The University of Utah Ski Team were crowned National Champions this afternoon, securing the programs 15th National Title in school history. Photo: Nick Grace/University of Utah.

PARK CITY, Utah — The University of Utah Ski team competed in the Utah Invitational on Tuesday afternoon at Park City Resort, easily clinching the competition with a total of 648 points following Tuesday’s slalom.

Coming off of their 2021 National Championship, Utah has picked up right where they left off, dominating in both of their first two competitions. After winning their first competition a few weeks back at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, the Utes dominated other programs such as Colorado, Alaska Anchorage, Denver, Montana State, Westminster, Alaska Fairbanks, Colorado Mountain and Wyoming.

Not only did Utah register a whopping 648 points on the slopes, they also bested second-place Colorado by 86 points.

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“It was a great meet,” said director of Utah skiing Fredrik Landstedt. “Everyone came together, and of course we had the lead after the Nordic races, and the alpine team held their own to keep increasing the lead. It was good to see. The depth is super important and that’s what we want to build—a team where you have six or seven athletes who can score team points and help us win the meet, no matter who scores, no matter who finishes. For us to have athletes also going to the Olympics and World Championships, you need a full team of incredible athletes that can pick it up and get it done.”

Senior Katie Vesterstein constructed a top-five slalom performance in the women’s competition while freshman Kaja Norbye recorded the fastest time of the day at 50.05 seconds. As for the men, sophomore Wilhelm Normannseth finished fifth with senior Joachim Lien in ninth and junior Gustav Vollo in 11th place.

“Slalom is a beast in its own,” Assistant alpine coach Mary Joyce said. “Today the surface was unbelievable, and that’s all you can ask for in slalom. The men crushed it in their first run and it was great to watch. The girls had a couple fumbles here and there—having a couple people out was difficult, but that didn’t stop them from crushing their second run. The guys had a couple mistakes on the second run after Bjorn and Oliver were first and fourth [in the first run]. Never easy, but that’s why it’s awesome to have such a deep team. Even when you have the top two after first run go out, you still know it’ll be a solid day.”

Following their dominant performance, Utah has now reached the midway point of the regular season and will prepare for a Nordic event on Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 1-2 at the Alaska Fairbanks Invitational.