STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—Westminster's Julia Toiviainen and Denver's Tobias Kogler picked up individual RMISA Championships in giant slalom Wednesday to open action at the 2022 RMISA Championships, which triple as the NCAA West Regional and the CU Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational.
A strange weather day that saw varying conditions between all four runs left Utah in the lead when the snow settles, as the Utes picked up 164 points on the day. Denver is just 12 points back with 154 points while host Colorado (138.5) and Westminster (138) are both in the thick of it.
The strangest part of the day came in the second run of the men's race, where there was a decided advantage to ski earlier in the run than later. The top 30 flips, meaning the winner of the first run goes 30th in the second run, and for the first time in recent memory, there were more skiers that finished the first run between 20-30 than in the top 10.
Kogler was the exception to that rule, and his padding in the first run (leading by almost four-tenths of a second) enabled him to win the race skiing away. Utah's Oliver Parazette took second and Denver's Trey Seymour third. Parazette and Seymour were two of the skiers among the first out and they had the two fastest second run times in the field.
Toiviainen was joined on the podium by Colorado's Emma Hammergaard and Utah's Kaja Norbye. Toiviainen had the fastest time in both runs while Hammergaard and Norbye were both in the top four of both runs, as well.
The teams return to action Thursday with the slalom races at Howelsen Hill. Alpine teams will race another slalom on Friday and then host parallel slalom exhibition Saturday. Nordic teams hit the snow Friday with the 5K women's and 10K men's classic races.
| Date | Race |
|---|---|
| Feb. 23 | Women's Giant Slalom |
| Feb. 23 | Men's Giant Slalom |
| Feb. 25 | Women's Slalom |
| Feb. 25 | Women's 5K Classical |
| Feb. 25 | Men's Slalom |
| Feb. 25 | Men's 10K Classical |
| Feb. 26 | Women's 15K Freestyle |
| Feb. 26 | Men's 20K Freestyle |