MINTURN, Colo. – The Utah ski team took control of the Denver Invitational after
Novie McCabe won the women's 5K and
Samuel Hendry came in second in the men's 7.5K.
Coming into the day, the course was tricky as it snowed two inches last night and was switching between snow and sun all day, but the Utes handled it well.
McCabe captured her second win in a row in the 5K. Hendry just missed out on the win on the men's side finishing just .3 seconds behind the first place finisher.
"It was a fun course, but the elevation made it super tricky to pace for sure," McCabe said. "Racing at altitude is something that I have struggled with a bit in the past and it's fun to mess around with pacing races differently and I think I am starting to figure out what works best."
Overall, the Utes had three skiers finish in the top 10 on the men's side as
Bjørn Riksaasen came in sixth and
Ola Jordheim finished in seventh.
Noel Keeffe finished in 20
th and
Luke Jager came in 24
th.
The women backed up an incredible performance last weekend with another strong one today at the Denver Invitational.
Mariah Bredal had a good finish coming in fifth and
Julia Richter and
Sydney Palmer-Leger right behind her in seventh and eighth.
Karianne Moe placed in 13
th and
Abby Jarzin in 17
th.
With the strong performance, Utah is now in first place in the meet with 490 points. They are 42 points ahead of Colorado heading into the final day.
Tomorrow, Utah will take part in a 7.5/10K Classic to close out the Denver Invitational.