Six Finish In the Top 10 at UAA Invitational

Friday, January 9

Girdwood/Anchorage, Alaska

All Day

University of Utah

UAA Invitational

1/9/2009 12:00 AM | Skiing

Jan. 9, 2009

ANCHORAGE - A trio of top 5 finishes from Utah skiers Thomas Zumbrunn, Nick Cohee and Eva Huckova in the alpine events as well as three in the top 10 on the Nordic side highlighted the second day of the University of Alaska-Anchorage Invitational.

"Another solid day for Utah, both in alpine and Nordic," Director of Skiing Eli Brown said. "We are happy and excited about the big weekend of racing coming up."

Zumbrunn finished third in the men's giant slalom to pace all Utah skiers with a time of 1:53.44 while Choee was fourth in the race in 1:53.76. The remainder of the alpine men struggled with icy conditions, including a scary crash from Scott Veenis (who was unhurt). Kyle Kung was forced to hike on his first run, but rebounded on his second run to have the best time of 51.51. He finished 33rd overall (2:10.86).

"It was hard out there today," head alpine coach Jaka Korencan said. "The weather was cold and the light was bad - half of the field had to hike or they skied out. Kyle had to hike but it was good for him to win the second run from back there. That helped score a lot of points for the team. We are also excited about Nick having another good performance."

In the women's slalom, Huckova placed fifth with a time of 1:38.96. Mikaela Grassl and Chelsea Laswell were also in the top 15. Grassl placed 11th in 1:40.63 while Laswell was 13th with a time of 1:41.08. Sofia Smith in 16th (1:41.69) and Chirine Njeim in 17th (1:41.75) rounded out the women's alpine team.

"Eva had a solid performance," Korencan said. "Chelsea also had an amazing second run. Overall, it was a decent day, but we can do better. We are lucky that we came out of today with no injuries."

In Nordic competition, Didrik Smith and Even Sletten were both in the top 10 in the men's 10-km classic. Smith placed sixth (29:04.5) while Sletten was eighth (29:25.7). Rolf Figi crossed the line 17th (30:12.5) while Tom Smith (23rd, 30:28.6), Ben Fick (25th (30:44.4) and Ian Havlick (27th, 30:52.3) rounded out the Utah skiers.

"Didrik is starting to come back into form after illness this fall," Brown said. "Even had a great race, bouncing back from the energy-draining sprint race."

Annelies Cook paced the women's 5-km classic, finishing ninth in 17:31.0. Zoe Roy was 13th in 17:35.9 while Sara Schweigher also finished in the top 20 with a 17th-place finish (17:50.6). Devon Spika (21st, 18:11.4) and Ingvild Flatland (30th, 19:10.4) also skied for the Utes.

"Annelies also had a solid performance after the sprint race," Brown said. "Tomorrow's Nordic race is a mass start. It will be great to go head-to-head with the competition and see where we end up. The team is fired up to end this trip on a good note. They are resting well and ready to ski hard."

Utah currently stands fifth in the UAA Invitational with 350 points and two alpine events remaining - the men's slalom and women's giant slalom.

The teams move back to the Seawolf Invitational (both meets are being run concurrently) on Saturday, Jan. 10, with the 10 and 15-km classical, the women's giant slalom and the men's slalom races. The Utes currently lead the Seawolf with 147 points after a solid alpine result on Jan. 8.