New Mexico Keeps Lead As Utah Invite Resumes

Friday, January 22, 2010 – by Curtis Snyder, RMISASkiing.com

Results Available On Schedule/Results Page

SOLDIER HOLLOW, Utah – New Mexico’s lead isn’t quite what it was after the conclusion of the alpine events, but the Lobos continue to lead with six of eight races now complete in the Utah Invitational here Friday. The Lobos have 658 points and lead Denver by 20 points while Colorado moved past Utah into third place and has 583 points.

Utah (575) sits in fourth with Alaska Anchorage (498), Nevada (480) and Montana State (472) rounding out the field.

Denver combined to score 215 points to score the most on the day as the DU women won the 5K classical race by finishing second and third. Colorado also had two top 5 finishers and CU’s Eliska Hajkova won the race in a time of 18:16.4, the first win for the Buffs this season and the first time that DU’s Antje Maempel didn’t finish in the top spot. She did finish second with teammate Kate Dolan third. Alaska Anchorage’s Stephanie Heimer finished fourth with CU’s Alexa Turzian rounding out the top five.

Denver scored 120 points in the race with Mari Elden finishing 11th for the Pioneers. The Buffs scored 109 points in the race as Katie Stege finished 24th as the third scorer for the Buffs.

In the men’s race, it was a three team race as New Mexico won the race with 112 points, followed by Utah (109) and Colorado (104). Those three teams comprised seven of the top 10 spots in the race, led by New Mexico’s Martin Kaas, who has won every nordic race this season. Going beyond the team scorers, those three schools had 15 of the top 20 finishers in the race, as well.

Montana State’s Bernhard Roenning finished second behind Kaas while Utah’s Miles Havlick finished third. Colorado’s Vegard Kjoelhamar and Denver’s Kristian Soerlund round out the top five.

The Utah Invitational will conclude Saturday with the running of the freestyle races.