Completed Event: Skiing versus 20K Freestyle (M) on March 8, 2025 , , 1st
Final Score
Skiing
1st
vs 20K Freestyle (M)
Friday, March 13
Lake Placid, N.Y. (Olympic Sports Complex)
All Day
University of Utah
at
Classical (15K/20K)
Utah Skiing Second Entering Final Day of NCAA Championships
3/13/2015 12:00 AM | Skiing
March 13, 2015
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - The Utah ski team stands in second place with just two events remaining at the NCAA Championships, trailing first-place Colorado by just seven points. The Utes added to their All-America honors in the Nordic races on Friday morning with Veronika Mayerhofer leading the Utes with a second-place finish in the women's 15-km classic race with four total skiers earning top-10 finishes.
Utah, Colorado and Denver entered the day nine points apart at the top of the standings. The Utes were the top scoring team in the women's 15-km classic race with 87 points, but CU was buoyed by a pair of second and third place finishes in the men's 20-km race. Colorado leads 388 to 381, followed by New Mexico (327), which had a very strong men's race to move into third. Denver (290) dropped to fourth with Vermont (272) standing fifth.
"This is collegiate skiing at its best!" Utah Director of Skiing Kevin Sweeney said. "The competition is so electric and intense that I have to step back and appreciate how well we have done over the last three days. It is tremendous how the Utes responded today and held off attacks, as well as initiated breaks of their own and skied exceptional races today. This championship will go down to the wire and I know we are ready for that. Four Ute All-Americans is stunning today. The Nordic ladies are clearly on fire. We are very psyched for the concluding event tomorrow."
Mayerhofer, who won Wednesday's 5-km freestyle race, finished second in a photo-finish race in the classic race to earn her second All-America honor of the meet. It is her 10th podium finish of the year, and her ninth finish of either first or second this year. Sloan Storey earns her fourth career All-America honor with a fifth-place finish, her eighth top-five finish of the year. She also finished fifth in Wednesday's freestyle race. Anna-Lena Heynen earned her second career All-America honor with her second top-10 finish of the meet, placing 10th. She was ninth in the freestyle race. Heynen has nine top-10 finishes this season.
In the men's classic race, Niklas Persson earned his second All-America honor of the meet with a fifth-place finish, following his 10th-place run in the freestyle race. He has four career All-America honors. It was Persson's sixth top-five finish of the season. Kevin Bolger finished 16th for the Utes while Noé Bellet placed 22nd. Conditions changed markedly throughout the men's race with snow beginning to fall during the final lap.
"Hats off to all the All-American skiers!" Utah head Nordic coach Abi Holt said. "The Nordic team saw four skiers finish in the top-10 positions of both races. These are the results we shoot for within the RMISA circuit, so to achieve this same goal at the NCAA Championships is really outstanding. I was hoping to buy the alpine team a bit of breathing space for tomorrow, but it looks like they are destined to fight all the way through the last finisher this year. It's been quite a ride at the NCAA Skiing Championships this year. We are all looking forward to tomorrow's wrap up!"
The Utes conclude the NCAA Championships with the slalom races on Saturday, March 14. The men's slalom first run is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. ET/7:00 a.m. MT followed by the women's slalom first run at 10:00 a.m. ET/8:00 a.m. MT. Rain and snow is in the forecast and time changes are possible.
Live video can be found here: http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule
Players Mentioned
Nordic
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Nordic
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