Denver Leads While Utah, Colorado Skiers Pick Up First College Wins

Friday, January 22, 2016 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. —Denver dominated the women’s slalom race while Utah’s Julie Mohagen and Colorado’s Henrik Gunnarsson both picked up their first collegiate wins skiing under the lights Friday night here at Howelsen Hill.

The Pioneers went 2-3-8 in the women’s race to rack up 94 points and win the race by an impressive 24 points. New Mexico (70), Utah (66), Colorado (64), Montana State (60) and Alaska Anchorage (54) were then just 16 points apart from second to sixth place.

Colorado won the men’s race with 86 points while Denver scored 71. The meet standings see Denver up by 15 over the Buffs, 165-150, and then third through seventh places are amazingly just six points apart. Westminster is third with 121, one point ahead of Montana State (120), who is one point ahead of Utah (119), then New Mexico is two back at 117 points and Alaska Anchorage is seventh with 115.

Mohagen’s winning time in the women’s race was 1:28.55, nearly a second ahead of DU’s Tuva Norbye (1:29.51) who then beat out teammate Kristine Haugen by two-tenths of a second in 1:29.71. Alaska Anchorage’s Maria Gudmundsdottir was fourth in 1:29.76 and MSU’s Jocelyn McCarthy finished fifth in 1:29.83.

Gunnarsson had an impressive pair of runs, starting in the 15th spot in the first run, moving up into seventh place after the first run and then catapulting the other six racers in the second run to pick up his first win in 46 career races. His time of 1:25.43 was just ahead of Westminter’s Giulio Bosca (1:25.56) while Denver’s Taylor Shiffrin (1:26.11) just barely beat out Colorado’s Ola Johansen (1:26.17) for the podium. The Griffins’ Tim Lindgren rounds out the top five in 1:26.25.

Races continue Saturday as it marks the first day of the season in which both alpine and Nordic teams are competing on the same day in the same invitational. The women’s 5K freestyle race will start at 9 a.m. followed by the men’s 10K at 9:40 a.m. Over at Mt. Werner, first runs for GS start at 8:45 and 10 a.m. and second runs are at 12:45 and 1:45 p.m.