2024 NCAA Championships (March 6-9, 2024)
Live Team Scoring | Live Video

Live Timing
March 6: Men's GS | Women's GS
March 7: Men's Freestyle | Women's Freestyle
March 8: Women's Slalom | Men's Slalom
March 9: Women's Classic | Men's Classic

 

Utah Holds Lead At Seawolf Invitational After Four Races Wednesday

Wednesday, February 25, 2015 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—No. 3 Utah added to its lead while No. 1 Colorado and No. 5 New Mexico remain in the mix for the team title while No. 2 Denver dominated the alpine racing here at the Seawolf Invitational with Nordic freestyle and alpine slalom races taking place Wednesday.

With six of eight races now complete, Utah has racked up 466.5 points, 28 ahead of Colorado (438.5) while New Mexico is another 8.5 points back at 430. Denver moved up to fourth place with 378 points, just nine ahead of host and No. 9 Alaska Anchorage. No. 10 Montana State is sixth with 341 points.

The women got things underway first Wednesday with the 5K classic race at Kincaid Park and New Mexico’s Emilie Cedervarn made it a sweep by winning the race in a time of 15:50.0, earning her second straight win and second collegiate victory. She was followed by a pair of Utes as Veronika Mayerhoffer took second in 15:57.8 and Sloan Storey third in 16:01.9. Two hometown Seawolves rounded out the top five with Manon Locatelli taking fourth in 16:06.1 and Kathrin Schratt fifth in 16:31.3.

Utah won the race with 98 points, 16 ahead of the Lobos total of 82 while host Alaska Anchorage was third with 80 points.

In the men’s race, Colorado’s duo of Mads Stroem and Rune Oedegaard again went 1-2, marking the seventh time in eight races this season they have accomplished that feat, this time with Stroem winning in a time of 20:22.2, 11.3 seconds ahead of Oedegaard (20:33.5). Utah’s Niklas Persson got another podium in third place in 20:57.4, meaning the same three skiers swept the podium spots. Alaska Anchorage’s Clement Molliet made it the top four that were similar to Monday’s race in fourth place in 20:59.5 while Utah’s Noe Bellet took fifth in 21:10.7, giving the Utes two top five finishes.

Colorado racked up 92 points to win the race, 11 head of Utah’s total of 81, while New Mexico took third with 66 points.

Meanwhile at Aleyska alpine action got underway and the women were up first. Westminster’s Anna Goodman won the race in a time of 1:41.75, edging out a pair of Pioneers with Kristine Haugen taking second (1:41.97) and Monica Huebner third (1:42.00). New Mexico’s Sydney Staples took third in 1:43.07 and Colorado’s Thea Grosvold rounded out the top five in a time of 1:43.56.

DU won the race by 21 points, scoring 94 to Westminster’s 73 while New Mexico was one point back with 72 points.

The Pioneers were even more dominant in the men’s race, earning three of the top four finishers with Espen Lysdahl taking the race win in a time of 1:35.89. Westminster’s Tim Lindgren was second in a time of 1:36.41 with DU’s Taylor Shirffrin (1:36.51) and Sebastian Brigovic (1:36.63) going 3-4. Montana State’s Garret Driller rounded out the top five in 1:36.95 with teammate David Neuhauser taking sixth in 1:37.18.

The Pioneer’s racked up an impressive 105 points, the most for any team in any race this meet and 37 more than any other team as the Bobcats were second with 68 points and Utah took third with 60.

Thursday’s giant slalom action will end the Seawolf Invitational. The RMISA Championships, which double as the NCAA Western Regional, will then be held Friday and Saturday. Friday’s action will include the women’s 5K and men’s 10K freestyle races and men’s and women’s giant slalom races. Saturday’s action will include the women’s 15K and men’s 20K classic races and the men’s and women’s slalom races.

The RMISA Championships also include a special seeding process whereby each team is given one skier in each group of seven seeds and coaches can enter change skiers as they see fit. This gives an opportunity for coaches to give certain skiers better starting numbers hoping to improve their seeding prior to the NCAA Championships.

At the conclusion of the Championships the coaches for both Nordic and alpine will conduct the selection process for the NCAA Championships, which will be handed into the NCAA Monday.

© Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association. All Rights Reserved. Powered by StatsGeek