McCabe, Laukli and Palmer-Leger Sweep Women’s Freestyle Podium at MSU Invite

Saturday, January 14

Bozeman, Mont. (Crosscut Mountain Sports Center)

10 a.m.

University of Utah

5/10K Freestyle

Photo by: Tobias Albrigtsen

McCabe, Laukli and Palmer-Leger Sweep Women’s Freestyle Podium at MSU Invite

1/14/2023 1:42 PM | Skiing

Results Photo Gallery Photo Gallery

Walker Hall also earned his second collegiate podium in the men’s 10K race

BOZEMAN, Mont. – For the second straight day, Novie McCabe claimed victory and was joined on the podium by silver medalist Sophia Laukli and bronze medalist Sydney Palmer-Leger as the Utah Ski Team swept the women's top-three in a 5K freestyle race as part of the Montana State Invitational.

In addition, Walker Hall took second in the men's 10K freestyle, maching his top finish for an RMISA race. His other silver result came almost a year ago today; it was in the 10K freestyle at the 2022 Montana State Invitational.

Utah remains atop the team standings with 396 points for the meet, a 120-point pad on second-place Alaska Anchorage. Saturday's races concluded the Nordic half of the Montana State Invitational, leaving the alpine slate to be completed on January 30-31. That will consist of two days of giant slalom racing at Bridger Bowl Ski Area.

"Today was a very good day for us," said head Nordic coach Miles Havlick. "The women's team was unstoppable from the very beginning of the race. It was so incredible to sweep an RMISA podium and these girls have done it several times now. Ezra also had a strong race, narrowly missing the top 8 but is on a great trajectory. Our boys are definitely feeling all of the racing and travel from the last few weeks. Despite that, Walker and Brian threw down some impressive races today. It definitely feels good to have a strong start to the MSU Invite as we hand it off to alpine. We are looking forward to a couple weeks to recover, train on some home snow and regroup for the Colorado races in a few weeks!"

McCabe (14:48.7) picked up her 12^th RMISA win and has skied to 19 collegiate podiums in her career. Laukli clocked a time of 14:54.1 for her second podium in as many days, and Palmer-Leger (15:23.5) logged her 18^th RMISA podium as a Ute. Ezra Smith (16:53.9) took 11^th place to cap the Utes in the 5K freestyle.

Hall was across the finish line with a time of 28:10.6 to secure silver in the men's 10K race. He was joined in the top-10 by Brian Bushey in sixth place (28:50.7) and Samuel Hendry in ninth (29:07.2), giving Bushey his eighth top-10 result in an RMISA race and Hendry his 22^nd. Rounding out the race for Utah was Luke Jager in 14^th (29:56.6).

"It was a really hard race, but I was happy to be fighting for the podium," said Hall. "We had great support from the coaches and it was a fun day!"

Nordic teams now have a bit of a break from RMISA competition, with action resuming on February 3 in classic races at the Colorado Invitational. In the meantime, Utah is expected to have athletes competing in the World University Games.

World University Games Update
The World University Games of Lake Placid 2023 continued on Saturday with Claire Timmermann (Canada) and Jeremy Mathers (United States) racing in super-G. Timmermann placed 13^th in the women's event and Mathers was 17^th on the men's side.

The lineup of Nordic Utes in Lake Placid includes Karianne Dengerud (Norway), Tom Mancini (France) and Celine Mayer (Germany). In addition to Mathers and Timmermann, alpine has sent Madison Hoffman (Australia), Katie Parker (Australia) and Gustav Vøllo (Norway).

Follow the Utah Ski Team on social media @utahskiteam.