Utah Comes Back In Dramatic Fashion To Win Own Invitational

Monday, January 11, 2016 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

MIDWAY, Utah—The Utah Utes needed every bit of a 1-2 finish in the women’s 10K classic race to complete a comeback Monday here at Soldier Hollow to win their own invitational, the first meet of the 2016 to come to completion.

The race was as close as it can be between the host Utes, who entered the day in third place but just six points behind Denver and Colorado, who were both tied. After the men’s 15K classic race to open the day, the Buffs had opened a 14 point lead on both Denver and Utah, who were then tied for second place.

But a 1-2-7 performance in the women’s race, racking up an impressive 102 points, surged the Utes past both the Buffs and Pioneers to take the meet.

When it was all said and done, the Utes scored 632 points, 13 ahead of Colorado’s total of 619 and Denver took third with 579 points. Montana State was fourth with 492 points, New Mexico fifth with 479 and Alaska Anchorage finished sixth with 384 points. Associate members Westminster (258) and Colorado Mountain College (73) rounded out the team scoring.

Though it didn’t matter much for the team standings, the two Utes that finished 1-2 did produce their own drama at the finish line as Sloan Storey edged out Veronika Mayerhofer by just two-tenths of a second for the win, 29:36.6 to 29:36.8. Colorado, without two of its top women’s Nordic skiers, did hit the podium with Petra Hyncicova taking third 16.0 seconds behind Storey in a time of 29:52.6.

Utah’s third scorer was Natalia Mueller in seventh place and for good measure, the Utes had four of the top nine finishers with Josefin Nilsson taking ninth. Behind Hyncicova for Colorado, Jesse Knori was 10th and Camilla Brautaset 14th. Utah outscored Colorado by 27 points to turn the 14 point deficit into a 13 point win.

Montana State’s Cambria McDermott finished fourth, the final skier to break the 30 minute mark in 29:58.5 and New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervarn rounded out the top five in a time of 30:12.6.

New Mexico edged the Buffs for second place, 79-75, while Montana State was fourth in the race with 64 points. Denver scored 49 points in the race and finished third in the meet, 40 points behind the Buffaloes.

Colorado was led by Mads Stroem, who got his first win of the season in the men’s race to open the day as the Buffs won the men’s race with 90 points, edging Utah (82) by eight and Denver (76) by 14 to take the lead through seven events.

The men’s race was also down to the wire as Stroem’s winning time of 38:23.1 was just 1.3 seconds ahead of second place Niklas Persson (38:24.4) from Utah while Denver’s Moritz Madlener was just another four-tenths back in a time of 38:24.8. Colorado also had fourth place with Petter Reistad in a time of 38:40.3 while DU’s Dag Frode Trolleboe rounded out the top five in a time of 38:48.4.

With the Utah meet now complete, the Nordic teams will head north to Montana to complete the Montana State Invitational. The alpine teams concluded that portion of the meet Monday, as well. Denver will take the lead into the Nordic portion of the meet with 344 points, while Colorado is second with 311 and Utah third with 273.