Jager Wins U.S. Title in Men’s Classic Sprints

Wednesday, January 4

Houghton, Mich.

All Day

University of Utah

Classic Sprints

Photo by: Chris Schmidt

Jager Wins U.S. Title in Men’s Classic Sprints

1/4/2023 3:21 PM | Skiing

Full Results RMISA Results

Palmer-Leger tabs second in U.S. women’s sprints field

HOUGHTON, Mich. – Utah's Luke Jager won his fourth U.S. national championship on Wednesday, as Jager was the top American in the men's classic sprints at Tech Trails. In addition, Sydney Palmer-Leger took second on the U.S. podium in the women's classic sprints.

Jager and Palmer-Leger were third and fourth overall in their respective events. For Jager, it is his fourth U.S. title in a declared national championship event—the last coming in March 2022 in Whistler, British Columbia.

In addition to being part of the U.S. National Championships, today's sprint races also served as an RMISA Nordic Qualifier. This means that individual results for the athletes count towards qualification for the NCAA Championships, but no team scores were kept because the events were not part of an RMISA meet.

"It was a tricky day for a classic sprint, but that is not out of the ordinary for Houghton," said head Nordic coach Miles Havlick. "We woke up this morning to an inch of very wet snow; but before long, a cold easterly wind started blowing off of Lake Superior, freezing the top layer of snow on the course and eventually some cold powdery snow started falling just in time for the semifinal heats. We were constantly adjusting today which made for some tricky waxing, but the team adapted well to the changing conditions."

Havlick continued, "Collectively, we are not in our best form. But we are in a really good place for this time of year. It was really cool to see Luke notch another National Championship and Sydney skiing with amazing consistency again today as the second American!"

Jager won both his quarterfinal and semifinal heats, and also placed first in the morning qualifier, edging Denver's Andreas Kirkeng by four-hundredths of a second.

Jager was second in the RMISA results and third overall, while Noel Keeffe (7th) and Tom Mancini (8th) each had top-10 RMISA finishes after reaching the quarterfinals.

"It was fun to be back in the U.S. racing with the team," Jager said of the day. "The race went well and I was happy to get to be back with all my friends!"

In the women's race, Palmer-Leger was short of only Hailey Swirbul for the U.S. National Championship. She was third in the RMISA race and fourth overall—advancing from her semifinal heat as one of two lucky losers. Three more Utes tabbed the RMISA top-10 in Novie McCabe (6th), Karianne Dengerud (7th) and Celine Mayer (9th), with McCabe and Dengerud each reaching the semifinals.

The U.S. National Championships continue on Friday, Jan. 6 with a classic mass start. Then on Saturday, Jan. 7, freestyle sprint action will take place as part of the U.S. SuperTour. These last two days of competition will not count as RMISA qualifiers as Monday and Wednesday did.

Tour de Ski Update
The Utes have competed in Michigan this week at U.S. Nationals without the services of Samuel Hendry and Sophia Laukli, both whom are in Europe right now competing on the Tour de Ski. The current leg of the Tour de Ski has athletes in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Laukli raced on Wednesday in a 20K freestyle, placing 30^th in the pursuit but with the eighth-fastest overall time.

A pursuit format essentially means that Laukli's Wednesday's freestyle began in the same order of finish from Tuesday's 10K classic race, staggered by finish times. For example, Laukli finished the classic race in 44^th place, behind the winner by two minutes, 19 seconds and six-tenths. Thus, she was the 44^th skier to begin Wednesday's freestyle and did so exactly 2:19.6 after Tuesday's winner.

Follow the Utah Ski Team on social media @utahskiteam.