Denver's Madlener, Utah's Myrseth Win Women's Freestyle Races at UAA Invite, Utes Win Meet

Sunday, February 12, 2017 • by Brooke Frederickson, RMISA

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—The RMISA skiers closed out their time in Alaska with Denver's Moritz Madlener and Utah's Merete Myrseth won the men's 20-km and women's 15-km freestyle races to close out the UAA Invitational, as the Utes won their second meet of the year.

The win was Madlener's second of the season. Denver swept the top two spots with Dag Trolleboe placing second for his third podium of the year. The Pioneers had a race-high 106 points with Eivind Kvaale finishing fifth, his third top-five finish of the season. The Utes also had three skiers in the top 10 with Martin Bergstroem in third (his second podium of the season), Kevin Bolger in fourth and Martin Mikkelsen in sixth. Alaska Fairbanks had two skiers in the top 10 with Max Donaldson placing eighth and Michael Fehrenbach in 10th. Also in the top 10 was Colorado's Petter Reistad and New Mexico's Arnaud Guyon.

For the women it was Myrseth's second victory of the season, while the Utes Guro Jordheim finished second for her fourth podium of the season. Utah had a race-high 91 points. Colorado and Alaska Fairbanks also had a pair of skiers in the top 10 with Christina Rolandsen leading the Buffs with her third podium of the year and Jesse Knori in eighth. The Nanooks were led by Sarissa Lammers in fifth (her best finish of the year) and Nichole Bathe in sixth. Montana State's Anika Miller finished fourth for her second top-five finish of the year. Also in the top 10 was New Mexico's Krista Niiranen in seventh, Denver's Jasmi Joensuu in ninth and Alaska Anchorage's Hailey Swirbul in 10th.

Utah had 661 points for its second-straight meet win, topping Denver in second (636). Colorado finished third (544) followed by New Mexico in fourth (497) and Montana State in fifth (441).

The alpine and Nordic teams return to action with the RMISA Championships, hosted by Denver from Feb. 24-26.