YELLOWSTONE – The Utah Nordic Ski team had individuals racing again this week in West Yellowstone.
Leading into the race today it was around 15F and sunny skies that led to fast and fair competitions. Both women and men skied two laps of the Dead Dog loop on the 5 kilometer Rendevous Nordic Trails for a total distance of 10 kilometers.
It became clear in the women's race that it was going to come down to Utah freshmen Novie McCabe and Sydney Palmer-Leger.
In the end, McCabe proved to be just a little bit stronger and took the win. Palmer-Leger was second and Utah senior
Mariah Bredal was third.
Karianne Moe and
Julia Richter also had very good races for early in the season. The field was very strong with 2020 NCAA runner up Sophia Laukli from Middlebury finishing fifth.
On the men's side, it turned out to be a battle between Utah's
Samuel Hendry and US Ski Team Athlete and top American Junior skier Johnny Hagenbush from Sun Valley. Hendry ended up being edged by Hagenbush by a little over one second in the end just missing out on first.
Utah's Bjorn Riksaasen was fourth,
Ola Jordheim was seventh and
Noel Keeffe finished 13
th. The men's field also had some very fast college athletes as well as top Senior club teams from Sun Valley and Bozeman.
Earlier in the week, there were a couple of races as well. Everyone did a one-mile time trial first that was won by Hendry followed by Keeffe.
The athletes were then divided into heats where the winner could move up and the last person was moved down. They skied the same one-mile loop, but started in groups of five. In the end, Hendry tied for the win with Ute Alumni
Logan Diekmann (2020). Keeffe finished fourth overall, Riksaasen 10
th and Jordheim 11
th.
On the women's side, McCabe led the way again winning the time trial portion by 10 seconds followed by Richter finishing in second and Moe in third. Palmer-Leger followed them up in fourth and Bredal came in eighth place.
McCabe won the next race as well just ahead of Palmer-Leger. Richter finished fifth overall and Moe sixth followed by Bredal in 11
th.
"Novie McCabe looked great and no one was close to her in the qualification or heats," Director of Skiing
Fredrik Landstedt said. "Sydney also skied very well but had a little bit slower skis. On Wednesday, the conditions for the women were very tough with a blizzard hitting right before their start. This lead to slow and soft conditions."
Overall, it was a great early start for Utah.