Lien, Moravcikova Podium in Giant Slalom, Skiing Second at NCAA Championships

Wednesday, March 11

Bozeman, MT

All Day

University of Utah

Giant Slalom

Photo by: Brooke Frederickson

Lien, Moravcikova Podium in Giant Slalom, Skiing Second at NCAA Championships

3/11/2020 6:09 PM | Skiing

2020 Ski NCAA Championship Results Day 1 GS

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Joachim Lien and Sona Moravcikova finished third in the men's and women's giant slalom races while five skiers earned All-America honors as the Utah ski team stands second after the first day of NCAA Championships. The first day saw challenging conditions including heavy winds during parts of the day.

The Utes trail Denver by 20 points, 172 to 152 after day one, with both teams holding a strong lead over Middlebury in third (115).

In the men's race, Lien finished on the podium for the eighth time this season and earned his first career All-America honor. Addison Dvoracek earned All-America honors for the first time since his freshman year with his eighth-place finish. Gustav Vøllo placed 13^th in his first NCAA appearance.

"There were some difficult conditions out there today, and you could really see the west coast teams benefiting from those conditions on the first run," Lien said. "My first run I was too conservative up top but I was still in the mix for the win. Second I did some solid skiing, but I didn't let it go enough. I am happy with the podium, even though I really wanted to fight for that win today. Super proud of how the women came back in the second run, and we're off to a better start than last year. I have a lot of confidence in our Nordic team and I can't wait to see them compete tomorrow!"

Moravcikova picked an opportune time for her best finish of the season. She has three career podium finishes with two coming as a freshman at New Mexico last season. Eirin Engeset and Katie Parker tied for ninth. Parker had an early bib and first run was significantly affected by high winds, but she rallied to ski the fastest second run and jump from 29^th to ninth. Engeset also had a strong second run to jump from 18^th to ninth. Engeset earns her second-straight All-America honor in the giant slalom while Parker is an All-American in her NCAA debut.

"Today was a really fun day," Moravcikova said. "I had a solid first run and wanted to attack the second run to move up some spots to help the team. The conditions were pretty rough in the second run so I'm really happy I was still able to ski well and get on the podium."

"What a challenging day," head alpine coach JJ Johnson said. "The conditions were good the men's first run and the guys skied well and gave us exactly what we were looking for from them. What a challenging first run of the women's race with a ton of wind. Katie had the first bobble that we've seen from her the last few races. Eirin had a ton of wind during her run. They kept fighting, made a plan, and Katie won the second run. The way they skied that second run to help us get three in the top 10 was really cool. Sona has been struggling with injury and she has been fighting so hard. It's so fun to work with her. To watch her personality blossom and watch her have fun and now to see her get a podium at NCAA's, is really cool. I am super proud of them. The guys did their job. Addison and Gustav had a mistake going through a chicane section and Joachim was a little conservative but that skiing still put him on the podium and that's big points. What an emotional roller coaster of a day though because of the conditions. It was a good day."

"I am so proud of our alpine team, JJ, and Mary [Joyce, assistant alpine coach]," Director of Skiing Fredrik Landstedt said. "Under very difficult conditions they hung in there and performed incredibly well. A very good start to the championship for the Utes!"

The schedule switches to Nordic on Thursday beginning with the women's 5-km freestyle at 10:00 a.m. with the men's 10-km freestyle at Noon.