SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah ski team travels to Maloit Park this weekend for the Nordic portion of the Denver Invitational. Races begin with the men's 10-km classic at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25, followed by the women's 5-km race at 11:00 a.m. The finishing order will determine the starting list for the men's 10-km and women's 7.5-km freestyle pursuit races on Sunday, beginning at 9:00 a.m. Results can be found at
RaceRite.com.
Utah leads the Denver Invitational following the alpine portion of the meet. The Utes have 317 points, leading host Denver by 11 points (306).
The Utes won the first meet of the season, winning the Colorado Invitational with 745 points, 104 points over second-place Colorado (641). Utah's 745 points is a league record since the current scoring rubric was implemented in 2014. It is just the third time a school has scored over 700 points at an RMISA meet.
Utah won all four Nordic races at last weekend's Colorado Invitational. For the women, six-time All-American
Guro Jordheim picked up her season right where she left of 2019 with both race wins. She has 14 career race victories.
Mariah Bredal's second place in the freestyle race was her second career podium finish and tied her career high, and she finished fourth in the classic for four career top five finishes.
Leah Lange was second in the classic race tying her career-best finish and earning her second career podium, she also has four career top five finishes after finishing fifth in the freestyle.
Karianne Moe finished seventh in the classic for her ninth career top-10 finish. Back on the hill this weekend after not racing last weekend is reigning NCAA 5-km freestyle champion
Julia Richter.
On the men's side, freshman
Samuel Hendry is 2-0 in his collegiate debut, winning both races last weekend. The Utes swept the podium in the men's freestyle race with
Maximilian Bie and
Luke Jager finishing behind Hendry. It is the fifth time since 2014 that an RMISA team has swept the podium in a race. Bie has three career podiums while Jager was competing in his first collegiate race. Jager finished in the top 10 in both races last week.
Logan Diekmann finished fourth in the freestyle for his eighth career top-five finish and placed in the top 10 in both races to give him 16 career top 10 finishes.
Ola Jordheim finished fifth in last week's classic race for his sixth career top-five finish. He was in the top 10 in both races for 12 career top 10 finishes.
Noel Keeffe finished in the top 10 in both races and has three career top 10's. The Utes will be without Hendry and Keeffe this weekend.