After the first day of the NCAA skiing championships, the University of Utah is tied for third place.
The Utes, which earned 87 points to tie Vermont for third place, trail western rivals Colorado (148) and Denver (107) after the slalom races.
The NCAA championships were supposed to open with the giant slalom, but that was postponed to Friday, with slalom being held on Wednesday, due to weather in New Hampshire.
Kaja Norbye finished in 15th place for the Utes on the women’s side Wednesday, with Kaila Lafreniere taking 24th and Claire Timmermann finishing 31 of 34 participants.
After the Utes finished in 10th place on the women’s slalom, the men’s team fared better, placing second overall in team scoring.
Johs Braathen Herland and Simen Strand finished seventh and eighth, while Sindre Myklebust placed 15th.
“We went into today thinking of it as an opportunity,” said head alpine coach JJ Johnson in a press release.
“We are a little bit stronger in GS, but still our slalom has been great. We had a couple mishaps, but still some good skiing. Slalom is tough. Johs was still real good and the other two boys were in a bit of a deficit but they banded together. Simen was second on the second run. Those moves were huge and helped us keep tight with the rest of the teams. The girls kept fighting. Claire just had a little mistake on the first run. But they are skiing well.”
Next up for the Utes is the Nordic 7.5K classic interval start, which begins Thursday at 8 a.m. MST for the women and 10 a.m. MST for the men.