Sletten Wins on Second Day of RMISA Meet

Friday, February 20

Reno, Nev./Truckee, Calif.

All Day

University of Utah

Day 2 (GS, CL)

2/20/2009 12:00 AM | Skiing

Feb. 20, 2009

Day 2 Results in PDF Format

RENO, Nev. - Even Sletten earned his second classical win of the season with a victory in the 10-km race on the second day of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association regional meet, Friday, Feb. 20.

Sletten finished with a time of 27:00.4. He was followed by Didrik Smith in 15th (28:22.4). Rolf Figi placed 22nd in 28:37.1 while Ben Fick crossed the line 23rd (28:43.5). Tom Smith crossed the line 25th in 28:53.2 and Ian Havlick was the final Utah skier in 32nd (29:49.3).

On the women's side, Zoe Roy and Parker Tyler led Utah, finishing 13th and 14th, respectively. Roy's time was 16:10.9 while Tyler's was 16:20.9. Annelies Cook placed 18th (16:28.0), Devon Spika was 21st (16:46.7), and Ingvild Flatland in 24th (16:48.4) and Sara Schweiger in 25th (16:50.7) rounded out the Ute skiers.

"I am so psyched that Even won again," Director of Skiing Eli Brown said. "These are tough courses with high altitude. For a guy like Even two win means a lot - he is a fast twitch athlete, he skis hard and fast, and needs to recover. I think he can race even faster at sea level in Maine. The guys raced well. Four of them are fighting for the last spot for NCAA's. Tomorrow will be pretty intense.

"Sara and Annelies are just coming off sickness so they were not at their best. The other girls raced pretty well."

For the alpine team, the men had another strong day with Thomas Zumbrunn finishing second in the giant slalom (2:01.10) with Scott Veenis crossing the line sixth (2:01.64). Nick Cohee also earned points with his 16th-place finish (2:03.54). Torjus Krogdahl in 24th (2:04.70) and Hermann Lager in 30th (2:06.09) also skied for Utah.

Eva Huckova finished strong for the women with a sixth-place run in the GS with a time of 2:01.65. Chelsea Laswell also had a 10th place finish (2:02.19). Chirine Njeim was 16th (2:02.91). Mikaela Grassl skied out on her second run.

"We definitely accomplished a few goals on the men's side," head alpine coach Jaka Korencan said. "I was really satisfied with the men's performance. Thomas coming to Utah as a slalom skier and finishing as one of the top GS skiers in the west is a great accomplishment. Scotty finishing the season strong in sixth was also a great accomplishment. Nick proved again that he is the fastest GS skier on the circuit by winning the second run.

"It was a great performance by Eva. She started last and finished strong in sixth. She qualified as one of the top GS skiers at NCAA's. Mikaela was our top skier after the first run and skied out on the second run. She was strong in both races and I have great confidence she will finish strong at NCAA's. It was a strong performance by Chelsea - she finished the year as one of the top GS skiers and qualifying for NCAA's. Chirine also had a solid performance."

Utah currently stands fifth in the team standings with 345 points. New Mexico leads with 428 points, followed by Colorado (396), with Nevada and Denver tied for The RMISA meet continues through Saturday, Feb. 21, with the men's and women's freestyle races.