UTAH UTES
Utah Ski Team Wins Fourth Consecutive National Championship
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Ski Team captured its fourth straight NCAA national Championship and 16th title in program history.
Utah Ski Team wins 16th National Championship
The Utes earned the 2023 NCAA national championship on Saturday, March 11. Utah was crowned as this year’s national champs in Lake Placid, New York.
Utah has won four consecutive national titles and five of the last six national championships.
“It’s an incredible feeling to pull this one off,” Utah director of skiing Fredrik Landstedt said. “It was probably the hardest one in my five years at Utah. Colorado came out and they really performed at a higher level than they have all winter, and it ended up coming down to the wire. I’m very proud of our whole team.”
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For the 16th time in program history, we are national championsβΌ#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/nO4sQOREwG
— Utah Ski Team (@utahskiteam) March 11, 2023
The Utes were carried to the national titles by some outstanding performances.
Madison Hoffman became a double national champion in the Alpine event as Utah skiers won all four title races in New York.
Novie McCabe swept the women’s Nordic races and Sophia Laukli (third place) and Sydney Palmer-Leger (fifth place) weren’t far behind. They helped contribute 103.0 points to the Utes’ total.
“It was a really good day out there today,” McCabe said. “It was fun to ski with both of my teammates for pretty much the whole race. I think we really wanted to really try to work together coming into this and get some good points for the team. I’m really happy with today and proud of how everyone performed.”
1οΈβ£-2οΈβ£-3οΈβ£ GO UTES#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/wSgQ2ijxkk
— Utah Ski Team (@utahskiteam) March 11, 2023
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“That was just incredible by our Nordic women,” Landstedt said. “They are just in a different class. For all three of them to be up there the entire race, especially with Sydney and Sophia coming straight from Europe and definitely being a little tired coming back from the World Championships is just awesome. This was a really tough race, and a tough course with the conditions, so they had to fight it out and it took everything they had to be able to stay up there and finish that well. With long hills and tough conditions it was a tough course to ski.”
Samuel Hendry had a fourth place finish in the men’s 20K Classic. Luke Jager placed 11th in the event and Walker Hall finished in 17th place. The skiers added 65.0 points to help Utah capture the title.
Final Results
- Utah (526.0 points)
- Colorado (491.5 points)
- Denver (416.5 points)
ππππ#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/jLnigOUkRs
— Utah Ski Team (@utahskiteam) March 11, 2023
“It’s the same with the athletes,” Landstedt said. “We have a tough team, for them to even make our NCAA team, because we have 22 or 23 and we only can take 12 to NCAAs. They come here and they’re under a lot of pressure because we have high expectations and they want to win it, and it makes it definitely more stressful than with a smaller team where you’re able to ski more individually. We have to always make sure we get the most points and ski for the team. That’s what makes it more fun, the way they support each other and they’re cheering other on. We have great camaraderie on this team, and I’m proud of the way they competed.”
