STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—Utah’s Julie Mohagen came out on top at the end of the women’s slalom on Saturday night and earned her first NCAA individual championship. The freshman clocked a combined run time of 1:29.63 to put her in first place.
“It feels amazing,” Mohagen said. “I was nervous and it was cool to come down.”
While she ended up at the top of the podium, Mohagen had a brief falter on her second run down the course.
“I kind of went on my inside ski and got my hip on the ground,” she said. “I came into a little loose snow and I really lost my speed. When I came down I heard all the Vermont fans cheering so I thought, ‘No, blew that one.’”
It wasn’t until her teammates began to cheer that the freshman skier realized she was the champion.
Though Mohagen thought she might have blown her shot at an individual championship, she refused to give up on her attempt to place. She had a strong lead in the first race with a time of 44.39 and even with a falter, Mohagen clocked 45.24 in her second race.
“Everything kind of goes really fast so whenever something like that happens, I usually forget about it,” she said. “It was okay. It didn’t bother me all that much because you have way too many other things to think about.”
That thought process helped propel the freshman into her first NCAA individual championship and bring Utah into third place at the end of day three of the championships.