Utah Ski Team Wins 2023 RMISA Championships

Saturday, February 25

Palmer, Alaska

All Day

University of Utah

20K Classical

Utah Ski Team Wins RMISA Championships - 2023

2/25/2023 7:44 PM | Skiing

Results

McCabe earns 17th career individual win with triumph in women’s 20K classic

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Led by a women's 20K classic victory for Novie McCabe—the 17^th of her career—plus a men's third-place finish for Tom Mancini, the Utah Ski Team won the 2023 RMISA Championships on Saturday at Government Peak, closing a week's worth of racing in Alaska.

From here, the Utes turn their focus to the NCAA Championships which run from March 8-11 in Lake Placid, New York. Utah's lineup of NCAA qualifiers will be announced in the coming days.

The Utes sat in fourth place in the team standings after the opening day of RMISAs with 58 points to make up. Then the squad climbed up to second place on Friday with the results of freestyle and slalom races, though still 18 ½ points back of Montana State headed into today's finale and with Denver close behind.

With McCabe's win, three women in the top-11 and four men in the top-eight, Utah was able to overtake MSU, keep Denver at bay and close the meet with 600 ½ points—while Denver moved up to second place but still 34 points back of the Utes.

"It was not an easy day today, and I'm really proud of the fight from our crew in both races to outscore the very strong Montana State and Denver teams," said head Nordic coach Miles Havlick. "Tom and Brian stepped up in a big way, skiing smart, tactical races, conserving energy in the group and then really pouring it on over the final lap. Noel, Sam and Luke all had super strong performances as well in their final western collegiate competitions for Utah.

"Novie continues to impress with her skiing this season," he continued. "She made the 20km look easy today. Celine has really found her form towards the end of the season and Karianne fought tooth and nail on all four laps. Ezra has made some huge technical gains in her skiing this season, and it really showed out there lap after lap. The decision of who to take to the NCAA Championships is super difficult with such a strong group!"

McCabe's final time went as 1:04:09.0, just about a minute ahead of Mariel Pulles. Celine Mayer continued a strong debut season with Utah placing seventh (1:06:53.4) and Karianne Dengerud took 11^th (1:08:00.3). Ezra Smith closed out the Utah lineup with a top-15 performance.

"It was a fun day out there," McCabe said. "I once again had some amazing skis so that was quite helpful. Overall, quite happy with it and proud to be part of a good team effort!"

For the men, Mancini was across the finish line in 58:33.6 to take third in the mass start. Samuel Hendry took fifth (58:41.6) and Brian Bushey was the final scorer for Utah in seventh place (58:51.0). Luke Jager added an eighth-place result, Walker Hall was 13^th and Noel Keeffe tabbed 15^th.

As is tradition, and similar to alpine's recognition on Friday, today each of the senior student-athletes across the Nordic teams donned senior bibs. Utah's seniors include Samuel Hendry, Luke Jager, Noel Keeffe, Sophia Laukli, Novie McCabe and Ezra Smith. Laukli missed the RMISA Championships, along with Sydney Palmer-Leger, while the pair compete at the 2023 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.

Follow the Utah Ski Team on social media @utahskiteam.