University of Utah's Christl Hager, skiing in her final giant slalom of her college career, did so in grand style. She became the first skier to win three NCAA individual GS titles.
She won as a freshman and sophomore, then returned this year, as a senior, to make it three.Even with the win, the Utes find themselves tied with the University of Colorado, with 183 each, and trailing the University of Vermont, with 206, in their bid to defend the NCAA team title. New Mexico follows with 141, then Middlebury with 125 and Dartmouth with 114.
Interestingly, the skiers from the west dominated the women's GS, while those from the east dominated the men's GS.
Hager's winning time for two runs was two minutes, 14.39 seconds. Runner-up was Kate Davenport of Colorado (2:14.47) and third was Jessica Ochs of Colorado (2:14.53). Marianne Winge of Utah was fifth and teammate Tina Kavcic was 10th.
In the men's GS, Brandon Dyksterhouse of Vermont was first in 2:09.79, followed by Steffan Lanziner of New Mexico (2:10.23), Mike Curtis of Vermont (2:10.45), David Viele of Dartmouth (2:10.50) and Derek McClellan of Vermont (2:11.11).
Utah's best were Alain Britt-Cote in ninth, Markus Leunig in 10th and Ryan Forsyth in 22nd.
The event continued today with the men's and women's classical cross country.
This has been, all season, one of the Utes' best events. Leading the Utes has been the twin-brother team of Rune and Frode Kollerud.
The slalom event will be held on Friday and then the NCAAs will wrap up on Saturday with the freestyle cross country.
The two schools favored going into the event were Utah and Vermont.