Ute Skiers Finish Fourth At UAA Invite

Saturday, January 15

Jackson, Wyo.

4th

University of Utah

Alaska-Anchorage Invite. (CL)

1/15/2005 12:00 AM | Skiing

Jan. 15, 2005

Nordic Team Freestyle Results in PDF Format
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Men's & Women's 10/5-km Freestyle Results in PDF Format
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JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. -- The University of Utah ski team dropped two spots to finish fourth overall in the final day of the Alaska-Anchorage Invitational. With cold weather conditions, the Ute cross country team found themselves unable to contend for the team victory, skating to a fifth-place performance in both the men's and women's 10/5-km freestyle events.

"There is no question this was a tough weekend," said Head Coach Kevin Sweeney. "We didn't ski well today, but the effort was there and that is all anyone can ask for. We might have been too tired this weekend, but we are going to regroup and prepare for Colorado."

Denver (541.0) ran away with the win, collecting their second overall team victory this season. New Mexico (493.5) jumped a spot to finish second, while Colorado (487.0) placed third, edging fourth-place Utah (486.0) by a single point. Host Alaska-Anchorage (465.5) claimed fifth, rounding out the top-five team scores through the final day of races.

"We just weren't in-sync today," said Sweeney. "The cross country team is disappointed that we weren't able to contribute to the awesome weekend the alpine team had. The conditions were cold, but everyone had to deal with the weather. We have some time to adjust and prepare for Winter Park and we going to take full advantage."

Junior newcomer Magnus Carlsson (42:34.0) gave the Utes a boost, finishing seventh overall in only his second collegiate race of the season. Sophomore Daniel Sonntag (43:04.3) managed to skate to a 10th-place finish after being tripped up midway through the race. Junior Olympic Champion Casey Simons raced to a 21st-place performance in 45:51.9, while junior Jess Kiesel placed 25th with a time of 46:34.1. Tony Bozzio skied to 39th in 50:25.7.

"This was an amazing start and the terrain was beautiful," said Carlsson a Skellftea, Sweden native. "This was my first race at altitude and it was much different from skiing at sea level. This was a good invite for me to adjust to college racing, but we had some bad luck as a team today. The conditions were cold and the runs were narrow, but I think we can perform much better."

The women's nordic squad were able to post two skiers into the top-15, led by senior All-American Barbro Hatlevik's ninth-place finish in 39:39.1. Junior Ashley McQueen raced to 13th in 40:37.6, while teammate Nicole Naef had another great race, placing 16th in 40:55.5. Senior Anna Sprague (42:16.6) skated to 21st and junior Linda Pettersson (44:23.8) notched 29th.

"I was really happy with the performance of Barbro and Magnus," remarked Sweeney. "They both had solid back-to-back performances through the two-days of racing. It was also good to see Nicole finish with a good race today."

Next up, Utah will have a week off to recover before traveling to Winter Park, Colo., for the Denver Invitational. This invite will be held Friday through Saturday, Jan. 28-29. Race times are TBA.

UAA Invite Overall Team Results
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Overall Team Scores (FINAL)

Denver                 541.0New Mexico             493.5Colorado               487.0Utah                   486.0Alaska-Anchorage       465.5Nevada                 380.0Montana State          367.0Western State          256.0Whitman                135.0Boise State             44.0