is the defending NCAA slalom champion, having won that race as a freshman. He won all five slalom races in the regular season before a DNF at the RMISA Championships ended a seven-race win streak. He has finished 11 of 12 races this season, all in the top 10 and eight in the top 5, with five race wins.

Abrahamsson is making her fourth straight appearance at the NCAA Championships. She is already a five-time All-American and has four first-team selections after finishing in the top five. This season, she has five top-10 finishes and a podium appearance in the classic race at the DU Invitational.

Baangman is making her third appearance at the NCAA Championships, first as a Buff after transferring in from Montana State. She has four career wins and 16 career podium appearances in her career, with five of those podiums coming this season, each of the five a second-place finish with three in classic and two in freestyle races.

Lunde is making her first appearance at the championships after a solid freshman campaign that saw her finish in the top 10 in each of her eight starts with six top-5 finishes, including three podiums, two in classic and one in a freestyle race.

Flaaten is making his second appearance at the NCAA Championships, helping the Buffs to the national championship as a freshman. This season he has finished in the top 13 in nine of 10 finishes, which includes six top 10 and two podium appearances, including his first college win in the classic race at the Denver Invitational.

Hinckfuss is making his first appearance at the NCAA Championships in his third season in Boulder, which included just four race starts. He took advantage of those four starts. He finished third and fourth to open the season in Alaska at the U.S. National Championships. He returned to Anchorage for the RMISA Championships, where he finished 13th in the classic race but rebounded for a second-place finish in the freestyle race.

Koch is making his fifth appearance at the NCAA Championships and is a six-time All-American, including two first team honors last season helping the Buffs to the national championship. This season, he skied in the first three meets before traveling to Europe to participate in the U23 World Championships as well as other high-level races, and he didn't disappoint, finishing in the top five in all six races with two podiums, one each in classic and freestyle.

Per RMSIA rules, all skiers who appear on the NCAA Qualification list ahead of the 17th selection in each gender and discipline from the RMISA are considered qualifiers. Along with the above 12, the list of Buffs who qualify include Justin Bigatel, Jacob Dilling, Elena Grissom, Trey Jones, Eemil Juntunen, Karolina Kaleta, Cathinka Lunder, Alexander Maurer, Luka Riley, and Hannah Saethereng.

Four of the 23 schools qualified a full 12-skier team, and along with the Buffaloes, those teams are host Dartmouth, Utah, and Vermont, giving each region that competes in both Nordic and alpine two teams apiece. In the RMISA, Denver and Montana State are one skier short, with 11 and 10 skiers representing Montana State from the west and Middlebury from the east.

Among the teams that only compete in one discipline, Westminster qualified a full six-skier team. At the same time, Alaska Fairbanks, Michigan Tech, and Northern Michigan will have five skiers at the championship.

Players Mentioned

Hanna Abrahamsson

Louison Accambray

Tilde Baangman

Justin Bigatel

Ashley Campbell

Jacob Dilling

Louis Fausa

Johannes Flaaten

Elena Grissom

Hugo Hinckfuss

Trey Jones

Eemil Juntunen

Karolina Kaleta

Will Koch

Magdalena Luczak

Astri Lunde

Cathinka Lunder

Alexander Maurer

Etienne Mazellier

Luka Riley

Hannah Saethereng

Filip Wahlqvist

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