The Utah ski team hosted the Utah Invitational last weekend in Park City and Midway and finished in second place overall, jumping Denver on the final day of competition but falling just short of Colorado.
Kevin Sweeney, director of skiing, said the team did well considering the tough competition that is always present in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association.
“My overall feeling is that I am very happy with how we skied.” Sweeney said. “Some of the things I am most happy about is we skied well in every discipline, with men and women out coming in Nordic. For us to score well and be up near the top, we have to be consistent, and I thought we did a really good job of that.”
Sweeney also mentioned that although the team had a handful of freshmen, they were able to get comfortable right from the beginning.
“We do have some newcomers to the team, and it was their first collegiate meet, so there is always a little adjustment period, but based on our results, we did very well with that,” Sweeney said.
Kristina Rove finished with one of the top performances of the weekend, placing third in the women’s slalom on Sunday and finishing sixth in the women’s giant slalom on Friday. Rove was very satisfied with how she placed, considering the rocky start she had on Sunday, as she fell leaving the starting gate. She also mentioned how the invitational was beneficial since it included the first slalom events of the season.
“I was super happy [with my finish],” Rove said. “At the beginning of the season it’s always super interesting because you don’t really know where you are compared to others. It’s really fun to start the season this way, and I’m excited going forward. [My finish on Friday] was good as well. I think we did really well as a team, but whenever you finish in the top 10 and score for the team you can be happy about your day.”
Other highlights from the weekend included Chloe Fausa taking second in the women’s giant slalom, Veronika Mayerhofer taking home fourth in the women’s five-kilometer freestyle, Dominic Demschar finishing in second in the men’s giant slalom, Endre Bjertness coming in fourth in the men’s slalom and Nick Hendrickson taking fourth in the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle.
On the final day of the invitational, Mayerhofer and Sloan Storey were both able to finish in the top three in the women’s 10-kilometer classical.
Although the team had a well-rounded performance, Sweeney believes there are still areas to improve.
“I think they could have scored a little bit better in a couple of the disciplines,” he said. “It’s so competitive right now in the RMISA that if you falter in one discipline, another school will probably capitalize on that.”
Rove said throughout the entire weekend, it was important to take chances and let everything go, but she also credited some of her advantages to her experience.
“I think the girls who risked the most, the ones who risked everything, were the ones who came out on top this week,” Rove said. “Because I’m a senior I knew what was going on and what to expect from the events.”
Sweeney agrees with Rove, stating that one of their biggest strengths was their seniority.
“Our returning team members scored very well,” Sweeney said. “We’ve had some excellent leadership on both sides of the squad, and I think that really helped us this weekend with getting confidence in the newcomers on the team, and we put down some really good results.”
Next up for the skiing team will be the Colorado Invitational, which starts Jan. 23. Sweeney said since the team has the upcoming week off from any competition, one of their main focuses will be rest.
“This was a big push for both groups and our main focus is to recover,” Sweeney said. “We’re off this next weekend, so our focus is to get some good training under our belts, and recover. We’ve had some nagging injuries we need to take care of, and we should be ready to go.”
@kbrenneisen