ELDORA, Colo. -- Storm Klomhaus won her first career collegiate race and five University of Denver ski team athletes finished in the top eight of the slalom races as the Pioneers moved into third place at the Colorado Invitational Thursday at Ikon Pass' Eldora Mountain Resort.
The women's team had the best day of any team in the field, scoring 98 points with
Reece Bell taking fourth and
Andrea Komsic sixth to pull the Pioneers within 10 points of second-place Colorado and 22.5 points behind meet leader Utah.
Klomhaus continued her fantastic meet and comeback after not skiing much in the past two seasons. She finished sixth in Wednesday's giant slalom races and has two of her top three college finishes in the past two days. The win gives her two career podium appearances and first in slalom, the other coming with a third place in the GS at the 2017 RMISA Championships.
Bell had her best collegiate race, finishing fourth and just 12-hundredths of a second off the podium. She now has finished fourth and seventh in her two collegiate slalom races. Komsic finished in sixth for the second straight day and has four straight top-six finishes to continue her solid season.
Amelia Smart made her first collegiate start but didn't finish her first run and her sister,
Eleri Smart, also didn't finish her second run. Amelia skied in a World Cup slalom race in Flachau, Austria, on Tuesday, flew back to the United States on a trans-Atlantic flight on Wednesday and made her way up to Eldora on Thursday.
On the men's side, freshman
Colby Lane led the way in fourth place, giving him two top-six slalom finishes early in the season after taking sixth in Aspen last week.
Tobias Kogler also earned his fifth straight top 10 finish, taking eighth and
Nick Santaniello finished 13th.
Tristan Lane and
Cole Puckett both did not finish the first run.
The Pioneers scored 73 points in the men's race to score 171 on the day and finished the alpine portion of the meet with 301.5 points. Utah leads with 324 points and host Colorado is second with 312. Behind DU there's a gap before Westminster's fourth-place total of 242 points.
Next up for the alpine teams are an extra slalom qualifier race to close out the racing at Eldora. The Nordic teams then kick off their seasons in the CU meet Saturday and Sunday in Steamboat Springs.
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