Lien, Engeset Podium in Giant Slalom at UAA Invitational, Skiing Falls to Second Overall

Thursday, February 21

Girdwood, AK

All Day

University of Utah

Giant Slalom

Lien, Engeset Podium in Giant Slalom at UAA Invitational, Skiing Falls to Second Overall

2/21/2019 10:56 PM | Skiing

2019 UAA Invite Results Day 3

GIRDWOOD, Alaska – Joachim Lien and Eirin Engeset finished on the podium in the men's and women's giant slalom races of the UAA Invitational on Thursday afternoon at Alyeska Resort. The Utes trail Colorado in the team standings by 1.5 points with the slalom races remaining.

The Ute men won the team giant slalom with 75.5 points. Lien earned his second-straight podium finish in tying for second. He had the second-fastest second run. Huston Philp earned his fifth top 10 finish of the year. Mark Engel, who was 31^st after the first run, ran the third-fastest second run to jump to 13^th. Linus Walch finished 16^th with Ty Sprock 24^th. Tomas Birkner did not finish his first run while Addison Dvoracek, who was second after the first run, did not finish his second run.

"It was a good day for me!" Lien said. "I have been struggling with my GS lately, but I had a good training session yesterday where I figured out some things with the coaches. So it was just to stay committed to doing things and attack. First run was decent, some good sections and it was just to send it for the second run where the conditions were way better. It got down to some ice during the day. I'm happy it worked out the way it did and I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend."

Engeset earned her fourth college podium with a second-place finish. Kristine Aasberg, who has been injured most of the season and began competing in New Mexico, earned her first top five finish of the season with a fifth-place finish. Julie Mohagen and Katie Vesterstein did not finish their first runs and Katie Parker was disqualified in her second run.

"It was a good day for me, I had a lot of fun!" Engeset said. "We have a really strong team and awesome coaches. I'm grateful to be a part of it."

In the team standings, the lack of a third finisher in the women's race hurt the Utes as Colorado had a strong day in women's alpine to take a 1.5 point lead, 474 to 472.5. Denver is just 22 points behind CU with 452 points, followed by Alaska Anchorage in fourth (362) and New Mexico fifth (360.5).

Both alpine and Nordic are in action on Friday for the RMISA Championships/NCAA Regional meet. The alpine teams race the giant slalom for the second-straight day while the Nordic teams compete in the classic distance races, 15-km for women and 20-km for men. Utah leads in the team standings after the Nordic freestyle races with 170 points, two ahead of Colorado.