Gliding to the podium

The 10th Annual University of Colorado Spencer James Nelson Memorial Raoul Willie Memorial Ski Race Invitational concluded on Saturday, Feb. 6, in Aspen, Colorado for the Bobcat Nordic Ski Team. The Bobcats finished in third, with freshman Sophia Mazzoni placing fourth overall with a 17:34.6 run and freshman Adrianna Proffitt tenth with a time of 18:47.9. Sophomore Aubrey Leclair finished 12th, while sophomore Emma Albrecht placed 13th with a for the women’s 5-kilometer event. Utah’s Julia Ritcher finished first with a time of 17:13.0.

Senior Eli Jensen had MSU’s best finish, placing in 7th with a 32:40.6. Sophomore Reed Godfrey was right behind him, finishing 8th with a 32:46.5. Sophomore Eli Hermanson came in 11th followed by junior Ti Donaldson in 12th and junior Ty Godfrey in 17th. Colorado’s Magnus Boee won the event with a 30:42.7.

Reed Godfrey led the Bobcats in the sprint, advancing through the quarterfinal and semifinals and pushing his way into the finals, where he placed fifth overall, clocking in at 42:27.67. Both freshman Sophia Mazzoni and sophomore Aubrey Leclair made the semifinals on the women’s side, coming up just short of the final heat. Utah captured the main title with 708.5 points followed by Colorado with 629, and MSU with 577.

The Bobcat Alpine Squad attended the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Invitational at Westminster and Soldier Hollow on Monday, Feb. 8, and Tuesday, Feb. 9, in Snowbird, Utah; The MSU women’s alpine team had two appearances on the podium with sophomore Tegan Wold finishing third in two slalom races. Also scoring for the Bobcats in the first race was freshman Brynne Hitchcock with a 1:39.24 placing in 18th, and sophomore Hanna Nyquist in 27th. After totaling 59 points, the Bobcats bounced back with 81 points in the second run just one point behind Utah and two points behind Denver. Wold again placed for the Cats with her first run coming in at 47:49, the fourth fastest first run, and a time total of 1:39.33. Freshman Kristiane Bekkestad had the second-fastest run behind Wold with a 50:20 and placed fourth overall with 1:39.44.

On the men’s side of things, freshman Dawson Yates, junior Louis Mühlen-Schulte and junior Åge Solheim all made top-ten finishes. In the opening run, Mühlen-Schulte and Solheim placed eighth and tenth. Both respectively recording a 1:34.27. Yates completed the scoring as he placed 12th with a 1:35.18. Yates then went on to lead the Bobcats in the afternoon slalom event, finishing in eighth with a 1:33.65. Also scoring for MSU were freshman James Casselman, 15th and junior Zak Vinter, 18th. Segar placed 20th with Mühlen-Schulte finishing right behind at 22nd. After the events, Utah sat atop the scoring table with 360 points, coming in before Westminster 300.5, Colorado 283, MSU 265, Denver 261.5, Alaska Anchorage 198, and Colorado Mountain with 128. “Overall, everyone improved each run,” Alpine coach Kevin Francis said. “We were in a great position to improve upon our first race results, after the first run of the second race, but bad holes and bad luck caught all Bobcats.”

The men’s and women’s alpine ski teams will be in action on Thursday, Feb. 11 and Friday, Feb. 12. Follow along on social media at @MSUBobcatSkiing and msubobcats.com/sport/ski.