MSU ski teams return to competition

After the unfortunate cancellation of last spring’s NCAA Ski Championships—an event that hasn’t been hosted by Montana State since 2012—the Bobcat Ski team jumped out of the gate in January with a strong return to the 2021 competitive season in Colorado and Utah.

MSU’s men’s and women’s nordic teams started their season in Midway, Utah on Sunday, Jan. 17, at the Utah Invitational with the 15/20K classics and 5/10K freestyle events. Sophomore Zanden McMullen glided into second place in the 20K classic with an impressive time of only 52:27.9, helping the Bobcats to a fourth-place opening. The alpine team won’t finish the invitational until February, though they’ve proven themselves a force to be reckoned with.

The men’s and women’s alpine teams opened the Denver and Colorado invitationals on Sunday, Jan. 10, through Wednesday, Jan. 13, with two third-place finishes from the women’s team and two top-five finishes from the men’s team.

Sophomore Nellie Talbot finished third on the podium for the women’s giant slalom, crossing the finish line of her second run at 2:14.81—only 0.2 seconds behind second-place finisher freshman Madison Hoffman from the University of Utah. Junior Age Solheim finished his second run in fifth place for the giant slalom.

After Aspen, the team moved to Nederland, Colo. to compete in the University of Colorado’s invitational on Jan. 12-13. Solheim slid across the line even stronger in the slalom, finishing in fourth at Eldora Mountain. Freshman Teagan Wold finished third in the women’s slalom with a combined time of 1:36.61, securing MSU a fourth-place finish in the overall event.

The men’s nordic squad secured a third-place finish for the Bobcats down the road in Minturn, Colo., on Jan. 22-23 with several top-ten finishes. McMullen placed fourth in both the 10K classic and 7.5K freestyle events, scoring a total of 62 team points, while junior Ti Donaldson placed tenth in the classic, totaling 39 team points for the weekend.

The 10K classic marked McMullen’s third fourth-place finish, on top of his second-place finish in the men’s 20K classic.

The Colorado Invitational finishes on Feb. 5-6 with the nordic freestyle sprint and the 5K and 10K classics, respectively. The Utah Invitational finishes the following week on Feb. 11-12 with the men’s and women’s giant slalom at Park City.

MSU sits at third overall with 1102.5 points. Utah—the reigning 2019 NCAA champs—leads with 1378.5 points.