Utes Finish Third at Denver Invitational

Saturday, February 7

Winter Park/Devils Thumb, Colo.

All Day

University of Utah

Denver Invitational

2/7/2009 12:00 AM | Skiing

Feb. 7, 2009

Complete Results in PDF Format

WINTER PARK, Colo. - Sophomore Eva Huckova led Utah with a third-place finish in the slalom as the Utes finished third at the Denver Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 7.

Huckova finished with a time of 1:30.58. She tied her best slalom finish of the season. Also skiing for Utah was Sofia Smith in 16th (1:34.71), Chirine Njeim in 18th (1:34.96) and Chelsea Laswell in 20th (1:35.96).

In the men's slalom, Torjus Krogdahl led the Utes in 12th in 1:30.45. He was followed by Thomas Zumbrunn in 13th (1:30.28), Scott Veenis in 14th (1:30.86) and Nick Cohee in 15th (1:31.14). Hermann Lager also competed, finishing 27th with a time of 1:40.98.

"Eva was our highlight of the day, finishing third in tough conditions," head alpine coach Jaka Korencan said. "She had to battle big ruts because of her late run as well as some illness and still skied well. As a team it was a tough day for the Utes. After the first run we were skiing really well but everyone battled the tough conditions in the second run.

"Our plan for this meet was to focus on individual finishes and improve our NCAA qualifying positions. We accomplished that in the giant slalom but didn't do as well in the slalom. We are ready for a quick rest and then some hard training until regionals to keep improving and skiing consistency. We have an awesome team and can definitely finish strong."

For the Nordic team, Even Sletten led all Utah racers with an eighth-place finish in the men's 15-km freestyle in 44:33.4. Didrik Smith and Ian Havlick rounded out the Ute scorers, skiing 16th (45:25.3) and 18th (45:34.3), respectively. Ben Fick placed 21st in 45:49.8, Tom Smith finished 24th in 46:42.8 and Rolf Figi was 29th in 48:01.5.

In the women's 10-km freestyle, Zoe Roy and Devon Spika crossed the line 12th and 13th, respectively. Roy finished in 34:43.5 while Spika had a time of 34:51.5. Parker Tyler in 20th (37:10.2) and Ingvild Flatland in 22nd (37:14.7) also skied for Utah.

"It was a good weekend for us overall," Director of Skiing and head Nordic coach Eli Brown said. "A lot of members of the team had some of their best results of the year. We really showed our depth and it's exciting to know that we can finish third even missing two of our best Nordic skiers. Our results have been on the upswing and regionals will be another step towards getting fired up for the final races.

"A little more training and a little rest and we are getting ready to peak as we head towards the end."

In the team standings, Utah finished in third with 489 points, just three points out of second. Colorado (540 points) won the meet, followed by Denver (492). New Mexico (472) and Alaska-Anchorage (453) completed the top five.

Utah returns to action at the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Skiing Association (RMISA) Western Regional, Feb. 19-21, in Reno, Nev.