Jordheim, Richter Finish 1-2 as Skiing leads at NCAA West Regional

Wednesday, February 20

Palmer, AK

All Day

University of Utah

Freestyle (5/10K-I)

Photo by: Brooke Frederickson

Jordheim, Richter Finish 1-2 as Skiing leads at NCAA West Regional

2/20/2019 8:12 PM | Skiing

RMISA Championships Day 1 Results

PALMER, Alaska – Guro Jordheim and Julia Richter finished first and second in the women's 5-km freestyle and the Utah ski team leads Colorado by two points after the first day of the RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regional.

Jordheim has a league-high five wins this year and has won all but one race she has competed. Richter has come on strong during the Utes time in Alaska and has her third-straight podium finish. The Utes had four skiers in the top 10 with Karianne Moe finishing ninth for her fifth top 10 of the year and Mariah Bredal placing 10th for her sixth top 10 finish. Leah Lange finished 17^th for the Utes. The women were the highest scoring team of the day with 99 points.

"It feels great to be back racing after some back injuries!" Jordheim said. "The Utah guys were outstanding cheering me on out there and I'm psyched to share the podium with Julia. Even with the downhill there was not a lot of time to rest and you had work hard all the time. Thanks for great skis, coach Miles and coach Fredrik! In addition, without athletic trainer Ben I would not have been able to race without back pain."

"Today's race was on a different venue than the races before, I really liked this course and it was fun to race there," Richter said. "It was a technical course with a lot of transitions and corners, which fits me well. My legs felt fresh and I am super happy to be on the podium with my teammate Guro today. A huge thanks to the whole team for great support!"

Ola Jordheim continued his consistent top 10 finishes with a sixth-place run – he has eight top 10 finishes in nine races - while Bjørn Rikssasen was just behind in seventh, his fourth top 10 in five races this year. Jacob Engström had a 12^th-place finish for his best distance finish of the year while Logan Diekmann finished 13^th. Noel Keeffe was 17^th and Maximilian Bie placed 19^th for the Utes.

"I thought today's race was really fun, the course really fits me well and when conditions are as good as today its really fun to compete," Rikssasen said. "Nice to get some races in at sea level before the last part of the season kicks in, really psyched about the team doing so well also!"

The Utes hold a 170 to 168 lead over Colorado. Host Alaska Anchorage is third with 137 points while New Mexico is fourth (121) and Denver fifth (116).

"It was a good start to regionals today!" head Nordic coach Miles Havlick said. "The course up at Government Peak was in excellent shape and provided some challenging climbs and fast descents. Ola continued his streak of consistent top ten results digging deep on the final lap and finishing just a few seconds from the podium. Bjørn is really coming into form, finally looking snappy and strong again after some frustrating illness this season. The stand out performance on the men's side was certainly Jacob who followed up his top-10 sprint performance with his best distance result of the season! Our women's team continues to raise the bar. Right now, Guro and Julia are skiing as good as I've seen from either of them all year. Just a few seconds from the top five, Karianne and Mariah duked it out for the final team scoring position in today's race. We are all looking forward to a much needed rest day tomorrow before heading into our final race of the week on Friday. Stay tuned!"

The alpine teams have their first races of the week on Thursday, Feb. 21, with the giant slalom for the UAA Invitational beginning at 10 a.m.