Under the worst possible racing conditions - driving snow, rock-hard ice, poor visibility, deep ruts and big bumps - the University of Utah ski team did well.
Well enough, anyway, to take over the lead in its very own Utah Ski Invitational.After trailing Alaska-Anchorage through two days of cross country skiing, the Utes tied the University of Colorado on Thursday in points for giant slalom racing, which was enough to give them the overall team lead.
Point totals were: Utah 271, Colorado 262, Anchorage 246.5, New Mexico 210, Denver 137 and Western State 134.
The event concluded today with a slalom race on Park City's Clementine run.
Thursday's races were to have been held elsewhere, but poor snow conditions moved the event to Park City where rock-hard man-made snow was available. At race time Thursday, near blizzard conditions greatly limited visibility.
To compound problems, snow conditions changed with each racer. Early skiers had soft snow, which quickly broke through to the icy base. This soon developed into deep ruts and bumps.
"Conditions were some of the worst I've seen," said Gordon Perry, alpine coach for the Utes. "The fact that we haven't been able to train much says a lot for our team to come out and ski as well as it did.
"We made some mistakes, but so did everyone. I think it shows the depth we have on the team to make mistakes and still win."
The Utes won the men's GS and were 2nd overall in the women's GS.
In the men's GS, Erik Roland of Denver won with a combined time of two minutes, 17.34 seconds. Utes finished in 2nd, 5th, 6th and 9th.
In 2nd was Louis-Francois Gagnon with a two-run time of 2:17.94. In 3rd was Anchorage's Stephane Mongellaz in 2:18.77.
Utah's Einar Unhjem Johansen was 5th, Mark Bonnell was 6th and Per Johansson was 9th.
Point totals from the men's GS showed Utah with 53, Denver with 51, Colorado with 37 and Anchorage with 35.
The Utes finished runner-up in the women's GS. Colorado was 1st with 63 points, Utah 2nd with 43, New Mexico was 3rd with 39 and Anchorage was 4th with 34.
Edith Thys of Sierra Nevada College, won the event with a time of 2:31.33. Colorado's Karen Kenndall was 2nd and teammate Andraja Rojs was 3rd.
Utah's Petra Pirc was 7th, Heidi Standteiner was 8th and Edith Rozsa was 11th. Christl Hager was in 2nd place after the first run, but lost a ski on the second run down the course and did not finish.
Traditionally, the Utes have been a better slalom team, which means they should surface as winners of this event. Limited training, however, has hurt them.
Perry noted that because of the lack of snow, "We've only been running short courses.
"Depth wise, this is one of the best teams Utah has had. We have a number of skiers with international racing experience and I think it showed here today. They were able to jump right in with little race training and do well."
Following this race, the Utes will go to Lake Eldora, Colo., Jan. 21-22 for the Colorado Invitational.