Justine LaMontagne, a senior at Montana State University, secured first place in the women’s slalom during the opening day of the 2026 Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) Championships. LaMontagne completed her runs with a combined time of 1:45.21, moving up from third after the first run to claim the regional title following a consistent performance.
Her teammate Tea Kiesel, who was in second after the initial run with a time of 50.25, did not finish her second run. This allowed LaMontagne to move ahead in the standings.
“We had a pretty good day (Friday),” said Montana State alpine coach Kris Shampeny. “We had Justine and Tea sitting second and third after the first run, and five guys ranked from seventh to 14th. We had a few mistakes on the second run, but ultimately the team pulled together some good skiing and we ended with Justine winning her last slalom race at Bridger Bowl.”
In Nordic events held at Soldier Hollow, Utah, senior Katey Houser finished 10th for MSU women in the 7.5K Classic with a time of 25:39.9. Graduate student Simon Chappaz placed 10th in the men’s event with a time of 19:33.8.
“We did not have our best day today in the classic race,” said MSU Nordic head coach Adam St. Pierre. “I will take most of the blame as my kick wax application was not good enough today resulting in skis that were too slow to allow the skiers to be competitive. On the plus side we learned a lot about our skis and wax application that we can use when we race here again for NCAA’s. It is also good to know that even with bad skis, we have men and women capable of fighting for top 10 (finishes). With good skis, they will fight for podium (finishes).”
The Bobcats recorded strong results overall on Friday, scoring third-most alpine points among teams while their women’s squad achieved the second-highest point total for their discipline.
Other notable finishes included freshman Lily Sewell placing 16th in women’s slalom (1:49.24), followed by freshmen Solveig Goenningsaeter (20th), Victoria Clancy (26th), and Zoe Gray (27th).
On the men’s side, three Bobcats placed within the top ten: freshman Bosse Mikelsson finished seventh with a two-run total of 1:44.19; freshman Torius Hepsoee was eighth; and senior Gianluca Boehm took tenth place.
“The team is really starting to peak coming into the NCAA championships,” Shampeny said of his alpine squad.
Additional results from Nordic races saw junior Gavin Galyardt finishing 22nd among men and Fredrik Nilsen finishing just behind him at 23rd place.
The RMISA Championships are set to conclude Saturday at Bridger Bowl for alpine events and Soldier Hollow for Nordic competitions.
Live timing information for Alpine events is available at https://www.live-timing.com/races.php while updates on Nordic races can be found at https://my.raceresult.com/383378/.
