STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Senior
Simon Fournier won both men's slalom races over the past two days at Howelsen Hill Ski Area as the Denver Pioneers ski team wrapped up their pre-season competitions at the annual Holiday Classic.
DU now prepares for the start of the collegiate season, with the Nordic skiers beginning on Jan. 2 at the Utah Invitational. Alpine kicks off its 2022 RMISA campaign on Jan. 18 at the Montana State Invitational.
Fournier picked up his second victory in less than 24 hours on Thursday afternoon with a two-run total of 1:22.97, edging second-place finisher and DU teammate
Tobias Kogler by more than a second (1:24.11). The two senior Pioneers posted the fastest time in each run, with Fournier taking the early lead with a 40.53-second mark in the morning and Kogler moving up seven spots in the afternoon session with a time of 41.87 seconds. The University of Colorado's Jacob Dilling tied Kogler for second place with a 1:24.11 combined time as well.
Denver's
Cooper Cornelius (11th) and
Cole Puckett (12th) also earned top-15 finishes on Thursday, while
Trey Seymour was 23rd among the 49 finishers.
Fournier opened the men's slalom competitions on Wednesday by finishing eight-hundredths of a second ahead of second-place Thomas Hoffman and 11-hundredths ahead of Dilling. Fournier posted the fourth-fastest first run (38.84) in the afternoon before coming down the fastest under the lights of Howelsen Hill later that night (41.77).
Kogler recorded his first top-10 placement of the meet on Wednesday with a sixth-place finish at 1:21.44, coming just one-hundredth of second behind Utah's Joachim Lien in fifth.
On the women's side, only
Nora Brand,
Eleri Smart and
Galena Wardle competed for Denver. Wardle led DU with an eighth-place finish on Thursday, while Smart (run 1) and Brand (run 2) weren't able to finish the course. Brand did post the fifth-fastest time on her first run.
Smart was the top DU finisher in Wednesday's women's race in 10th. Brand and Wardle were nearly a second behind her in 15th and 16th, respectively.
The annual Murphy Roberts Holiday Classic is named in honor of a former Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club alpine skier that passed away unexpectedly at age 22 in 2016 and features substantial prize money for the winner. This year's event featured several collegiate skiers from Denver, CU, the University of Utah and Colorado Mountain College.
Full DU results are below.
Wednesday, Dec. 22
Women's Slalom (57 finishers)
Eleri Smart – 10th, 1:22.91 (40.13/42.78)
Nora Brand – 15th, 1:23.91 (40.45/43.46)
Galena Wardle – 16th, 1:23.92 (40.45/43.47)
Men's Slalom (57 finishers)
Simon Fournier – 1st, 1:20.61 (38.84/41.77)
Tobias Kogler – 6th, 1:21.44 (38.88/42.56)
Trey Seymour – 29th, 1:26.94 (39.96/46.98)
Tristan Lane – 41st, 1:31.07 (40.47/50.60)
Cooper Cornelius – 56th, 1:50.76 (1:06.49/44.27)
Cole Puckett – DNF (Run 1)
Thursday, Dec. 23
Women's Slalom (50 finishers)
Galena Wardle – 8th (46.62/46.96)
Nora Brand – DNF (Run 2)
Eleri Smart – DNF (Run 1)
Men's Slalom (49 finishers)
Simon Fournier – 1st, 1:22.97 (40.52/42.45)
Tobias Kogler – 2nd, 1:24.11 (42.24/41.87)
Cooper Cornelius – 11th, 1:25.80 (43.21/42.59)
Cole Puckett – 12th, 1:26.02 (42.91/43.11)
Trey Seymour – 23rd, 1:28.91 (42.50/46.41)
Tristan Lane – DNF (Run 1)
CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: Masks are required at all indoor athletic events. For the latest University of Denver updates on the coronavirus, click here.
DONATE: Fans interested in making a donation to the Pioneers Athletic Fund can do so by clicking here. Your gift will transform the lives of our student-athletes by giving them the first-class resources needed to excel in the classroom and beyond. Thank you for Building Pioneers for Life!
Visit DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 18 of DU's NCAA Division I sports
Like Denver Pioneers and Denver Skiing on Facebook
Follow @DU_Pioneers and @DU_Skiing on Twitter
Follow @DenverPioneers and @DU_Skiing on Instagram
