Johs Braathen Herland and Pierick Charest finished third and fourth in the men’s slalom, leading the Utah Ski Team on March 13 during the penultimate day of the NCAA Skiing Championships in Park City, Utah.
The results came as the alpine portion of the meet concluded at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center at Utah Olympic Park. With these performances, Utah enters Saturday’s 20K freestyle mass start events in second place overall, trailing Colorado by just 6.5 points. The Utes have accumulated 408.5 points so far, while Colorado leads with 415 points.
Head alpine coach JJ Johnson said, “All these days are like this, and then to have a slalom day too. Obviously Mel, our top one, goes out and that adds some pressure. Then we get into the guys’ race and not only did they have to finish, they had to race. So many times this event brings out some cautiousness and stuff, but those boys went so hard and skied so well, and it was just a lot of fun to see. They gave us a shot.” Johnson also added appreciation for event staff: “As the second run finished for the men, I just thought of the last three weeks, and then the slalom day and all the emotions just sort of came out a little bit. Just a huge appreciation to the (Utah Olympic Park) staff, the communication, the meetings. They really went above and beyond. And the same goes for our administration. The people at the school really stepped up, and I’m just really proud to be a part of it right now.”
First-team All-American awards in slalom were given to Herland and Charest for their efforts on Friday. In total across all events at this year’s championships so far, Utah has earned 11 All-American honors.
In women’s competition, Christina Jacobsen led Utah with a 14th-place finish in her second NCAA Championships appearance with a time of 1:37.68; Kaila Lafreniere placed 24th with a time of 1:39.42 while Melanie Dahlberg was unable to complete her first run. Jacobsen said about her performance: “(This is) one of the hardest hills on the circuit, and I think all of us managed to do a great job, especially on the second run… First run was a bit harder than I expected… It was a fun, good run.” Justine Lamontagne from Montana State won both women’s giant slalom (GS) and slalom titles.
For Saturday’s final events at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway, Utah will compete in both men’s and women’s 20K freestyle mass start races beginning at 8:30 a.m., with free parking and admission available.
