A first-place finish Friday in the men’s giant slalom from Johs Braathen Herland helped Utah jump into first place heading into the final day of the NCAA skiing championships in New Hampshire.
Braathen Herland took home the individual title with a time of 1:53.35, just edging out Dartmouth’s Benny Brown, who had a time of 1:53.54.
“It feels really good,” said Braathen Herland in a school news release. “I’m kind of speechless. It’s really cool to come all the way over here and perform at Utah.
“Very good team effort today and I’m very happy. I was a bit disappointed with my first run so I was really hungry for getting some better skiing.”
Simen Strand finished in fifth place (1:53.83) and Sindre Myklebust took eighth (1:54.48) as the Utes claimed the top of the team leaderboard for the event.
Utah also finished in first on the women’s side, with Kaja Norbye (1:58.16) and Claire Timmermann (1:58.27) slotting in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Kaila Lafreniere (1:59.78) came in 19th place to round out the event for the Utes.
With the team wins, Utah vaulted from third place to first place in the team competition. With 417 points, the Utes now lead second-place Colorado (382) and third-place Dartmouth (380) heading into the final day of the NCAA championships.
“The last couple days we’ve been working on what we wanted to do with (giant slalom) and taking care of what we can after being in a bit of a hole,” said head alpine coach JJ Johnson in the release.
“The guys came out firing and the girls did as well — especially Claire and Kaja on the second run. The boys hammered it down on the second run and made big moves. They took care of the stuff they wanted to do with their skiing.”
The men’s and women’s 20K freestyle, the final event of the championships, starts at 8 a.m. MST on Saturday.