On Sunday, Alex Jenson had a few hours at her Park City, Utah home. Enough time to do a load of laundry and finish a final exam for her human biology class at the University of Utah. A Waterville native, Jenson is busy, but it’s a good kind of busy. The brief home interlude comes in between trip to races on the World Cup freestyle skiing tour. It’s the best kind of busy.

“It all happened rather quickly and last minute,” Jenson said in a phone interview Sunday night.

Last week, Jenson placed 13th in the moguls competition at the World Cup event in Ruka, Finland. On Monday, Jenson hit the road to Thaiwoo, China, for this weekend’s World Cup event in which she’ll compete in moguls and dual moguls.

Jenson, 23, earned her first World Cup start in January, 2017, at Lake Placid, N.Y. She skied well there, placing ninth in the moguls competition. Jenson didn’t expect to begin the 2018-19 season with another World Cup start, much less two. With injuries to members of the U.S. moguls team, as well as injuries to a few skiers ahead of her on the alternates list (Jenson estimated she was fifth or sixth on the list), Jenson got word the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

“I knew it was possible, but I wasn’t expecting it,” she said.

If she wanted to compete at the World Cup in Finland, she had a spot. Jenson had not been on a mogul course since the fall, so she spent a couple days training in Aspen, Colorado, before making her way last week to Finland.

At Ruka, Jenson skied well in the preliminary rounds, sitting in eighth place entering the finals.

“I was shocked, because I hadn’t been training well,” Jenson said, “but I put down a run when I had to put down a run.”

In the finals, a mistake on the bottom jump caused Jenson to fall, dropping her to 13th place in the final standings. Next weekend at Thaiwoo, Jenson will get two starts, competing in moguls and dual moguls. The goal is to earn more points and more races on the World Cup tour. A lot of that is out of her hands, and dependent on the health and success of skiers on Team USA or ahead of Jenson on the alternates list.

“I can only do my best. There’s so many unknowns,” Jenson said.

This season, Jenson is another year removed from injuries that set her back in the past. After recovering from an ACL tear in 2013, Jenson suffered a tibial plateau fracture of her left shin in 2015. Healthy in 2016, Jenson began to enjoy more success. She placed eighth in the moguls competition at the national championships at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In December of 2016, Jenson took first place in the World Cup selection moguls competitions at Winter Park, Colorado, earning her spot in the Lake Placid World Cup stop.

Last March, Jenson earned a pair of top 10 finishes at the national championships at Waterville Valley, N.H., taking eighth in the moguls and ninth in dual moguls.

“I wasn’t happy with last season,” Jenson said. “I’m ready to give it everything this year. I’m happy with how it’s started.”

With big events, including another World Cup selection race at Winter Park later this month, to come, Jenson is treating these World Cup starts as advanced training runs.

“I’d like to build on the level I’m at. I’m happy with my skiing in Finland. I want to keep that going, keep moving in an upwards direction,” Jenson said.

A junior at the University of Utah, Jenson said she’s slowly working her way towards her degree in Biology, with a pre-med track. She’ll be able to devote more time to academics when her ski career is complete, Jenson said.

Right now, Jenson is on the move, from Utah to Finland back to Utah to China. And that’s pretty good.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM