PARK CITY, Utah – A busy stretch of six race days in the next week awaits the Utah Ski Team and programs from throughout the RMISA—though the slate includes five chances to see the Utes on home snow.
The alpine team will begin the week with that portion of the Utah Invitational—which runs from Sunday through Tuesday, Feb. 22-24, at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center at the Utah Olympic Park. Utah will race giant slalom on both Sunday and Monday with a slalom to follow on Tuesday.
All three days' races are set to begin at 9 a.m. MT. Parking and admission are free for fans and The Border Food Truck will be on site. Monday's race will be an RMISA qualifier; in other words team scores won't be kept but individual athlete results will count toward NCAA Championships qualification.
Utah is currently in second place in its home meet; the Utes hosted the Nordic portion of their invitational in January.
It'll be a quick turnaround for the Utes and the rest of the alpine field after Tuesday as the focus will quickly turn to the RMISA Championships and NCAA West Regional. Taking place in split venues this year due to snow conditions, the alpine portion will be in Bozeman, Montana, at Bridger Bowl; Nordic races will be here in Utah at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center.
For alpine regionals at Bridger Bowl, GS will go down on Thursday and slaloms are set for Friday and Saturday—the latter will be an RMISA qualifier. The Nordic regional races begin with a 20K freestyle mass start on Friday and a 7.5K classic interval start on Saturday. Montana State will serve as host for regionals—including the Nordic portion taking place at Soldier Hollow.
For the regional races at Soldier Hollow, both Friday and Saturday's action is set to begin at 9 a.m. Fans can park and attend the races for free and enjoy concessions from Basecamp Café. It'll serve as a partial preview of the NCAA Skiing Championships, which will now take place in Utah (both alpine and Nordic). The national meet had been scheduled to take place at Montana State, but was moved to Utah after evaluating snow conditions in Montana.
NCAAs will take place from March 11-14. More information about the championships will be announced soon.
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