Wold and Brudevoll Win RMISA Slalom Titles

Friday, February 19, 2021 • by Ron Knabenbauer, Special To RMISA

PARK CITY, Utah—Tegan Wold of Montana State and Utah's Bjorn Brudevoll won the women's and men's slalom on Friday as the alpine portion of the RMISA Championships concluded at Park City Mountain Resort. It was Wold's first career victory, while Brudevoll continued his solid run with him having now won three straight in slalom.

Westminster College leads the conference championship at the conclusion of the alpine races with 320 points, but Montana State made the biggest gain of the day by recording 151 points in the two events and are only 15 back from the top spot. The Bobcats moved up from third following the first day of racing on Thursday, as they placed five skiers in the top 10 on the second day of the RMISA meet.

Wold led the women's slalom after the first run with a time of 50.55 seconds and held onto her advantage to win her first career race in 1:47.44. The sophomore had recorded three straight podiums and four top-five results in slalom prior to finally claiming the top spot on the stage.

Denver's Reece Bell also recorded a new career best by following Wold in second place, registering total time of 1:47.57. Bell had the fastest second run (55.98) to move up from fifth after her first time down the hill and pick up her first-ever podium.

Rebecca Fiegl of Alaska Anchorage made her first podium of the season and third of her career in third place (1:47.92). It was her second career podium at an RMISA Championships after placing second in slalom in 2019.

Montana State won the women's team event with 81 points as freshman Kristianne Bekkestad scored in seventh and Brynne Hitchcock did the same in 15th. UAA was second with 76 points while Westminster was third with 72 points despite placing three skiers in the top 10: Julia Toiviainen in fifth, Eveline Fredricsson in ninth and Lana Zbasnik in 10th.

Brudevoll added conference champion to his impressive freshman campaign as he won the men's slalom by nearly seven-tenths of second in 1:38.31. It was the Utah rookie's fourth victory of the year, with all coming in the discipline, and he did it by having the best second run (46.41) to climb up from the fourth position after his first (51.70).

Colorado's Filip Forejtek was second (1:39.00), taking the stage for the sixth time this season and the 12th time during his three-year career. Veteran Mikkel Solbakken was just nine-hundredths of a second behind Forejtek in third place at 1:39.09.

Led by Brudevoll's individual victory, Utah won the men's team event by scoring three skiers in the top seven to record 96 points. Rookie Wilhelm Normannseth was fourth and Joachim Lien seventh for the Utes, and teammate Huston Philp was 11th after recording his first podium in the giant slalom the day before at the conference championships.

Westminster was second place with 83 points as Francesco Gori scored in fifth and Joachim Mjelde in 12th. Overall, the Griffins had six skiers in the top 15 and all seven of their athletes finished in the top 20.

Next up on the alpine schedule is the NCAA National Championships, which will be held March 10-13 in New Hampshire.

The RMISA Championships will conclude on Feb. 26-27 with the Nordic classic and freestyle races at Soldier Hollow. Before the conference meet, the Nordic skiers wrap up their regular season at the RMISA Invitational at Soldier Hollow with the women's 5K and men's 10K classic on Monday and the women's 10K and men's 15K freestyle on Tuesday.

2021 RMISA Championship Team Standings (through 4 of 8 events): 1. Westminster (320), 2. Montana State (305), 3. Colorado (297), 4. Utah (286), 5. Denver (228), 6. Alaska Anchorage (213), 7. Colorado Mountain (146), 8. Alaska Fairbanks (0)

Team Notes: Montana State won its first women's alpine event of the season and second overall following a tie with Westminster in the men's slalom No. 1 at CU Invitational on Jan. 13 ... Utah won its fifth men's alpine event of the season, which includes each of the last three slalom competitions ... Westminster won the Alpine portion of the meet with 320 points ... The Griffins can't win the overall conference title as they do not field a Nordic squad ... MSU moved up to the second spot after recording 151 points on the day and are just 15 points behind WMC with a total of 305 points ... Five teams are within 100 points of one another with Colorado at 297, Utah at 286 and Denver at 228 ... Alaska Anchorage is 107 points off the lead at 213 overall.

Women's Slalom Top 10 Individual Results: 1. Tegan Wold, MSU, 1:47.44; 2. Reece Bell, DU, 1:47.57; 3. Rebecca Fiegl, UAA, 1:47.92; 4. Stef Fleckenstein, CU, 1:48.34; 5. Julia Toiviainen, WMC, 1:49.61; 6. Michelle Kerven, UU, 1:49.93; 7. Kristiane Bekkestad, MSU, 1:50. 45; 8. Li Djurestaal, UAA, 1:50.52; 9. Eveline Fredricsson, WMC, 1:50.57; 10. Lana Zbasnik, WMC, 1:50.65

Women's Slalom Team Results: 1. Montana State (81), 2. Alaska Anchorage (76), 3. Westminster (72), 4. Colorado (61), 5. Denver (57), 6. Utah (44), 7. Colorado Mountain (42)

Women's Individual Notes: Montana State's Tegan Wold won her first race of her two-season career ... It was Wold's fourth overall podium of the year/career and fourth straight in slalom ... Wold has finished all 10 races in 2021, producing 10 top-20 results and seven in the top 10; she's been in the top five in all five slalom competitions ... Denver's Reece Bell came in second for her best-ever finish and her first podium of her career ... Bell has two-top five finishes in the three slalom races she's competed in this year (DNF the other) ... Alaska Anchorage's Rebecca Fiegl came in third for her first podium of the season, and she now has seven top-10 results in 10 races this year ... It was her third podium of her career and her best finish since a pair of runner-ups in 2019 ... Colorado's Stef Fleckenstein (fourth) has been in the top 10 in all five races she's finished this season, including four in the top five ... Julia Toiviainen of Westminster was fifth and has finished in the top six in all 10 women's alpine events this season, including five in a row in the top five ... Utah freshman Michelle Kerven had a career-best finish in sixth place ... MSU rookie Kristiane Bekkestad finished seventh, placing in the top 10 in both women's races at this year's conference championships (sixth in GS) ... UAA's Li Djurestaal tied her season-best finish in eighth place, which also marked the best of her four-year career in the slalom at the RMISA Championships ... Westminster freshman Eveline Fredricsson recorded a new career-best finish in ninth place ... WMC's Lana Zbasnik (10th) registered her eighth top 10 of the year and fourth in a row.

Men's Slalom Top 10 Individual Results: 1. Bjorn Brudevoll, UU, 1:38.31; 2. Filip Forejtek, CU, 1:39.00; 3. Mikkel Solbakken, WMC, 1:39.09; 4. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:39.48; 5. Francesco Gori, WMC, 1:39.51; 6. Louis Muhlen-Schulte, MSU, 1:40.14; 7. Joachim Lien, UU, 1:41.19; 8. Tobias Kogler, DU, 1:41.84; 9. Aage Solheim, MSU, 1:41.88; 10. Dawson Yates, MSU, 1:42.12

Men's Slalom Team Results: 1. Utah (96), 2. Westminster (83), 3. Colorado (73), 4. Montana State (70), 5. Denver (50), 6. Alaska Anchorage (49), 7. Colorado Mountain (33)

Men's Individual Notes: Freshman Bjorn Brudevoll of Utah won his fourth race of the season, all of which have been in the slalom ... He has won each of the last three slalom competitions and every one that he has finished ... Colorado's Filip Forejtek registered his sixth podium of the year and 12th of his career after being the runner-up ... His second-place finish tied his best result and is his third podium at an RMISA Championship event ... Forejtek has been in the top 10 in each of the nine races he's completed in 2021, including in the top five in eight of them ... Mikkel Solbakken of Westminster came in third for his best-ever result at the conference championships and his fourth podium of the year ... He has finished all 10 races, coming in the top 10 in nine of them ... Utah rookie Wilhelm Normannseth placed fourth for his fourth top five (all in slalom) ... Normannseth has been in the top 10 in all eight of the races he's finished in 2021 (out of 10) ... Westminster freshman Francesco Gori (fifth) recorded his fifth top-five placement of the season, all in the slalom ... After coming in second in the giant slalom at the 2021 RMISA Championships, Louis Muhlen-Schulte's sixth-place finish was his eighth top 10 of the season and his best-ever mark in the slalom at a conference meet ... UU's Joachim Lien registered his fifth top 10 finish of the year in seventh place and has finished in the top 10 in all three slalom races he's competed in 2021 ... Tobias Kogler led the Pioneers in eighth place, finishing in the top 10 in each of his last four races ... It was Kogler's second slalom competition of the year ... MSU's Aage Solheim took ninth place for his eighth top 10 of the season and his fourth in a row ... Bobcats teammate Dawson Yates (10th) has finished in the top 10 in three slalom races this season.