Utes Continue to Lead at Seawolf Invitational

Saturday, January 10

Girdwood/Anchorage, Alaska

All Day

University of Utah

Seawolf Invitational

1/11/2009 12:00 AM | Skiing

Jan. 10, 2009

Complete Release in PDF Format

ANCHORAGE - The Utah ski team continued with a solid all-around performance to continue to lead the Seawolf Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 10.

Utah is first with 412 points, while Alaska (405), Denver (390.5), Colorado (377.5) and New Mexico (358.5) make up the top five.

The women's Nordic and alpine skiers came home with the best finishes of the day. Mikaela Grassl was second in the women's giant slalom while Parker Tyler finished third in the 10-km classic.

Grassl finished the giant slalom in 1:41.12. Chirine Njeim was also in the top 10 with a seventh-place finish (1:41.86). Sofia Smith in 19th rounded out the Utah skiers (1:44.37).

Tyler skied the 10-km classic in 33:55.5. Three other Ute women earned top-10 finishes. Zoe Roy was eighth (34:39.1) followed by Sara Schweiger in ninth (34:48.1) and Annelies Cook in 10th (35:13.2). Devon Spika crossed the line 14th for Utah in 35:52.3.

"Parker had a great race," Director of Skiing Eli Brown said. "We knew she had a lot of speed and I've always had a lot of confidence in her I just didn't know she'd be this fast so soon, especially after the sprint races the other day.

"The theme of the week has been that we're having good races and showing our best."

For the men, Hermann Lager paced the men's alpine team with a seventh-place run in the slalom in 1:34.19. Scott Veenis and Thomas Zumbrunn finished 10th and 11th, respectively. Veenis finished with a time of 1:34.55 while Zumbrunn finished in 1:34.57. Nick Cohee crossed the line 14th (1:34.74).

On the Nordic side, Didrik Smith placed seventh in the 15-km classic (43:17.7). He was followed by Rolf Figi in 14th (44:08.5), Even Sletten in 16th (44:30.2) and Ben Fick in 18th (44:34.5). Tom Smith placed 22nd in 44:52.

Both the Seawolf Invitational and Alaska-Anchorage Invitational conclude on Sunday, Jan. 11. The Nordic team finishes the Seawolf with the 10 and 15-km freestyle races while the alpiners compete in the UAA Invite with the men's giant slalom and women's slalom.