Denver holds lead in Montana Invite at conclusion of alpine races

BIG SKY, Mont. – Much the same as at the Utah Invitational last week, the alpine battle between the University of Denver and University of Colorado remained extremely close as the RMISA circuit moved to Big Sky Resort earlier this week for the Montana State University Invitational.

Denver’s Erik Read continued his brilliant season, winning his second straight and third overall NCAA race of the winter. Read’s time of 2:09.48 in the giant slalom was just 0.07 seconds ahead of Colorado’s Ola Johansen, who won the one race when Read finished as runner-up. Utah’s Endre Bjertness rounded out the podium in third.

Freshman Tonje Trulsrud of Colorado claimed her first collegiate victory, taking the women’s GS race 0.25 seconds ahead of Montana’s Benedicte Lyche and Westminster’s Ann-Katharin Bruening.

Denver entered the second day of competition with just a two-point lead over Colorado but extended that lead to 33 points by the conclusion of the alpine races after collecting two more individual wins.

Read lead the charge on the men’s side to claim his fourth race out of five this season, coming in with a two-run time of 1:43.00. Westminster’s Giulio Bosca was second, and Montana State’s David Neuhauser took third.

In the women’s race, the Pioneers truly dominated with Tuva Norbye winning, Kristine Haugen second and Monica Huebner fifth to rack up 106 points, the most in the young RMISA season for any discipline to-date. Colorado was second in the race with 71 points, but still some 35 points back as the Pioneers reclaimed their lost after the men’s race and sit on a 33-point cushion entering the Nordic races.

Behind Denver (106) and Colorado (71), the remaining five teams scored between 49-59 points in the race with Utah’s tally of 59 good enough for third place.

The women’s 5K and men’s 10K freestyle races and women’s 15K and men’s 20K classical races scheduled for Jan. 17-18 will conclude the Montana State University Invitational.

Release courtesy of RMISA, photo courtesy of Utah Athletics