Mayerhofer Wins Classical Race at New Mexico Invitational

Friday, January 30

Red River, N.M. (Red River Ski Area)

All Day

University of Utah

Slalom #1

Mayerhofer Wins Classical Race at New Mexico Invitational

1/30/2015 12:00 AM | Skiing

Jan. 30, 2015

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New Mexico Invite Day 1 Results

RED RIVER, N.M. - Freshman Veronika Mayerhofer won her second-straight classical race as five Utah skiers finished in the top 10 on day one at the New Mexico Invitational. Utah is third after day one of the meet.

Mayerhofer has two wins and four podium finishes through five races this season. The Utah women led the scoring in the 10-km race with 101 points, with Sloan Storey finishing fourth and Josefin Nilsson coming in fifth. It was Storey's third top-five finish of the season while Nilsson tied her best career finish. Natalia Muller also had her best finish of the season, finishing sixth. Anna-Lena Heynen was 13th.

In the men's 10-km classical, Niklas Persson finished ninth while Oscar Ivars finished 10th for his best finish of the year. Noé Bellet was 13th followed by Tucker McCrerey in 14th (his best finish of the year), Kevin Bolger in 19th and Nick Hendrickson in 21st.

The classic races featured a new team start format that saw each school start its entire team together, with a team starting every two minutes.

"We had a pretty interesting day out there," Utah head Nordic coach Abi Holt said. "Heading to the start line, both the women and the men were going for broke in the team score. But, as ever, the 10,000+ foot race elevation leaves little margin for pacing errors. In the end, the women put together a truly exceptional race with four in the top six positions. The men were a little off today and only managed two in the top ten. The team race was a fun change of pace, but now everyone is recovering and preparing for the tomorrow's individual start skate race."

In women's alpine, senior Ana Kobal notched her second-straight podium finish in the slalom, finishing third. She has eight career podium finishes. She was the only scorer for the Utes in the event, as Kristiina Rove, Teagen Palmer and Nora Eide all did not finish their first runs.

In the men's slalom, Dominic Demschar led the Utes with an 11th-place finish. Joergen Brath finished 13th, jumping in the final standings after running the third-fastest second run of the day. Tim Hribar finished 20th as Utah's third scorer. Endre Bjertness was sixth after the first run but did not finish his second run. Andy Trow also did not finish his second run.

The Utes stand third in the overall standings with 257 points, with the top four teams just 34 points apart. Colorado leads with 286 points followed by host New Mexico (276) with Denver fourth (252).

The New Mexico Invitational continues on Saturday, Jan. 31, with the Nordic freestyle women's 5-km and men's 10-km races, beginning with the men at 9:00 a.m. followed by the women at 10:15 a.m. The alpine teams run a second slalom race, beginning with the men's first run at 9:15 a.m.