Roy Leads Utes on First Day of RMISA Championships

2/26/2010 12:00 AM | Skiing

Feb. 26, 2010

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - Zoe Roy's fourth-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Skiing Association Championships led the Utes on the first day of competition. Utah stands fifth after day one.

Roy crossed the line fourth in the women's 5-km classic with a time of 16:56.9. It was her best finish of the year. Sarah MacCarthy finished 15th in 17:55.9 while Devon Spika was 16th with a time of 18:02.9. Rose Kemp finished just behind them in 17th (18:04.7) while Karina Smith (25th) and Marta Larsen (26th) also raced for Utah.

The men's Nordic team was also strong behind top-10 finishes from Miles Havlick and Didrik Smith. Havlick had his third top-six run of the year, finishing sixth the 10-km classic in 30:15.8. Smith tied his best finish of the season with a ninth-place run in 30:26.3. Rolf Figi was Utah's third scorer with a time of 31:30.6, good for 18th-place. Ben Fick (28th), Ian Havlick (29th) and Tom Smith (33rd) also raced for the Utes.

"Zoe really deserves that finish," Director of Skiing Eli Brown said. "A big goal for her is to earn All-America honors and she is showing that she is on track. Miles really started hard and had a chance for a podium but faded a bit in the end, but it is still a great result for him. Didrik was solid as well."

In the alpine team's giant slalom races, Eva Huckova placed seventh, her 10th top-eight finish of the season. She had a time of 1:58.18. Anna Kocken scored her best giant slalom finish of the year with a 12th-place run (1:58.63) while Sofia Smith finished 14th in 1:58.94.

Nick Cohee was the men's alpine leader with an 11th-place run in 1:57.98. Kyle Kung placed 12th in 1:58.10 followed by Max Lamb in 14th (1:58.27). Torjus Krogdahl finished 17th in 1:58.48. Thomas Zumbrunn had an unfortunate DNF, injuring his shoulder on the run.

"It was a good day for the women's alpine team, but we are bummed out about Thomas," Brown said.

Utah is fifth after day one with 356 points. Colorado leads with 435 points, followed by Denver (410), Alaska (382) and New Mexico (362).

The meet continues on Saturday with the men's 20-km and the women's 15-km mass start freestyle races and the slalom night races.