MINTURN, Colo. – Junior Andreas Kirkeng won the men's Nordic 10-kilometer classic on Friday morning at Maloit Park, and the Denver Pioneers ski team retook the overall lead heading into the final day of the 2024 DU Invitational, presented by Daehlie.  
 
Denver had fourth athletes set or match personal bests and had seven finishers place in the top 10 on the first of two days of Nordic races. The Pioneers earned 155 total points to jump past Utah for the overall team lead with 482 points and hold a 24-point advantage over second-place Colorado (458).
 
"Awesome day for the Pioneers," said DU Head Nordic Coach Rogan Brown. "We're obviously missing three of our guys this weekend, but the three guys that started for us today showed up strong. Andreas defended his win here from last year—super strong finish, skied a tactical race. Super high elevation here for our invite, so I thought the skiers paced it super well and had a great day out there."
 
Denver was 13 points behind UU at the conclusion of the alpine slalom races on Tuesday at Loveland Ski Area, but the Utes are shorthanded this weekend as only four student-athletes raced on Friday, with two in each event.
 
Kirkeng battled Utah's Tom Mancini in the final two laps of the mass start race that was held at more than 8,000 feet of elevation, and he fully took control of the top spot from his Rocky Mountain rival in the last turn prior to the home stretch.
 
The victory was Kirkeng's third in a row and fourth of the season. He posted a time of 25:56.5, nearly a second ahead of Mancini (25:57.4) and 27 seconds in front of CU's Hugo Hinckfuss in third place (26:23.5).
 
"It's been a couple good weekends now and some really good results and a couple wins, but we have a couple guys missing (in the field) at World Cups and Junior World Championship," said Kirkeng, who repeated as the DU Invite champion after winning this same distance at Maloit Park last season. "For me, it's about staying on the same training. It's about getting some good training in now before regionals and carry on the good progress we've had through the fall and winter."
 
Freshman Krystof Zatloukal matched a personal best in seventh—the same position he had last Saturday in the 20K classic at the Colorado Invitational in Steamboat Springs. Junior Jonah Steinberg rounded out the Pioneer men by placing 13th, a career-high result for him and his best finish since placing 14th in the 15K classic at the 2023 Montana State Invitational.
 
Denver, like many of the other RMISA teams, is without several of its usual racers with FIS World Cup events in North America and World Junior races in Europe taking place at the same time. Sophomore Micah Steinberg (Canada) and graduate student Florian Knopf (Germany) are competing on the World Cup in Canmore, Alberta, while junior Elijah Weenig is representing the United States at the FIS Nordic U23 World Championship in Slovenia.
 
The Pioneers had their full collection of six women race on Friday, and sophomore Selma Andersen led the group with a career-best finish in fourth. She timed in at 30:47.9 for her first top five of her career.
 
Andersen has now posted consecutive top-10 finishes and owns three such results this season and six in her career.
 
"It was tough, but I was super motivated today," Andersen said. "We've skied here once before, and I knew it was a pretty rough course and it's easy to underestimate it because it's only a 10K. But with such high altitude I tried skiing a bit more conservatively than last year. Just follow the pack honestly, and it felt great to get a high finish there and an overall great race."
 
After facing traffic early in the mass start race, senior Hanna Ray and graduate student Henriette Saeterdal Semb were able to climb up the field into a solid position and score for the Pioneers in 11th and 14th, respectively. Freshman Maja Moland was 13 seconds behind Semb in 15th, while junior Sidney Barbier was 23rd and freshman Anna Espeli placed 28th.
 
Montana State's Tilde Baangman (29:41.3) put together a sizeable gap after two laps at Maloit Park and won by 23.7 seconds over CU's Hanna Abrahamsson in second (30:05.0). Utah's Witta-Lusia Walcher was the third collegiate women's finisher (30:38.2).
 
Colorado garnered the most points on the day with 170 as the Buffaloes recorded five top-10 finishes.
 
UP NEXT: The Denver Invitational presented by Daehlie concludes on Saturday morning with the Nordic 7.5K freestyle interval start. The women begin at 9 a.m. MT while the men compete at 10:15 a.m. MT.
 
"That race you got to be super smart in. It's a 5K, but you got to pace it in a really tactical way," said Brown. "We saw Bernhard Flaschberger here last year, he won by an incredible margin, and he paced it super well. For tomorrow, the prep is going to be flushing out the legs, laying low and getting a lot of hydration and doing all the small things so we can show up and finish out the weekend on a high note.
 
The Pioneers will be going for their first meet win since the 2020 RMISA Championships.
 
 
DENVER MEN INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1. Andreas Kirkeng, 25:56.5
7. Krystof Zatloukal, 26:37.8
13. Jonah Steinberg, 27:25.4
 
DENVER WOMEN INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
4. Selma Andersen, 30:47.9
11. Hanna Ray, 31:46.8
14. Henriette Saeterdal Semb, 32:00.7
15. Maja Moland, 32:13.8
23. Sidney Barbier, 33:19.1
28. Anna Espeli, 34:49.3
 
TEAM STANDINGS (through 6-of-8 events): 1. Denver 482; 2. Colorado 458; 3. Utah 452; 4. Alaska Anchorage 361; 5. Montana State 340.5; 6. Westminster 241.5; 7. Nevada 118; 8. Colorado Mountain College 116; 9. Alaska Fairbanks 100; 10. Wyoming 62.
 
MEN'S 10K CLASSIC TOP 10 (26 finishers): 1. Andreas Kirkeng, DU, 25:56.6; 2. Tom Mancini, UU, 25:57.4; 3. Hugo Hinckfuss, CU, 26:23.5; 4. Fredrik Nilsen, MSU, 26:24.5; 5. Johannes Flaaten, CU, 26:27.0; ­6. Ari Endestad, UAA, 26:29.0; 7. Krystof Zatloukal, DU, 26:37.8; 8. Alexander Maurer, CU, 26:42.8; 9. Florian Winker, MSU, 26:52.6; 10. Mike Ophoff, UAF, 27:03.2.
 
WOMEN'S 10K CLASSIC TOP 10 (30 finishers): 1. Tilde Baangman, MSU, 29.41.3; 2. Hanna Abrahamsson, CU, 30.05.0; 3. Witta-Lusia Walcher, UU, 30.38.2; 4. Selma Andersen, DU, 30.47.9; 5. Astrid Stav, UAA, 30.56.7; 6. Weronika Kaleta, CU, 31.08.8; 7. Beth Granstrom, UAA, 31.25.5; 8. Kate Oldham, MSU, 31.33.2; 9. Alexandra Otto, UAA, 31.35.3; 10. Tuva Bygrave, UAA, 31.38.1.


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