Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Utah Invitational (WGS)
Trulsrud Earns Second Place In Women's GS As Buffs Close Gap
January 05, 2016 | Skiing
PARK CITY, Utah – Freshman Tonje Trulsrud earned a second place finish in the women's GS race Wednesday helping the University of Colorado ski team close the gap at the Utah Invitational at Park City Mountain Resort. CU remains in second place with 226 points and is now just 14 points behind Denver.
With five races remaining in the Utah Invitational, Colorado, which trailed Denver by 37 after the first day of action, trimmed 23 points off that lead, as the Pioneers now have 240 points to the Buffs 226. Montana State is third with 191 points, two ahead of host Utah (189) while Westminster rounds out the top five with 181 points. New Mexico is sixth with 165 points, Alaska Anchorage seventh with 135 and Colorado Mountain College rounds out the team scoring with 42 points.
For Trulsrud, it's her second top 5 finish in as many collegiate races, as the Lommendale, Norway native also finished fourth in Monday's slalom race. Starting third, she maintained that position after the first run and had enough of a lead that a 15th place second run still kept her on the podium with room to spare as she was two-thirds of a second ahead of fourth place. Her two-run time was 2:05.85.
With her second and fourth place finishes, she joins a fairly elite list of skiers at CU that have kicked off their college careers with a pair of top five finishes in their first meet. In the past 10 years, it's happened just once when Erika Ghent finished fifth in the slalom and second in the GS, also at the Utah Invitational.
In fact in the past decade, just four women's alpine skiers have began a season with a pair of top five finishes. Alongside Ghent, the others were Brooke Wales Granstrom (2015), Sara Hjertman (2011) and Lucie Zikova (2008).
Senior Jessica Honkonen finished ninth after having the fourth fastest time in the second run, moving up nine spots after sitting in 18th place after the first run. It marks Honkonen's time of 2:07.52 was her 27th career top 10 finish, 13th in giant slalom.
Freshman Nora Christensen was the Buffs third scorer, finishing in 13th in a time of 2:08.13, earning her first collegiate finish. Senior Thea Grosvold was 17th in a time of 2:09.08, junior Katie Hostetler was 24th in 2:15.38 and Clare Wise was 28th in 2:18.75.
The alpine portion of the Utah Invitational concludes Wednesday with the men's giant slalom races. After that race, the alpine teams will head northwest to Big Sky for the Montana State Invitational. The Nordic teams, meanwhile, will head to Utah to finish out the Utah Invitational before themselves heading to MSU to conclude that meet.
Team Scores – 1. Denver 240; 2. Colorado 226; 3. Montana State 191; 4. Utah 189; 5. Westminster 181; 6. New Mexico 165; 7. Alaska Anchorage 135; 8. Colorado Mountain 42.
Women's Giant Slalom (35 College Finishers)—1. Chloe Fausa, UU, 2:04.90; 2. Tonje Trulsrud, CU, 2:05.85; 3. Marie Aufrere, WMC, 2:06.52; 4. Tuva Norbye, DU, 2:06.89; 5. Stephanie Gartner, MSU, 2:07.08; 6. Benedicte Lyche, MSU, 2:07.21; 7. Karoline Myklebust, UNM, 2:07.49; 8. Monica Hubner, DU, 2:07.50; 9. Jessica Honkonen, CU, 2:07.52; 10. Charley Field, UAA, 2:07.74. Other CU Finishers: 13. Nora Christensen, 2:08.13; 17. Thea Grosvold, 2:09.08; 24. Katie Hostetler, 2:15.38; 28. Clare Wise, 2:18.75.
