Hoffman Opens NCAA Championships with Giant Slalom Individual Title

Wednesday, March 8

Lake Placid, N.Y.

7 a.m.

University of Utah

Giant Slalom

LAKE PLACID, NY - MARCH 08: during the Division I Men’s and Women’s Skiing Championships held at Whiteface Mountain on March 8, 2023 in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Photo by: NCAA Photos via Getty Images

Hoffman Opens NCAA Championships with Giant Slalom Individual Title

3/8/2023 4:11 PM | Skiing

Results Photo Gallery

Utah third in team standings after Day One as three Utes post All-America results

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Making her first start in an NCAA Championships event, Utah's Madison Hoffman took home the women's giant slalom individual title, the first women's GS crown for the program since 2010, and highlighting three All-America performances by the Utah Ski Team on day one of the 2023 NCAA Championships at Whiteface Mountain.

Utah is third in the team standings (115 points), just behind second-place Denver (117.5 points) and the leader Colorado (139.5 points). Teams will now turn their focus to the men's and women's 10K freestyle races, which begin at 8 a.m. MT on Thursday from Mt. Van Hoevenberg.

Hoffman's individual championship was the 14^th women's GS individual title all-time at Utah, and first in either gender since Endre Bjertness stood atop the men's GS podium in 2016. It also goes on the books as the 81^st individual NCAA Championship won by a Utah skier across all disciplines.

Along with Hoffman's result earning her All-America First Team, Katie Parker placed 10^th in the women's race to earn All-America Second Team—the fourth straight year Parker has been tabbed All-America. In men's GS, Utah's Gustav Vøllo took home Second Team honors after a seventh-place result, earning his fourth career All-America award.

"We've put ourselves in a good position with Nordic and slalom coming up," said head alpine coach JJ Johnson. "We could've put a lot of points up if the guys had a couple more, but we also didn't ski ourselves out of it, so we're right where we need to be. In the big picture, it was good. Madi found a nice spot on her skis and a lot of confidence. She's doing a great job. For Katie to get All-American was sweet. It was some of the best GS from Michelle, especially with GS not being her number one event. She skied great."

Michelle Kervén rounded out the Utah women's lineup placing 19^th, while on the men's side Wilhelm Normannseth (21^st) and Bjorn Brudevoll (24^th) capped off the day for the Utes.

Hoffman was the ninth skier in the starting order for the morning run, posting a time of 1:04.78 which had her in the lead at the break by 1.42 seconds. She was the last skier out of the gate for the second run and was into the finish area in 1:05.88. It was the second-best afternoon run of the field and put her ahead of Denver's Sara Rask in the final results by 1.24 seconds.

It continued a remarkable season for Hoffman, who returned to the college circuit in 2023 after missing much of 2022 plus the Winter Olympics due to injury. Wednesday's result was her first win in a collegiate giant slalom race, but her second GS victory in the last three days. She traveled to Lake Placid for NCAAs after racing on the Nor-Am Cup circuit, which included a GS victory for Hoffman on Monday at Stratton Mountain in Vermont.

"It felt pretty special grabbing my first college GS win today, especially with it being the championship," Hoffman said. "The snow was firm and the course was fun! I definitely was nervous, but glad I could keep it together for second run after giving myself the lead."

The men's race saw Vøllo race a top-eight run to begin the day, before he jumped up a spot to seventh with some second-run shuffling throughout the field. Normannseth placed sixth on the second run, climbing five spots from where he stood at the intermission.

Johnson continued, "The guys gave a little too much time away on that first run. There were some nerves trying to stack some points in there. But I thought Gustav did a great job both runs, he's finding his best position on the pitch and was 15-hundredths away from a top-four finish. Bjorn and Wilhelm came back and had good second runs. Willy was sixth on the second run. We just left a little too much of a gap from the first run. We've got slalom coming up Friday, which is arguably our strong event right now."

Thursday's freestyle races are expected to feature Walker Hall, Samuel Hendry and Luke Jager in the men's lineup for Utah, while the Utes will race an identical women's Nordic trio from the 2022 NCAA Championships in Sophia Laukli, Novie McCabe and Sydney Palmer-Leger.

Follow the Utah Ski Team on social media @utahskiteam.