MSU’s Driller, CU’s Ketterer and DU’s Komsic and Norbye Win Slalom Races in Alaska

Friday, January 27, 2017 • by Brooke Frederickson, RMISA

GIRDWOOD, Alaska—A busy day of racing saw four slalom races in Alaska for the Seawolf Invitational and UAA Invitational. Picking up wins was Montana State’s Garett Driller, Denver’s Andrea Komsic and Tuva Norbye and Colorado’s David Ketterer. Continue below for more on each race.

Montana State leads the Seawolf Invitational through the alpine races with 333 points, followed by Utah (311), Denver (283), Colorado (274) and New Mexico (234) in the top five. The Nordic portion of the meet will be held from Feb. 11-12.

After the slalom races at the UAA Invite, New Mexico leads with 168 points followed by Denver (159), Utah (148), Montana State (134) and Colorado (114). The giant slalom races will be held on Saturday, Jan. 28. Races can be followed at ussalivetiming.com.

Seawolf Invitational

The day started with the women’s race and Komsic earning her second win of the season. Utah’s Julie Mohagen earned her second podium finish of the year with a second-place run while Colorado’s Nora Christensen finished third for her third podium of the year. Utah just edged out Denver for the race win with 87 points, placing three skiers in the top 10: Mohagen, Sabine Krautgasser with her first career top five in fifth and Abby Ghent in 10th. Montana State also placed three skiers in the top 10: Benedicte Lyche in fourth, Jocelyn McCarthy in eighth and Mia Henry (her first top 10 of the year) in ninth. Also in the top 10 was Denver’s Monica Huebner (sixth) and New Mexico’s Sydney Staples with her first top 10 of the season in seventh.

Driller picked up his first win of the season in the men’s race, the first slalom of the year not won by Colorado’s David Ketterer, who finished second. Utah’s Endre Bjertness earned his first podium of the season with a third-place finish. Colorado had three in the top 10 for the race win with 93 points, with Max Luukko in fourth and Ola Johnasen in seventh following Ketterer. New Mexico also had two skiers in the top 10: Patrick Brachner in fifth and Isak Klein in eighth, the first top-10 finishes of the year for both skiers. Montana State’s Morten Bakke (sixth), Denver’s Nick Santaniello (ninth) and Alaska-Anchorage’s Anthony Naciuk (10th) were also in the top 10.

UAA Invite

Norbye won her first race of the season in the second slalom of the day, followed by UNM’s Staples following her first top 10 of the year with her first podium finish in second. Utah’s Mohagen placed third for her second podium finish of the day. New Mexico won the race with 86 points led by Staples in second and Karoline Myklebust in fourth. Montana State put four skiers in the top 10: Lyche (fifth), McCarthy (sixth), Henry (eighth) and Stephanie Gartner (10th). Utah’s Krautgasser finished seventh with Denver’s Storm Klomhaus ninth.

The men closed out the day with Ketterer back on top for his fourth slalom win of the season. New Mexico’s Vegard Busengdal rallied back from a DNF in the first race with a second-place finish in the second race for his fourth podium of the year. Bjertness earned his second podium of the day with his second-straight third-place finish. Colorado came away with the race win with 83 points, which included a fifth-place run by Luukko. Denver’s Alex Leever paced three Pioneer skiers in the top 10 with Tanner Farrow finishing eighth and Sebastian Brigovic placing ninth. Also in the top 10 was Patrick Brachner in sixth, Montana State’s Bakke in seventh and Utah’s Joergen Brath in 10th.