Freshman Yannick Zellweger secured his first collegiate victory in the men’s 7.5-kilometer Nordic freestyle on Sunday, leading the Denver Pioneers ski team at the conclusion of the Denver Invitational at Frisco Nordic Center.
Four Denver men finished in the top 10, while four women earned top-15 results to close out the event. “They had the fight, and it was great,” said Denver Nordic Head Skiing Coach Eliska Albrigtsen. “Obviously, home-course advantage, so they knew how to execute the course, but they just went into it with heart and didn’t doubt they would get the results. Especially the guys. They just went and balled into it, and it was so awesome. We had great energy this morning, we watched Olympics, and they just took it on the course.”
Zellweger completed the three-lap course at over 9,000 feet elevation in 18:39.4, finishing more than 10 seconds ahead of Colorado’s Storm Pedersen and 16 seconds ahead of Montana State’s Simon Chappaz. Reflecting on his win, Zellweger said: “I felt pretty good, and I had really good skis and the crowd was amazing. It feels really good to get the first win at home.
“I tried to start really fast, even if it was at high altitude. I felt a little tired after the first loop, but I knew I had to push all out. That is what I tried to do, and I’m happy I was able to manage that and push it to the end.”
Sophomore Eemil Juntunen achieved his first career top five by placing fourth for Denver. Senior Krystof Zatloukal finished seventh—a season best—and graduate student Sondre Oestervold came in ninth for his second consecutive top-10 finish.
The Pioneers won their first individual team victory in Nordic this season by taking the men’s interval freestyle with 94 points.
Denver placed second overall at its home meet with 638 points—the highest total for an eight-race meet since winning the RMISA Invitational in 2020.
Colorado claimed three podium spots on Sunday and won the overall team title with 714 points. Tilde Baangman took her second straight women’s race victory in a time of 20:56.4.
For Denver’s women, senior Eve-Ondine Duchaufour led with a season-high fourth place (22:07.9), marking her fourth career top-five finish. “I thought my first lap was pretty good,” Duchaufour said. “I managed to have a good pace all along and not die (of exhaustion) at the end was really good. I also thought a lot about my technique and tried to keep skiing well, which helped a lot.”
Freshman Synne Bollingmo placed 11th; junior Maja Molandin finished 12th; sophomore Anna Stewart came in 13th; freshman Estelle Darbellay ended up 23rd; Ruby Serrouya did not start.
Other men’s finishers included Micah Steinberg (23rd) and Joe Graziadei (24th).
The Denver Invitational marked this season’s first full RMISA meet after earlier events focused solely on either Nordic or alpine disciplines.
The next competition for Denver’s Nordic skiers will be at Steamboat Springs during the Colorado Invite next weekend.
Final team standings were: Colorado (714), Denver (638), Utah (499.5), Montana State (480), Alaska Anchorage (457), Alaska Fairbanks (226), Nevada (195.5), Colorado Mountain College (163), Westminster (199).
More information about DU sports can be found at https://denverpioneers.com/.
