Bobcat Skiers Fifth at Montana State Invitational

Sunday, January 15

Bohart Ranch, MT

Montana State University

MSU Invite - 15/20K Classical (9:30 am start)

Freshman Kathleen O'Connell

Photo by: Kelly Gorham

1/15/2017 3:02:00 PM | Men's Skiing, Women's Skiing, Skiing

MSU INVITE FINAL RESULTS FINAL_MSU INVITE RESULTS - UPDATED

Colorado won the team title with 670 points, followed by Utah 603.5, Denver 602, New Mexico 440, MSU 436.5, Alaska Anchorage 350, Westminster 246, Alaska Fairbanks 236, Wyoming 114 and Colorado Mountain College 33.

By: Tom Schulz

The Montana State men's and women's Nordic teams combined for 62 points in the 15/20K classical race to guide the Bobcats to a fifth place finish, Sunday morning to conclude the MSU Invitational.

Colorado won the team title with 670 points, followed by Utah 603.5, Denver 602, New Mexico 440, MSU 436.5, Alaska Anchorage 350, Westminster 246, Alaska Fairbanks 236, Wyoming 114 and Colorado Mountain College 33.

Montana State freshman Kathleen O'Connell continued her strong early season efforts placing 15^th overall with a time of 57:19.8. Also scoring for the Bobcats were Emma Tarbath, 17^th, 57:44.1, and Jordi Floyd, 25^th, 59:39.6.

"The women took the race out extremely hard from the start, which caused quite a few of them to blow up after 5K and many others to fall quickly off the pace," said MSU Nordic coach Matthew Johnson. "Our younger girls had a great day- 15km is a really long race for athletes of that age so for many of them this is only their second or third distance race like this.

"Our girls skied really smart and didn't try to go with the pack on the first lap so they had some catching up to do for the remaining 10km but they kept skiing hard and picked a lot of girls off throughout the rest of the race," Johnson added. "Kat O'Connell's 15th place and Emma Tarbath's 18th are great results for us and we are looking forward to developing these athletes throughout their college careers."

Also posting times for MSU were Anna Fake, 27^th, 1:00:25.7, and Maria Gesior, 35^th, 1:06:32.1.

Colorado's Petra Hyncicova, who won Saturday's freestyle race, took top honors again in classical with a clocking of 52:59.8.

The Bobcat men, who are skiing with just three racers this season, saw only Noah Andersen complete the 20K course, as both Karsten Hokanson and Martin Muan did not finish. Andersen, a junior from Bozeman, placed 12^th overall in a time of 1:03:59.1.

"On the men's side, Karsten Hokanson and Noah Andersen skied really well and were in really good position after 15km when Karsten fell hard coming down a hill and had to pull out of the race with a shoulder injury," Johnson said. "Noah kept the pressure on and skied his best collegiate race ever, getting edged by a New Mexico skier at the line to finish 12th overall."

Petter Reistad of Colorado captured the classical title in 1:00:31.6.

The Bobcats will take a week off from competition before traveling to the Alaska Anchorage Invitational, Jan. 25 in Girdwood.