February 7, 2025

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Tough conditions at the Denver Invitational

Tough conditions at the Denver Invitational

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Lexi Hanus

Photo: John Holmes Photography/Denver Athletics

The Denver Invitational took place on Thursday and Friday this week, holding two GS races at Copper. The men and women ran the same courses and there were mixed reviews on the conditions. The slalom was hosted on Monday at Keystone.

Tobias Kogler, a Denver skier, claimed second in Thursday’s race and won on Friday. While he had good results this week, he wants to bring awareness to a potential safety issue that he has seen at several races so far this season.

“The snow conditions were definitely challenging — maybe even dangerous — in the second run since there was no reset after the girls, not even the gates that already had holes from the girls. We had that problem the last few races and no changes were made.”

Despite the issues he was able to ski fast both days. “I had clean runs both days and just came short on the first day,” said Kogler, “The skiing is getting better and better with every race so I’m trying to keep the momentum to finish the season strong.” 

The University of Colorado men had a better series than Denver, coming out on top this week. They stacked three in the top 10 Thursday and three into the top five Friday.

The women had two very similar podiums over the two days with Ainsley Proffit and Kaja Norbye on it both days. Otherwise, the results varied quite a bit. 

Utah came out on top for the women. Kaja Norbye led the Utah women to victory with her podium results. As a freshman, Norbye has already been on the NCAA podium once before.

Proffit had a very positive take on the race series, including the snow.

Proffit said, “Lately, my GS results haven’t been too strong, so when I came down into fourth after the first run I was really excited. I knew in my heart it was a good run, but it was great to see it reflected in the times too. When it was time for the second run I was pretty nervous, but I just kept focused on clean, simple skiing. It ended up going great, and when the winner of the first run came down and I was still ahead, I couldn’t believe it. Especially because all of these women at the NCAA races are such strong competitors.”

“I couldn’t have asked for a better race series. The snow conditions were great, it was that classic Colorado hero snow that hardly breaks down. I love being a part of the CMC ski team,” said Proffit.

Complete podiums:

Men’s Thursday GS podium: Joachim Bakken Lien, Tobias Kogler, Mikkel Solbakken
Men’s Friday GS podium: Tobias Kogler, Jacob Dilling, Mikkel Solbakken
Women’s Thursday GS podium: Ainsley Proffit, Julia Toivainen, Kaja Norbye
Women’s Friday GS podium: Nellie Rose Talbot, Ainsley Proffit, Kaja Norbye

Slalom

The slalom portion of the Denver Invitational was held on Monday in Keystone. The men and women handled soft conditions to make it to the finish line.

Women’s slalom podium included Denise Dingsleder, Kristiane Bekkestad, Evelina Fredricsson, in that order.

Griffins Dingsleder won by almost eight-tenths of a second over Montana’s Bekkestad. Another Griffin, Fredricsson finished in third. This was enough for the Westminster Griffins to overtake Utah to win the slalom.

Willhelm Normannseth, Francesco Gori, and Simon Fournier comprised the men’s slalom podium.

The Utah men stayed at the top of the slalom ranks with Normannseth the lone finisher in the top three. The next Ute was Jeremy Mathers, who finished in fourth place. Denver’s Simon Fournier was in third.

Five of the six athletes (men and women) on the podium have already had a top-three result this season. Simon Fournier is the exception, though he has had podium results at RMISA races in previous seasons.

The RMISA Championships begin Wednesday with GS races at Mt. Werner. Slalom races will commence on Thursday and Friday and there will be a parallel slalom on Saturday.

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