BOULDER—Westminster and Utah both had two skiers earn RMISA Skiers of the Meet honors to open the season with alpine action taking place at Aspen and Eldora over four consecutive days to open the season.
WMC's Julia Toiviainen and Utah's Gustav Voello both swept GS races in Aspen to win the first honor of the season. The two school's then flipped while the Utes' Madison Hoffman taking home honors in Eldora with a first and fourth place showing in two slalom races while the Griffins' Francesco Gori picked up men's honors at Eldora with a fourth and second place finish.
Toiviainen won both GS races at the DU Invitational at Aspen Highlands on Sunday to open her season with a bang. She not only won both races, she won all four runs on the day. She picked up her first two career wins and her third and fourth top five finish.
Not to be outdone the following day, Voello also won his first two career races, sweeping the GS races at Aspen Highlands on Monday. The two wins marked his second and third career podium appearances.
In Eldora, it was two rookies who picked up the honors. Hoffman won the first slalom of the day and took fourth in the other while Gori finished fourth in the first race and second in the second race of the day. Gori's feat is even more impressive given the fact he started both races in bib 18 and he was able to work his way through the field nicely.
Skiers can only win the award once a season and the award is given to the skier with the best combined finish in races at an invitational.