Wahlqvist Wins, Buffs Finish Second At MSU

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Sophomore Filip Wahlqvist broke a tie for school record and tied another after winning the slalom race and the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team briefly slipped to third but moved back into second as the Montana State Invitational became the first completed meet for the 2025 season Tuesday at Bridger Bowl.

CU entered the day in second place and briefly slipped to third behind Denver with the Pioneers winning the women's slalom race and moving five points ahead of the Buffs. Behind Wahlqvist's win and four top 10 performances, CU won the men's race to surge past the Pioneers to finish second by 11 points.

Utah entered the day with a 116 point lead and CU trimmed 20 points off that lead but the Utes still ran away with the meet with 713 points, leaving the two battels between Colorado and Denver (617-606) for third place and Montana State and Alaksa Anchorage (472-470) for fifth place.

Wahlqvist established a new CU record and tied another with his fifth straight and seventh career slalom victory. He's the first CU skier to win five straight men's slalom races and his seven victories matches the CU career record. His five straight wins breaks a tie with Buddy Werner (1961-63) and David Ketterer (2018) while his seven career matches that of John Skajem (1986-87). In just 10 career slalom starts, he has won seven and his 70% win percentage is the only one over 50% in CU history.

Behind Wahlqvist in the men's race, Etienne Mazellier finished ninth after the second-fastest first run and seniors Jacob Dilling and Louis Fausa both tied for 10th place. Justin Bigatel finished 14th and Jack Reich 22nd as the Buffs place six in the top 22 and was the only team with more than three finishers in the top 23.

In the women's race, the Buffs were a little behind the eight ball after the first run with three DNF's, meaning each of the three remaining had to finish the second run to score for the team. Louison Accambray finished third, matching her podium performance from Monday's GS race, and picked up her third straight podium. Hannah Saethereng finished 12th and Katie Fleckenstein used the fastest second run in the field to give her a career best finish of 16th.

UP NEXT: The alpine teams will head from Montana to Utah for three races at the end of the week with a GS qualifier race Friday followed by a GS and slalom race to close out the Utah Invitational Saturday and Sunday at Olympic Park. The Nordic teams will also be in action at Minturn in the Denver Invitational Saturday and Sunday.

WHAT IT MEANS: The depth of the alpine team was again on display and while the Buffs did not win the meet, doing enough to retain second place despite some bad luck is a great example of that depth. On the men's side, the Buffs sixth finisher finished ahead of every other team's fourth finisher and despite half the women's team not finishing the first run, the other three put in clutch performances and did enough to secure second place.

TEAM NOTES:
•   The Buffs scored 151 points on the day, three behind Denver (154) and 20 ahead of Utah (131) in third place.
•   The Buffs finished the meet with 617 points, 96 behind Utah (713) and 11 ahead of Denver (606).
•   CU won two of the eight races in the meet, the women's 7.5K freestyle race and the men's slalom race.
•   CU finished third in the Nordic standings, second in women's Nordic, fourth in men's; second in alpine, second in men's alpine and third in women's; third for men's points and second for women's. CU finished third on both Nordic days and second on both alpine days.
•   CU scored 68 points in the women's slalom race, fifth but just eight points out of second, with Accambray scoring 34 points, Saethereng 19 and Fleckenstein 15.
•   CU scored 83 points in the men's slalom race, winning the race, with Wahlqvist earning 40 points, Mazellier 22 and with the tie for 10th place and tie for third place on the team, Dilling and Fausa split the remaining 21 points, 10.5 each.

MEN'S ALPINE NOTES
•   Wahlqvist won the slalom race, his seventh career win, all in slalom races. In 10 starts, he has finished nine with seven wins and a second place, and in 19 career starts, he has finished 18 with seven wins and 10 podium appearances, and just one finish outside the top eight.
•   Mazellier finished ninth, his ninth career top 10 and fourth in slalom races. He had nine top 10 performances in 16 finsihed races.
•   Dilling finished tied for 10th, his 20th career top 10 finish and second of the season, both 10th place slalom finishes. He has 11 career slalom top 10s.
•   Fausa finished tied for 10th, his third straight top 10 and 27th of his career. He has 10 slalom top 10s in his career.
•   Bigatel finished 16th, his second straight 16th place. He has four top 20 performances to start his career in five races, along with two in the top 10.
•   Reich finished 22nd.

WOMEN'S ALPINE NOTES
•   Accambray finished third, her third straight and third career podium appearance, and her first slalom podium after finishing fourth and eighth to open her career.
•   Seathereng finished 12th for her 51st career top 20 finish, 25th in slalom races. She just missed her eighth career top 10 by just 24-hundredths of a second.
•   Fleckenstein finished 16th for her best career finish and her third career top 20, all in slalom races. She has started all five races this year after starting four of the first 45 possible in her career.
•   Ashley Campbell, Cathinka Lunder and Elena Exenberger did not finish the first run.

TEAM STANDINGS (FINAL): 1. Utah 713; 2. Colorado 617; 3. Denver 606; 4. Montana State 472; 5. Alaska Anchorage 470; 6. Westminster 220; 7. Nevada 179; 8. Alaska Fairbanks 148; 9. Colorado Mountain 100.

WOMEN'S SLALOM (29 collegiate finishers): 1. Sara Rask, DU, 1:45.22; 2. Carmen Neilssen, UAA, 1:45.30; 3. Louison Accambray, CU, 1:46.23; 4. Tea Kiesel, MSU, 1:46.62; 5. Kalia Laferniere, UU, 1:46.91; 6. Mia Hunt, DU, 1:47.09; 7. Kaja Norbye, UU, 1:47.23; 8. Justine Lamontagne, MSU, 1:47.23; 9. Ella Bromee, UAA 1:47.59; 10. Elise Hitter, WU, 1:47.99. Other CU Finishers: 12. Hannah Saethereng, 1:48.23; 16. Katie Fleckenstein, 1:49.94.
Did Not Finish First Run: Ashley Campbell, Cathinka Lunder, Elena Exenberger.

MEN'S SLALOM (29 collegiate finishers): 1. Filip Wahlqvist, CU, 1:42.28; 2. Thomas Hoffman, DU, 1:42.88; 3. Benjamin Angerer, WU, 1:43.97; 4. Roman Frost, WU, 1:43.99; 5. Gianluca Boehm, MSU, 1:44.15; 6. Johs Herland, UU, 1:44.20; 7. Iver Naess and Jeger Halbjoerfus, NEV, 1:44.21; 9. Etienne Mazellier, CU, 1:44.23; 10. Jacob Dilling and Louis Fausa, CU, 1:44.35. Other CU Finishers: 16. Justin Bigatel, 1:44.58; 22. Jack Reich, 1:45.74.

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Players Mentioned

Louison Accambray

Justin Bigatel

Ashley Campbell

Jacob Dilling

Elena Exenberger

Louis Fausa

Katie Fleckenstein

Cathinka Lunder

Etienne Mazellier

Jack Reich

Hannah Saethereng

Filip Wahlqvist