BIG SKY, Mont.—Utah’s Chloe Fausa and Denver’s Erik Read both continued their early season success, each winning their second race of the young season here at the RMISA Qualifier race, a giant slalom race held ahead of the Montana State Invitational.
Fausa won the women’s race and the Utes dominated the race, with teammate Julie Mohagen taking second and Roni Remme taking sixth. Westminster’s Ann Bruening rounded out the podium in third while Colorado’s Jessica Honkonen took fourth and the Griffins’ Marie Aufrere rounded out the top five.
Fausa edged out Mohagen by just five hundredths of a second, 2:09.34 to 2:09.39. They were then more than three-quarters of a second ahead of Bruening’s third place time of 2:10.16.
On the men’s side, Read was third overall and the top collegian finisher in a time of 2:05.66. Westminster’s Giulio Bosca was second in a time of 2:05.74 and Colorado’s Ola Johansen rounded out the college podium in a time of 2:05.97.
Utah’s Endre Bjertness was fourth in 2:06.18 and Colorado’s Max Luukko gave the Buffs two in the top five in a time of 2:06.40. Colorado had three of the top six with Roger Carry taking sixth (2:07.26) and the Buffs had six in the top 17 of the college finishers.
Team scores are not calculated in the RMISA Qualifier races. Had they been calculated, Utah would’ve won the women’s race with 101 points and Colorado the men’s with 90 points.
Action continues Sunday with another GS races, this one part of the MSU Invitational. The alpine portion of the MSU meet concludes Monday. Meanwhile back at Soldier Hollow, the Utah Invitational will conclude with Nordic action on Sunday and Monday.