ANCHORAGE/GIRDWOOD, Alaska – The University of Denver ski team swept the top step of the podium in both the men's and women's alpine slalom on Saturday on another and final full day of racing in Alaska to conclude the 76th annual RMISA Championships.
 
Junior Thomas Hoffman won his first career race in men's slalom, while Sara Rask was victorious in her sixth straight women's slalom of her senior campaign. While alpine raced at Alyeska Resort in nearby Girdwood, the DU Nordic team completed their conference championships with the 20-kilometer mass start in Anchorage and was led by graduate student Lea Wenaas in third place.
 
The Pioneers finished with the most points in both alpine events and had a strategic approach to the Nordic races to help prepare for the NCAA Championships in two weeks. DU finished third at the RMISA Championships with 548 points, while Utah won with 683 points and Colorado was second with 606 points. The conference championships also doubled as the NCAA West Regional.
 
After being close to earning his first win over the last two years, Hoffman finally reached the gold-medal position in the final race of the 2025 RMISA campaign as Colorado's Filip Wahlqvist's bid for a men's season slalom sweep fell was one race short—Wahlqvist did not finish his first run.
 
The Australian Pioneer was fourth after the first run but climbed after the second to finish with a total time of 1:30.02, beating out Wilhem Normannseth of Utah in second place by two-hundredths of a second (1:30.04). It was the first victory by a Denver men's alpine skier since Cooper Cornelius in giant slalom on Feb. 2, 2024 at the Colorado Invitational and first in slalom since Tobias Kogler at the 2020 RMISA Championships in Montana.
 
Unlike Wahlqvist, Rask was able to complete the regular-season sweep in women's slalom as she won six of the six tech events this year. Saturday's performance was her 13th career victory and 11th in slalom (1:37.65), and she jumped up from second place with the fastest second run to beat out Utah's Kaja Norbye by three-hundredths of a second (1:37.68).
 
"It was tough week out here, and we definitely battled some conditions, but overall it a good race series with four events in four days," said Otto Tschudi Alpine Head Coach Joonas Rasanen. "I think the team put it together fairly well, and I think we're definitely peaking at the right time. It was great to see Sarah with the perfect season in slalom and Tommy get his first college victory."
 
Denver junior Mia Hunt picked up her second top five of the year and second in as many races in fifth place in women's slalom, while Stella Buchheister used a big second run to match a season best in 11th. Buchheister was the biggest mover of the day as she was 20th after her opening run but had the third-fastest time in run 2 to climb nine spots to earn her fifth top-15 finish of her true freshman season.
 
In men's alpine, graduate student Loic Chable had his sixth top 10 of the campaign in eighth while junior Christian Soevik was the Pioneers' third scorer in 11th. Freshman Pietro Motterlini was 13th, senior Eirik Kveno was 18th, senior Cooper Cornelius was 30th and junior Adrian Minde Hunshammer did not finish his second run.
 
Denver's men's squad tied Utah for the team win in the slalom discipline with 83 points while the women also finished first with 89 points, six more than the Utes. Overall, the Pioneers' alpine team finished with the third-most points at the RMISA Championships with 272.
 
"I like where the team is at heading into NCAAs, and we're peaking at the right moment," Rasanen said. "We'll get back to Denver, train for a few days, work out some kinks and then head to Dartmouth, and hopefully bring home some hardware."
 
Earlier in the day in Anchorage, the Nordic portion wrapped up its meet with the distance mass start event at Kincaid Park and saw Denver Lea Wenaas and senior Andreas Kirkeng both earn top-five finishes.
 
The New Hampshire-transfer Wenaas picked up her second podium of the season in third place in the 20K freestyle and reached the stand for the fifth time in her career. Kirkeng was fourth in a sprint to the line in the men's race (51:03.6), finishing approximately three seconds off the lead as Alaska Fairbanks' Philipp Moosmayer (51:00.1) beat out Colorado's Hugo Hinckfuss (51:00.3) and UAF teammate Benjamin Dohlby (51:00.4) by just tenths of a second.
 
Graduate student Florian Knopf was the second scorer for the Pioneer men in 11th and senior Elijah Weenig also picked up points in 18th. Junior Micah Steinberg placed 25th while freshmen Landon Wyatt was 22nd and Joe Graziadei finished 32nd. Sophomore Krystof Zatloukal did not race.
 
Only half of DU's women's Nordic group took part in the 20K, as junior Selma Andersen placed 13th and freshman Eve-Ondine Duchaufour was 18th behind Wenaas' podium finish. Senior Sidney Barbier, sophomore Maja Moland and freshman Anna Stewart did not start.
 
"It was an exciting weekend of ski racing here at Kincaid Park to wrap up the regular season and the RMISA Championships," said Denver Nordic head coach Rogan Brown. "Congratulations to our five seniors for amazing RMISA and college careers—Florian, Elijah, Sidney, Lea and Andreas—and I'm so proud of how they've represented DU.
 
"We now head back home to Denver, and we're looking forward to the NCAA Championships. These last few races at sea level were a great prep for our group for Nationals. We now shift our focus into how we can best show up for ourselves and team to reach our goals in New Hampshire."
 
Saturday was senior day at the RMISA Championships, as the skiers in their final year of eligibility wore special white senior bibs that their teammates and fellow competitors signed.
 
Among that group that was taking part in their final RMISA races for the Pioneers were Kirkeng, Knopf and Weenig of men's Nordic, Barbier and Wenaas of women's Nordic, Chable and Cornelius of men's alpine and Rask of women's alpine.
 
UP NEXT: Denver wraps up the collegiate campaign on March 5-8 in New Hampshire at the 2025 NCAA Championships, which is being hosted by Dartmouth. Alpine giant slalom starts the national championships at Dartmouth Skiway before the 7.5K classic interval start begins the Nordic portion on March 6 at Oak Hill Outdoor Center. Nationals conclude with slalom on March 7 and the 20K freestyle mass start on March 8.
 
 
DENVER MEN 20K FREESTYLE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
4. Andreas Kirkeng, 51:03.6
11. Florian Knopf, 51:17.6
18. Elijah Weenig, 53:02.1
22. Landon Wyatt, 53:13.3
25. Micah Steinberg, 53:47.3
32. Joe Graziadei, 57:10.6
DNS: Krystof Zatloukal
 
DENVER WOMEN 20K FREESTYLE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
3. Lea Wenaas, 57:04.0
13. Selma Andersen, 59:40.6
18. Eve-Ondine Duchaufour, 1:01:25.8
DNS: Sidney Barbier, Maja Moland, Anna Stewart
 
DENVER WOMEN SLALOM INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1. Sara Rask, 1:37.65 (49.59/48.06)
5. Mia Hunt, 1:39.75 (50.86/48.89)
11. Stella Buchheister,1:43.19 (54.82/48.37)
 
DENVER MEN SLALOM INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1. Thomas Hoffman, 1:30.02 (45.05/44.97)
8. Loic Chable, 1:30.70 (46.60/44.10)
11. Christian Soevik, 1:31.13 (46.25/44.88)
13. Pietro Motterlini, 1:31.23 (47.48/43.75)
18. Eirik Kveno, 1:32.32 (48.52/43.80)
30. Cooper Cornelius, 1:37.59 (51.24/46.35)
DNF: Adrian Minde Hunshammer (53.20/DNF run 2)
 
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS (after 8-of-8 events): 1. Utah 683; 2. Colorado 606; 3. Denver 548; 4. Alaska Anchorage 421; 5. Montana State 403; 6. Alaska Fairbanks 307; 7. Westminster 200; 8. Nevada 172; 9. Colorado Mountain College 130
 
MEN'S 20K FREESTYLE TOP 10 (33 finishers): 1. Philipp Moosmayer, UAF, 51:00.1; 2. Hugo Hinckfuss, 51:00.3; 3. Benjamin Dohlby, UAF, 51:00.4; 4. Andreas Kirkeng, DU, 51:03.6; 5. Johannes Flaaten, CU, 51:08.2; 6. Zachary Jayne, UU, 51:08.7; 7. Lucas Wilmot, UU, 51:12.3; 8. Peter Hinds, UAA, 51:15.1; 9. Derek Deuling, UAA, 51:16.6; 10. Luka Riley, CU, 51:16.9.
 
WOMEN'S 20K FREESTYLE TOP 10 (28 finishers): 1.Erica Laven, UU, 55:27.9; 2. Kendall Kramer, UAF, 55:28.3; 3. Lea Wenaas, DU, 57:04.0; 4. Astri Lunde, CU, 57:04.3; 5. Katey Houser, MSU, 57:11.2; 6. Tabitha Williams, UAF; 57:19.2; 7. Selma Nevin, UU, 57:23.5; 8. Celine Mayer, UU, 57:39.1; 9. Tilde Baangman, CU, 58:53.9; 10. Neve Gerard, UU, 59:16.9.
 
WOMEN'S SLALOM TOP 10 (22 finishers): 1. Sara Rask, DU, 1:37.65; 2. Kaja Norbye, UU, 1:37.68; 3. Tea Kiesel, MSU, 1:39.23; 4. Louison Accambray, CU, 1:39.54; 5. Mia Hunt, DU, 1:39.75; 6. Magdalena Luczak, 1:40.17; 7. Claire Timmermann, UU, 1:40.68; 8. Guro Hestad Vognild, WM, 1:41.26; 9. Carmen Nielssen, UAA, 1:42.58; 10. Evelina Fredricsson, UU, 1:42.87.
 
MEN'S SLALOM TOP 10 (33 finishers): 1. Thomas Hoffman, DU, 1:30.02; 2. Wilhelm Normannseth, UU, 1:30.04; 3. Justin Bigatel, CU, 1:30.50; 4. Louis Fausa, CU, 1:30.56; 5. Iver Naess, UN, 1:30.62; 6. Raphael Lessard, UU, 1:30.66; 7. Jan Ronner, UAA, 1:30.67; 8. Loic Chable, DU, 1:30.70; 9. Jager Halbjoerhus, UN, 1:30.77; 10. Jamie Casselman, MSU, 1:30.96


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