Utah Skiing Surges into Lead at RMISA Championship

Friday, February 26

Midway, UT

All Day

University of Utah

5/10K Classic

Photo by: Kory Mortensen

Utah Skiing Surges into Lead at RMISA Championship

2/26/2021 5:14 PM | Skiing

Results

Palmer-Leger Wins 5K Classic on the Women's Side

MIDWAY – The Utah ski team took the lead in the RMISA Championship after the first two Nordic races at Soldier Hollow on Friday, February 26.

Coming into the day, Utah was 36 points behind first place and covered that with two strong performances on the men's and women's side. The Utes now lead Colorado by 49 points with one day of the RMISA Championship remaining.

The men started the day off with a 10K Classic and were led by Samuel Hendry as he finished in second place.

"Sam has been our top guy all year and today was no different," head Nordic coach Miles Havlick said. "Magnus from CU is obviously really, really strong and won today. He's tough to beat, but Sam was right on his heels. The other three guys were battling out for top places, so it was a great day overall."

After Hendry, the next Ute to cross the line was Ola Jordheim in sixth, followed by Luke Jager in seventh and Bjørn Riksaasen in eighth. Noel Keeffe finished in 17^th.

The Utah men totaled 89 points total in the 10K Classic.

The women's team continued their dominant run this season placing three racers in the top four of the race.

Freshman Sydney Palmer-Leger rose to the occasion racing on the course she grew up competing on. She won her second race of the year and her first region championship.

"It feels really good to win regionals in my home town," Palmer-Leger said. "I've been racing here since I was eight years old with Novie and other skiers. It's cool to be here and win a college race."

Novie McCabe came in right behind her teammate in second and Julia Richter crossed the line in fourth. Karianne Moe had a strong race coming in seventh, Mariah Bredal finished in eighth and Abby Jarzin finished in 12^th.

"The women's team and really the whole team is so cohesive and supportive," Havlick said. "They've trained so hard this whole fall together day in and day out. They know that on any given day any one of them could be at the top. It's been amazing to watch and they've truly had some historic performances this season."

The women scored 108 points to combine with the men and score a total of 197 points on the day. That is 60 points better than any other team on the day.

Tomorrow is the final day of the RMISA Championship with the women racing in the 15K Freestyle and the men racing in the 20K Freestyle at Soldier Hollow.