PARK CITY, Utah – The Utah Invitational resumed on Monday with giant slalom action and saw Denver Pioneers skiing senior Katie Hensien win the women's race and senior Tobias Kogler place third in the men's event at Park City Mountain Resort.
 
Hensien picked up her second win in the giant slalom in as many days after winning RMISA Invitational on the same course on Sunday. She has now appeared on three consecutive race podiums and has placed in the top five in all four events she's finished this year.
 
Kogler recorded his first podium of the season and has placed in the top 10 in each of his last four races. It's his 17th career podium and first since placing second in giant slalom at last season's NCAA Championships.
 
As a team, Denver gained 128 points on the day and remained in fourth place at the meet with 381 overall, trailing third-place Colorado by just 30 points. Alaska Anchorage is within striking distance in second place with 434 points, while host Utah leads comfortably with 510 points.
 
Hensien finished with a two-run total of 2:03.76, 1.26 seconds faster than second-place Nellie Talbot of Montana State (2:05.02). Hannah Saethereng of Westminster was third, while Utah's Katie Parker and Sona Moravcikova rounded out the top five.
 
Born in Redmond, Washington, but spent her later teenage years in Park City, Hensien controlled the leaderboard throughout the day. She posted the fastest first run at 1:00.89 and had the quickest time in the afternoon as well at 1:02.87.
 
Junior Eleri Smart was the only other Denver skier that finished both runs of the women's race, placing 18th. Galena Wardle had the fifth-fastest opening run (1:02.43) and Nora Brand (1:04.27) was 11th-fastest, but neither Pioneer was able to finish their second runs.
 
Kogler posted the sixth-fastest morning run and fourth-fastest in the afternoon to help him climb the men's giant slalom standings. He finished with a total of 2:01.49, two-tenths of a second behind Colorado's Filip Forejtek in second place. Riley Seger of Montana State won the men's race for the second straight day with a time of 2:00.06.
 
Denver freshman Cooper Cornelius earned his second straight top 10 with a ninth-place finish and Simon Fournier was the third team scorer in 16th. Trey Seymour was 17th, Tristan Lane was 20th and Cole Puckett was 23rd.
 
Monday marked the start of the alpine portion of the Utah Invitational after the Nordic races kicked off the meet on Jan. 2 and 6 at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center as part of the U.S. National Championships.
 
The Pioneers will wrap up the Utah Invite on Tuesday with men's and women's slalom in Park City. It will be the final races of a busy week for Denver and the rest of the RMISA squads, as they will have competed in six events in eight days in Utah and Bozeman, Montana.
 
NOTES

• In the team results, Denver finished fifth in the women's race and the fourth in the men's race.
• Katie Hensien picked up her fifth career podium and third in the Giant Slalom.
• Tobias Kogler reached the podium for the 17th time in his career and 13th in GS. He's placed on the podium in seven of his last eight GS races dating back to the 2020 RMISA Championships.
• Cooper Cornelius has now finished in the top 10 in all three giant slalom races this year.

 
DENVER WOMEN INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1. Katie Hensien, 2:03.76 (1:00.89/1:02.87)
18. Eleri Smart, 2:14.29 (1:07.26/1:07.93)
DNF: Galena Wardle (1:02.43/DNF R2), Nora Brand (1:04.27/DNF R2)
 
DENVER MEN INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
3. Tobias Kogler, 2:01.49 (1:00.65/1:00.84)
9. Cooper Cornelius, 2:02.82 (1:00.64/1:02.18)
16. Simon Fournier, 2:04.30 (1:01.99/1:02.31)
17. Trey Seymour, 2:04.66 (1:02.34/1:02.32)
20. Tristan Lane, 2:04.95 (1:03.10/1:01.85)
23. Cole Puckett, 2:06.46 (1:03.58/1:02.88)
DNS: Colby Lane
 
TEAM STANDINGS (through 6-of-8 events): 1. Utah 510; Alaska Anchorage 434; 3. Colorado 411; 4. Denver 381; 5. Montana State 364; 6. Alaska Fairbanks 224; 7. Westminster 137; 8. Wyoming 97; 9. Colorado Mountain College 68
 
WOMEN'S GIANT SLALOM TOP 10 (20 finishers): 1. Katie Hensien, DU, 2:03.76; 2. Nellie Talbot, MSU, 2:05.02; 3. Hannah Saethereng, WMC, 2:05.27; 4. Katie Parker, UU, 2:06.56; 5. Sona Moravcikova, UU, 2:07.64; 6. Denise Dingsleder, WMC, 2:06.68; 7. Alyssa Hill, UAA, 2:09.31; 8. Elena Exenberger, CU, 2:09.45; 9. Claire Timmermann, UU, 2:09.56; 10. Kristiane Bekkestad, MSU, 2:09.59
 
MEN'S GIANT SLALOM TOP 10 (31 finishers): 1. Riley Seger, MSU, 2:00.06; 2. Filip Forejtek, CU, 2:01.29; 3. Tobias Kogler, DU, 2:01.49; 4. Gustav Voello, UU, 2:02.12; 5. Joachim Lien, UU, 2:02.16; 6. Jacob Dilling, CU, 2:02.17; 7. Joachim Mjelde, WMC, 2:02.58; 8. Isak Staurset, MSU, 2:02.59; 9. Cooper Cornelius, DU, 2:02.82; 10. Jamie Casselman, MSU, 2:03.31
 
 
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