Skiing Fights Through Snowy Conditions in Aspen for Strong Finishes in Freestyle

Friday, February 5

Aspen, CO

All Day

University of Utah

Freestyle Sprint

Skiing Fights Through Snowy Conditions in Aspen for Strong Finishes in Freestyle

2/5/2021 7:10 PM | Skiing

Results

Richter Won Fourth Collegiate Race

ASPEN, Colo. – The Utah Nordic team raced in the CU Invitational today in Aspen, Colorado.

The alpine portion of the CU Invitational was back on January 12 and 13. Utah sat in third place behind Westminster after those races.

With half the team missing because they're racing over in Europe, Utah's depth showed as it still controlled the freestyle races in Aspen on both the men's and women's side.

Utah placed second and third on the men's side, and first, second and fourth on the women's side.

"I am extremely proud of the team efforts across the board today," head Nordic coach Miles Havlick said. "With nearly half the team missing for competitions over in Europe this week, the team stepped up in a big way. The combination of heavy snow, big hills and altitude made it a challenging day, but the grit and resilience of this team was really impressive today."

For the freestyle race, there was a qualification race and then the top 30 skiers go into heats. Then, the racers skied five heats of six and the top two in each heat go to the next round plus the two fastest skiers from all the heats outside of the top two. There was a quarterfinal, semi-final and then final to determine the winner.

The conditions weren't easy as it was snowing with some big hills on the course, but the Utes pushed through.

Bjørn Riksaasen led the men's team coming in second and Noel Keeffe came in right behind him to finish third. It was the highest finish for both in their collegiate careers. For Riksaasen, it was his second career podium and it was Keeffe's first.

Ola Jordheim was the other Utah finisher in seventh.

On the women's side, three Utes made the finals. Julia Richter led the way all afternoon earning her fourth career win. Karianne Moe was right behind her in second place and Abby Jarzin finished in fourth.

"Sprinting at that altitude is pretty tough," Richter said. "I didn't feel well after the qualifier, but got better from heat to heat. The final got messy at the beginning with two crashes and unfortunately, my teammate Abby was one of them. After that, I just went for it and hoped I'd make it to the finish. I'm so happy my teammate Karianne came in second and having three Utah girls in the final is pretty fun."

It was Moe's fourth podium finish at Utah, and it was Jarzin's highest finish as a Ute as well.

The big day for Utah pushed the team to first place in the standings for the CU Invitational with one day of racing to go. Tomorrow's races will be a 5K and 10K Classic.