Saturday, February 24
Big Sky, MT
All Day
University of Utah
vs
Slalom
Joe Davies won Saturday's men's 7.5K freestyle at the RMISA Championships (Colter Peterson / Montana State Athletics)
Davies and Norbye Pick Up Wins on Middle Day of RMISA Championships
2/24/2024 7:59 PM | Skiing
Utah climbs to second in team standings
BIG SKY, Mont. and BOZEMAN, Mont. – On a day that saw both alpine and Nordic races taking place with a slalom and a 7.5K freestyle, the Utah Ski Team moved into second place on the middle day of the RMISA Championships. Kaja Norbye won the women's slalom—her third victory of the year—while Joe Davies won the freestyle interval start in Davies' return to the collegiate circuit.
With just a 20K classic left on Sunday, Utah is in second place in the meet standings with 451.5 points. The Utes need to make up 46.5 points to catch Colorado, which leads the meet with 498 points. Big Sky Resort hosted the alpine half of the meet, while Nordic teams are at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center this weekend for that part of the meet.
Nordic – Davies and Mancini on Podium in Interval Start
Five Utes made their first starts since returning from non-college competition, led by Davies' second win of the year. Tom Mancini took bronze, giving Mancini his third straight podium and fourth of the season.
Davies clocked an 18:40.3, edging Colorado's Magnus Boee by three-tenths of a second. Mancini (18:58.3) and Brian Bushey (19:11.7) put all of Utah's scoring in the top-five, while Walker Hall (19:28.8) added a ninth-place finish. It also put the Utes in position to lead the team scoring in the men's event with 103 points.
"Today's race was super fun," Davies said. "Knowing this race was at a decent altitude, I tried to pace it well and not go out too hard on the first lap. Although I thought I felt like I paced it well, I still got pretty tired on the second lap. With the early start, I knew there could be some fast guys still coming behind me so I had to just grind it out, and luckily I came away with the win!"
For the women, Nina Schamberger was the leading Ute with a 14th-place result (22:25.3) and was one second ahead of Karianne Dengerud in 15th (22:26.3). Witta Walcher (23:10.1) took 22nd.
Alpine – Norbye Wins Women's Slalom, Normannseth Takes Bronze
Helped by a top-two first run, Kaja Norbye totaled a time of 1:41.68 to win the women's slalom. Wilhelm Normannseth was in 10th place at the break of the men's race but climbed all the way to third (1:36.20) when all was said and done.
Utah had a pair of other top-10 men's finishers in Raphael Lessard (ninth; 1:36.79) and Sindre Myklebust (1:36.82). It was Myklebust's third straight top-10 and the third of the season for Lessard. Mikkel Solbakken was just a couple spots from the top-10, taking 13th on the day. Solbakken's day included a top-four run on his first trip down the hill.
The Utes also had another top-10 result in the women's competition as Michelle Kervén (1:42.88) shared 10th with Westminster's Elise Hitter. Claire Timmermann (1:43.44) closed out the Utah scoring in 15th place while Melanie Dahlberg added an 18th-place result for the team.
Timmermann's second run ranked second in the field and Dahlberg's second run was in the top-five.
Next Up
Sunday's 20K classic race at Crosscut will wrap up the RMISA Championships as teams fully turn their focus to NCAAs two weeks from now. Qualifiers for the NCAA Championships will be announced early next week.
Follow the Utah Ski Team
Follow the Utes on social media (@utahskiteam).
With just a 20K classic left on Sunday, Utah is in second place in the meet standings with 451.5 points. The Utes need to make up 46.5 points to catch Colorado, which leads the meet with 498 points. Big Sky Resort hosted the alpine half of the meet, while Nordic teams are at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center this weekend for that part of the meet.
Nordic – Davies and Mancini on Podium in Interval Start
Five Utes made their first starts since returning from non-college competition, led by Davies' second win of the year. Tom Mancini took bronze, giving Mancini his third straight podium and fourth of the season.
Davies clocked an 18:40.3, edging Colorado's Magnus Boee by three-tenths of a second. Mancini (18:58.3) and Brian Bushey (19:11.7) put all of Utah's scoring in the top-five, while Walker Hall (19:28.8) added a ninth-place finish. It also put the Utes in position to lead the team scoring in the men's event with 103 points.
"Today's race was super fun," Davies said. "Knowing this race was at a decent altitude, I tried to pace it well and not go out too hard on the first lap. Although I thought I felt like I paced it well, I still got pretty tired on the second lap. With the early start, I knew there could be some fast guys still coming behind me so I had to just grind it out, and luckily I came away with the win!"
For the women, Nina Schamberger was the leading Ute with a 14th-place result (22:25.3) and was one second ahead of Karianne Dengerud in 15th (22:26.3). Witta Walcher (23:10.1) took 22nd.
Alpine – Norbye Wins Women's Slalom, Normannseth Takes Bronze
Helped by a top-two first run, Kaja Norbye totaled a time of 1:41.68 to win the women's slalom. Wilhelm Normannseth was in 10th place at the break of the men's race but climbed all the way to third (1:36.20) when all was said and done.
Utah had a pair of other top-10 men's finishers in Raphael Lessard (ninth; 1:36.79) and Sindre Myklebust (1:36.82). It was Myklebust's third straight top-10 and the third of the season for Lessard. Mikkel Solbakken was just a couple spots from the top-10, taking 13th on the day. Solbakken's day included a top-four run on his first trip down the hill.
The Utes also had another top-10 result in the women's competition as Michelle Kervén (1:42.88) shared 10th with Westminster's Elise Hitter. Claire Timmermann (1:43.44) closed out the Utah scoring in 15th place while Melanie Dahlberg added an 18th-place result for the team.
Timmermann's second run ranked second in the field and Dahlberg's second run was in the top-five.
Next Up
Sunday's 20K classic race at Crosscut will wrap up the RMISA Championships as teams fully turn their focus to NCAAs two weeks from now. Qualifiers for the NCAA Championships will be announced early next week.
Follow the Utah Ski Team
Follow the Utes on social media (@utahskiteam).
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