Westminster leads the pack Utah Invitational

The University of Utah Invitational was held at Park City on Monday and Tuesday, and after the two days, which included one GS and one slalom, Westminster was the highest scoring team; however, Utah claimed in the lead overall.

Katie Hensien, who skis for Denver, won the GS on Monday. Nellie Talbot, of MSU, and Hannah Saethereng, of Westminster, finished in second and third, respectively.

Hensein provided some insight on the conditions and her team’s results at Park City.

“The snow here in Park City, was surprisingly good for a college race, I would say. The snow was that kind of grippy hard Colorado-Utah snow, which allowed you to do pretty much anything you wanted,” Hensien said. “It was anyone’s race.”

Despite Hensien’s podiums during the series, Denver is currently the fourth-ranked team based on alpine results.

“I can say my team is skiing fast,” she said. “These recent results may not reflect that, but not every day or race series can go your way, which is the hard part of our sport. But talking with my team after this invite, they are hungry for more.”

Evelina Fredricsson won the slalom event. Notably, she shared the podium with her teammate Denise Dingsleder, who finished in third place. The Westminster teammates were separated by Hensien, who finished in second place.

Westminster, Utah and Denver are the top three teams for women’s alpine at the moment. According to Fredricsson, it’s all about the training.

“I have a lot of fun training with my team. We’re always trying to push and help each other to be faster and better which I appreciate a lot, said Fredricsson. “I think that reflects on our team results.” She continued on to say, “It was a good day for Westminster and it was extra fun to share the podium with Denise since I know how good she’s been skiing lately.”

The men’s GS podium featured Riley Seger (Montana), Filip Forejtek (Colorado) and Tobias Kogler (Denver). Seger has gotten fairly familiar with NCAA podiums this season, already acquiring one third-place and two wins in the three GS races so far. Forejtek has claimed two wins and two second places across the disciplines. While this was Kogler’s first podium of the NCAA season, he has collected a number of podiums and wins in past years.

On the slalom side, Filip Forejek took the win for Colorado. Francesco Gori (Westminster) was second and Henry Heaydon (Montana) finished out the podium in third. Gori won the slalom at the RMISA Invitational, less than a week before. Meanwhile, this was Heaydon’s first NCAA podium.

Another notable finish was Jacob Dilling, who skis for Colorado, the top men’s team currently. He is a freshman at CU, making these his first NCAA races while representing a college. He was the second Colorado finisher behind his teammate Forejek, who as previously mentioned, won.

“Our team has been pushing each other to improve on and off the hill,” said Dilling, “The snow isn’t always perfect while training, but that doesn’t stop our competitive nature and drive to succeed.”

Dilling expects that he and his team will continue to build on their success. “Our amazing amazing team dynamic help me adjust to the college scene very smoothly you can expect big things out of CU throughout this year.”

See the full results for men and women here.