U alpine skier Kristiina Rove during a meet on Jan. 3 in Park City. Rove finished second in giant slalom at the RMISA Championship on Saturday.
Steve Wilson / Utah Athletics
After a full regular season, the postseason arrived for the Utah ski team last weekend in the form of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Championships in Bozeman, Mont.
While the Utes could not grab the overall title, they put forth many notable performances and finished in third place overall with 805 points, falling to Denver and champion Colorado.
Miles Havlick won his second career RMISA title in the 20-kilometer freestyle race after edging out by three-tenths of a second in the 10-kilometer race. Einar Ulsund finished in third place in both races.
The Utes also had solid performances from the alpine skiers in giant slalom, as Jeremy Elliot finished second for the men’s team, and Kristiina Rove finished second for the women. In the slalom event, Ana Kobal also finished second.
Although many Utes finished in the top three in various events, the most impressive performance came from the entire men’s Nordic ski team. In addition to Havlick and Ulsund finishing in first and third, Niklas Persson and Noe Bellet finished in fourth and fifth respectively.
“It feels great to have skied well this weekend,” Havlick said. “It was also really fun to ski with three of my teammates in the race. We are all really close. We get along really great on and off the snow and all that culminates into a really dynamic group. To race the way we did was pretty insane, but it’s not much of a surprise. We worked really hard all fall and winter and really pushed each other.”
Next up for Utah is the NCAA Championships March 6-9 in Vermont. Because the NCAA only allows a team to bring three skiers for each event, the season is over for some Utes, though Utah will be bringing full teams on both the Nordic and alpine sides to the Championships.
“At this point, the physical preparation is essentially over,” said head Nordic coach Abi Holt. “Between now and the races in 11 days, our focus will be on good recovery and on making sure that all our equipment is in order. We just need to make sure that everyone is able to stand on the starting line feeling as good as possible.”