Utah Skis Away With MSU Invite; Host Bobcats Surge To Second

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

BOZEMAN, Mont.—It was a foregone conclusion entering Wednesday that the Utah Utes would win the Montana State Invitational, it was just a matter of by how much. Meanwhile in the race for second place, which seemed to be a race between Denver and Colorado, saw Montana State sneak in to finish in the runner-up position.

But the Utes didn’t take their seemingly inevitable win and coast to the finish, they dominated the alpine action Sunday, winning both races, including the men's race by almost 40 points, to finish the meet with 760 points and 253.5 points ahead of second place and host Montana State.

The Pioneers and Buffs were neck and neck the entire day, and while both struggled a little bit in the men's race, they still held around a 40 point lead over Montana State. But when Colorado scored just 43 points in the women's race and Denver just 34, the Bobcats scored 80 to catch up and pass the other two .

A late DQ from Colorado moved the Buffs from second to fourth as the scoring for those three teams was just 4.5 points. Montana State finished second with 506.5 points with Denver taking third with 504 and the Buffs fourth with 502. Prior to the late DQ, the Buffs were second with 506 points, MSU had 504.5 and DU 502.

Utes won both races, with Bjorn Brudevoll taking the men's race and Katie Parker the women's. On the men's side, Wilhelm Normannseth finished second and Jeremy Mathers fifth in the scoring positions while Oliver Parazette also finished eighth for the Utes. In women's action, behind Parker the Utes finished 5-6-7 with Sona Moravcikova taking fifth, Josephine Selvaag sixth and Kaja Norbye seventh.

Utah's point total of 760 is the second-highest in the current format and the margin of victory (253.5 points) is more than 70 points higher than the previous record. The Utes scored 762 points as a team in last year's RMISA Invitational at Westminster and the previous high for margin of victory was Denver in the 2014 MSU Invitational when they won by 180 points.

Utah now owns eight of the top 12 point totals in the current scoring system, all coming in the last three seasons. And the Utes now have five of the six meets where the winning margin was 100 points or more.