Houser Paces Bobcats at MSU Invitational

On a snow globe morning at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center, Montana State junior Katey Houser registered an eighth-place finish in the women’s 20K Freestyle to open the Montana State Invitational.Utah’s Erika Laven won the women’s freestyle title in 1:01:08.3.The Nordic classic races are slated for Sunday morning at 9 a.m. The alpine portion of the MSU Invitational begins Feb. 3 at Bridger Bowl.
 After the first event, Utah sits atop the team standing with 209 points. The Utes are followed by Denver 158, Colorado 154, Alaska Anchorage 125, MSU 101, and Alaska Fairbanks 68.Utah’s Joe Davies won the men’s race in 52:34.2.Sophomore Gavin Galyardt paced the Bobcat men’s team finishing 18^th in 56:39.2. Also, scoring points for MSU were Phineas Fischer, 25^th, 59:16.5; and Jack Conde, 1:04:16.3. Joel Power finished 32^nd in 1:07:06.8.The product of Palmer, Alaska, covered the course in 1:04:01.7. She was followed in MSU’s top three by Rosie Whittington-Evans, 17^th, 1:06:42.2; and Morgan Richter, 20^th, 1:07:38.1. Also finishing for the Bobcats were Maeve MacLeod, 26^th, 1:11:50.4, and Ann Pryce, 27^th, 1:14:24.0.