Nordic Portion of Denver Invitational Awaits

Saturday, February 7

Frisco, Colo. / Frisco Nordic Center

10 a.m.

University of Utah

10K Classic (M)

Utah Utes Ski RMISA Ute Invitational at Soldier Hollow in Midway, UT, on Saturday, January 24, 2026.
Jackson Bilawa/Utah Athletics

Photo by: Jackson Bilawa/Utah Athletics

2/6/2026 12:19 PM | Skiing

Live Timing

Utah third in meet standings after alpine races

FRISCO, Colo. – The Utah Ski Team returns to Nordic competitions this weekend with that portion of the Denver Invitational taking place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 7-8. Races will take place at Frisco Nordic Center in Frisco, Colorado.

Fans should note the venue change for this weekend's races; originally events were to go down at Maloit Park but were moved due to conditions.

The weekend slate calls for a 10K classic mass start on Saturday and a 7.5K freestyle interval start on Sunday to close out the meet. Live timing will be available all weekend at this link. It'll mark Utah's first Nordic action since hosting its home meet on Jan. 24-25 at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center.

Alpine races in Denver's meet took place on Jan. 12 and 14, highlighted by individual wins for Johs Braathen Herland in both slalom and giant slalom. Melanie Dahlberg highlighted the women's side with a top-five finish in GS as Utah heads into Nordic competitions third in the team standings.

Getting Up To Speed
The Utes raced at Mt. Rose in Reno, Nevada, from Jan. 31-Feb. 3 as part of the Nevada Invitational and held off a late push from Colorado to win the alpine-only meet. With those competitions now in the books, Utah and the Buffaloes are in a tight race in the RMISA standings as the regular season heads down the home stretch. CU is in the lead, but Utah is just 9.5 points back in second place.

Utah claimed both the individual and team slalom victories at Mt. Rose, with Dahlberg and Herland standing atop the women's and men's podiums, respectively. It was Dahlberg's first collegiate win and fifth this season for Herland. Herland's season includes a run of four straight gold medals—making him the first Utah alpine skier—men's or women's—since 2019 to win the first four races of a season.

For Nordic, Erica Lavén has won all four of her starts--most recently a dominant performance on home snow in a 15K classic mass start on Jan. 25. She picked up a 54-second victory in that race at Soldier Hollow, while Sofia Pedersen also picked up a podium in that weekend's freestyle interval start. On the men's side, Mons Melbye owns three victories while Max Kluck and Zachary Jayne have one apiece.

Jayne did not race in Utah's home meet after being invited to race in World Cup competitions both in Germany and Switzerland. He secured his first career top-30 World Cup result with a 27^th place performance in the Jan. 24 classic sprints at Goms, Switzerland.

Olympics Tracker
Three former members of the Utah Ski Team are set to represent their respective countries in the 2026 Winter Olympics at Milano Cortina. The group includes Joe Davies (cross-country skiing - Great Britain), Madison Hoffman (alpine skiing - Australia) and Novie McCabe (cross-country skiing - United States).

Click here for a full schedule of alpine and cross-country races with tune-in information and race results.

Follow the Utah Ski Team on social media @utahskiteam. Download the Utah 360 app here.