RED RIVER, N.M. and CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – Håkon Hjelstuen won the men's 21-km freestyle to lead the Utah ski team on the first day of the New Mexico Invitational as the Utes stand third in the overall standings.
Hjelstuen has won two straight races for the Utes, and both races of 20-km or more. He has been in the top five in five races this year.
Martin Bergström finished second for his fifth podium finish of the year. The Utes were the top scoring team in the race with 100 points as
Bjørn Riksaasen finished eighth to give Utah three top 10 finishers on the day. Riksaasen has five top 10 finishes on the year.
Jacob Engström had his best finish of the year with an 11th-place finish while
Logan Diekmann finished 15
th.
In the women's 21-km freestyle,
Guro Jordheim placed third for her fifth-straight podium finish.
Mariah Bredal tied her season-best finish with a sixth-place run while
Leah Lange also tied her best finish of the year with seventh.
Karianne Moe also had a season-best 13
th-place finish. Utah scored 86 race points, just one behind race leader Denver's 87 points.
In alpine, Utah had two skiers in the top 10 of the women's slalom as
Julie Mohagen had a season-best sixth-place finish while
Ann-Kathrin Breuning finished 10
th.
Sabine Krautgasser finished 15
th on the day.
In the men's slalom,
Huston Philp led Utah with a 16th-place run.
Martin Grasic finished 20th followed by
Sam Dupratt in a tie for 24th,
Ty Sprock in 29th and
Linus Walch in 38th.
Utah has 292.5 points and trails Colorado (327) and Denver (322) in the overall standings. New Mexico ranks fourth (274) with Montana State fifth (257).
The New Mexico Invitational continues on Sunday, Feb. 4, with a second men's and women's slalom race as well as the men's and women's 5-km classical races.