The Denver Pioneers ski team continued its strong performance in the alpine slalom at the Colorado Invitational on Tuesday, with graduate student Sara Rask securing her second consecutive women’s slalom victory to open the 2026 season. All six Denver women who finished placed in the top 15.
Head Alpine Skiing Coach Joonas Rasanen commented on the team’s progress: “I thought we had a lot of good adjustments from yesterday. Obviously, the girls did an amazing job both days, and I think the boys took a step forward. It’s not where we want to be, but I’m super, super happy for Adrian for him to ski the way he’s been skiing in training and Caman punching it in there from 30th is super cool. We have more to come.”
Denver once again won the women’s team event with 102 points but trails Colorado by seven points (180-173) for the overall meet lead after two events. Utah is third with 147 points, followed by Alaska Anchorage (109), Montana State (99.5), and Nevada (97.5).
Rask extended her winning streak to nine straight slalom races and reached her 17th career collegiate win, tying her for second-most all-time among DU skiers. She led after run one and posted a strong second run to finish ahead of teammate Mia Hunt and Colorado’s Louison Accambray.
Mia Hunt improved on her previous day’s result by finishing second behind Rask, achieving another personal best. Senior Josephine Trueblood also recorded her first career top-10 finish in sixth place after improving during her second run.
Trueblood described her experience: “The conditions were really good. I’m really excited to finish top 10, first one my career. I just skied. I don’t know, I felt good today, my body felt good, and I was really excited to be out here. I love skiing slalom here (at Loveland), so that was really nice.”
Other notable performances included sophomore Stella Buchheister placing seventh—her second consecutive top-10 result—freshman Cecilia Pizzinato finishing twelfth in only her second collegiate race, and senior Nicola Rountree-Williams taking fourteenth.
On the men’s side, senior Adrian Minde Hunshammer achieved his best collegiate slalom finish with sixth place after previously recording his first top-10 result on Monday.
Hunshammer reflected on his approach: “I’ve been working a lot on my head (mentally), and I think it’s been getting better and I’m starting to ski the way I’ve been doing in training,” he said. “Just don’t think that much, and I’ve been able to go. I think that’s been different than from past years.”
Freshman Caman Beauregard made a significant leap from thirtieth after run one to eighth overall by posting the fastest time of all competitors in his second run.
Beauregard shared insight into his improvement: “[I was] just thinking of a certain technical [change I made from the previous day], and then just flowing and having the run of my life.”
Graduate student Eirik Kveno finished fourteenth among Denver men’s scorers; seniors Christian Soevik and Thomas Hoffman were sixteenth and twenty-first respectively.
Utah’s Johs Herland won his second straight men’s event while three Colorado athletes followed closely behind him.
Tuesday marked the final collegiate race at Loveland Valley for several graduating seniors from Denver’s team: Hoffman, Hunshammer, Hunt, Kveno, Rask, Rountree-Williams, Soevik, Trueblood.
The next stop for Denver will be Aspen Highlands for two days of giant slalom racing as part of both their own invitational event as well as continuing competition within RMISA circuit action.
