BEAVER CREEK, Colo.—The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association announced its 2016 MVPs on Friday night at the annual RMISA banquet, held here at the midpoint of the 2016 RMISA Championships.
The MVP awards are given to the skier who compiles the most NCAA Qualification points in the four regular season meets and eight regular season races leading up to the RMISA Championships.
In women’s Nordic action, Utah’s Veronika Mayerhofer won the MVP honor after a stellar season in which she finished in the top four in all eight races, including four runner-up performances and three other third places. She won her first race of the season Friday at the RMISA Championships, having not won a race in the regular season, but she did compile 281 points to win the MVP honor by 28 points over Denver’s Linn Eriksen.
She won the MVP for the second straight season, also winning last year when she won three races, took second three other times and again didn’t finish lower than fourth. She is also the defending NCAA Champion in the freestyle discipline.
In men’s Nordic action, Colorado’s Mads Stroem was awarded MVP, although it was much closer than the women’s race. Stroem edged out Utah’s Niklas Person by just four points after the eight races. Stroem entered the final meet of the season in New Mexico eight points behind Persson but won both races while Persson finished third in both. With the weighted scoring system, Stroem outscored Persson by six points in both races to take the four point victory.
Stroem finished second in last year’s MVP race behind teammate Rune Oedegaard. Like Mayerhofer, Stroem also won earlier Friday, his fifth race win of the season to go with another pair of runner-up finishes.
In alpine action, Denver’s Tuva Norbye won the MVP after finishing nine of 10 regular season races and finishing in the top 10 in every race. She won the slalom race at Montana State, was runner up in two other slaloms and had three third place finishes, two in GS and another in slalom. She finished with 294 points and edged out Colorado’s Tonje Trulsrud by 19 points.
She is the second straight Pioneer to win the MVP honor after Monica Huebner took home the honors last season.
It was an alpine sweep for freshman as Colorado newcomer Ola Johansen took home the men’s alpine MVP honor. He finished nine of 10 races on the season, winning two and taking second four times and third twice more. His worst finish was a fifth place in those nine races. He racked up 325 points and beat his teammate and classmate Max Luukko by 40 points.
Utah leads the RMISA Championships at the midpoint and the regional championship will conclude on Saturday.