The University of Utah finished first in the team standings for the first time in nearly five years. The Utes had strong showings all weekend long and finished with 585.5 points, well ahead of second-place Denver, which finished with 550.
“We are excited about the results, yet we know we have room for improvement,” said Director of Skiing, Eli Brown. “We have a great period with great conditions in Park City to get everything dialed in and are focused on each individual race.”
Highlighting Saturday's events was Utah sophomore Snorri Einarsson who took the victory in the Men's 15km freestyle. Einarsson has battled the flu this weekend but put together a strong race Saturday, overtaking rival Rene Reisshauer of Denver University on the final stretch of the 15K Freestyle.
“Snorri was disappointed with yesterday's results and felt he had something to prove today,” Brown said. “He races with his heart and I hope he can recover from his illness to get us going next week.”
Einarsson ended up with a margin of victory of just 1.4 seconds over Reisshauer. Zack Simons, racing as an indpendent, took third just under 6 seconds off the pace. Norweigan Anders Folleraas (MSU) was fourth, +11.0. The top seven skiers all finished within 33 seconds of each other, with no school being represented more than once.
In the women's 10km freestyle, Maria Grevsgaard (CU) skied away from the competition winning by 30 seconds. The battle for the final two podium spots was extremely tight – 8 skiers within 9 seconds of second place. Claire Rennie (MSU) took that spot, 3 seconds ahead of Annelise Baily (DU).
Friday's classic race saw DU's Reisshauer take the victory, with the CU duo of Kit Richmonf +37.1 and Matt Gelso +1:20.6 rounding out the podium.
Grevsgaard dominated the women's race, winning by a stunning 3:20 over Utah skiers Kjersti Boe. Another Ute, Sarah Schweiger was third, 17 seconds behind her teammate and helping the team to the overall victory.
The University of Colorado took the third spot in the team standings, just 7 points behind Denver after the Nordic and Alpine scores were tallied.
Team Standings and Alpine Results
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