Thus far, the U ski team’s preseason No. 2 national ranking appears prophetic. The Utes placed second in last week’s Montana Invitational, and did so again in this week’s Nevada Invitational (held, oddly enough, in Sugarbowl, Calif.).
After wrapping up the two day meet on Monday, the Utes’ 551 points placed them second behind defending champion Denver’s 583. Colorado rounded out the top three with 546 total points.
After the opening day of competition, the Utes found themselves in third place overall.
The strength of that scoring came from a strong women’s classical skate performance, with Jorunn Oye (22 minutes, 22 seconds) and Sara Svendsen (22:25) coming in second and third. The men also contributed a pair of top-10 finishers, with Petter Svendsen (19:28) coming in fifth and Zack Simons (19:56) placing 10th.
In the slalom competitions, Pierre Olsson came in second for the men (1 minute, 21.42 seconds), while Petra Svet was third for the women (1:27.48).
On the second day, the U made up some ground, as it dominated the women’s 10K freestyle event, with Oye (28 minutes, 21 seconds), Jaana Kettunen (28:23) and Sara Svendsen (28:24) placing third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Further success was achieved in the men’s 15K freestyle, with Simons (36:00) and Petter Svendsen (38:20) placing third and sixth.
In the giant slalom competition, the men added another pair of top-10 finishers, as Kristian Guay (2 minutes, 2.61 seconds) and Jernej Bukovec (2:02.87) came in seventh and 10th. On the women’s side, defending NCAA champ Svet came in sixth, at 2:09.46.
The Utes are now off until Jan. 25 and 26, when they head to Winter Park, Colo., for the Denver Invitational.