Cats ski into fourth place

The Bobcat men’s and women’s ski teams have been hard at work hitting the slopes. The Cats competed at the University of New Mexico Drew Judycki Memorial Jade Enterprises Invitational on Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday, Feb. 2. Eight top-10 finishers put the Cats in third place by the end of competition Friday, but the team couldn’t hold their place and finished fourth overall.

Sophomores Kathleen O’Connell, Emma Tarbath and Anna Fake all placed in the top-10 in the seven and a half kilometer Nordic competition on Friday afternoon to lead the women. O’Connell’s fifth place finish was a season-best for the sophomore from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. She finished the course in 30:25.5. O’Connell also led the Bobcat women’s Nordic team on Saturday’s five kilometer competition with a ninth place finish and a time of 17:48.6.

Eli Jensen, a sophomore from Boise, Idaho, led the men’s Nordic competition for the Cats with a fourth-place finish in the men’s 7.5-kilometer classic on Friday. His time of 25:52.5 was a personal-best. Jensen was followed by freshman Ti Donaldson, freshman Ty Godfrey and junior Karsten Hokanson for the Bobcats. Donaldson placed third overall in the team freestyle event with a time of 14:33.9.

On the alpine side of the competition, junior Stephanie Gardner was the lone Cat in the top-10 with a two-run score of 1:35.31, good for eighth place. Junior Jocelyn McCarthy placed fourth in the first round, but was unable to compete in her second run.

Freshman Louis Muhlen-Schulte finished runner-up overall in the slalom competition with a two-run time of 1:30.97. Freshman Åge Solheim was the other Bobcat finisher in the top-10 with a sixth-place finish.\

“[The team] were able to formulate a plan and work together throughout the race to push each other,” Head Nordic Coach Matthew Johnson said of the team’s finish at the invite.

University of Utah won the meet with a team score of 605.5 points followed by University of Colorado, University of New Mexico, MSU, and University of Denver for the top-five teams. The Cats will compete in the Alaska Anchorage Invitational on Feb. 17 and 18 before competing in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Championships Feb. 20–24.