It was an exciting night at Howelsen Hill in Steamboat as Denver skied past CU and cut into the Utes lead but trails Utah by 43.5 points heading into the final day Saturday. Denver will need an excellent Nordic 20k classic on Saturday and a lot of luck to catch defending champion Utah.

The First of Two runs for men & women

The Denver skiing team had a solid first run in both men’s and women’s slalom at Howelsen Hill Saturday evening. On the men’s side, Simon Hoffman sat in 5th, Christian Soevik owned 7th and, surprisingly, Trey Seymour fell to 28th. On the women’s Alpine side, Sara Rask was in 5th, Nora Brand in 12th and Liv Moritz in 21st. Ideally, we wanted our Alpine skiers in the Top 15 after the first run to collect as many points as possible. Fortunately, Utah and Colorado also had skiers outside the top 15 in both the men’s and women’s runs.

The second run for men & women

The Denver women did their part in slalom, outscoring Utah and CU with their cumulative times following solid second runs. Denver’s Nora Brand grabbed 3rd, Sara Rask tied for 4th, and Liv Mortiz took 12th. The results cut into Utah’s lead by 16 points and Denver slipped past CU with +21 points into second place. The pressure shifted to DU men’s slalom to cut further into Utah’s lead following the completion of the women’s slalom.

DU’s Christian Soevik finished his second run with a cumulative time to secure 4th place. Thomas Hoffman finished closely in 6th and Trey Seymour in 22nd. In the final tally for the men, Denver was +2 points against Utah but CU had stronger finishes and gained +8 points on DU.

Team Scoring Through Day Three

Denver moves into second place, 7.5 points ahead of CU. Utah, with 444.5 points leads by 43.5.

Summary

Denver had a very good night but will have trouble catching Utah on the 20k Classic on Saturday. Still, anything can happen.

If you want to follow the live action, go HEREat 10 a.m. MT/12 p.m. MT for the mass start 20k classic.