McCabe and Boee Open Nordic Season with Wins at Soldier Hollow

Sunday, January 17, 2021 • by Ron Knabenbauer, Special To RMISA

MIDWAY, Utah—Novie McCabe of the University of Utah and Magnus Boee of the University of Colorado opened up the Nordic season with wins on Sunday at RMISA Invitational at Utah.

In her first career race, McCabe won the women's 5 kilometer freestyle with a time of 12 minutes and 14.3 seconds as the host Utes dominated to begin the meet at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center. Boee won the men's 10K in 21:24.3 for his fourth career win and second in the freestyle discipline. Both races were conducted with an interval start.

Utah ruled the leaderboard in the women's 5K by taking each spot on the podium and finishing with four skiers in the top five and six in the top 10 to win the team competition with 111 points. Julie Richter and Sydney Palmer-Leger joined McCabe on the stand in second and third place, respectively, while UU teammates Maria Bredal was fourth, Abigail Jarzin in seventh and Karianne Moe tying for 10th.

The University of Alaska Anchorage came in second in the women's team scoring with 81 points after placing three skiers in the top 10. Astrid Stav led the Seawolves with a fifth-place result while Tuva Bygrave was eighth and Pascale Paradis tied for 10th.

The University of Colorado finished close behind UAA in third place with 76 points by taking three spots in the top 12. Anna-Maria Dietze was sixth, Weronika Kaleta was ninth and Ezra Smith was 12th for the Buffaloes.

Boee was joined by a pair of Seawolves on the podium in the men's 10K, as J.C. Schoonmaker finished 6.7 seconds behind in second place with a time of 21:31 and Sigurd Roenning placed third just two seconds later (21:33). Alaska Anchorage won the men's team competition with 89 points.

The victory by Boee marked his sixth career podium and was also his second win in a freestyle race. He previously finished first at the 2020 University of Denver Invitational, but that was a pursuit freestyle race where he began with the lead.

Boee's win helped Colorado to a second-place overall finish in the men's 10K with 77 points, while Utah was just two points behind in third after placing four consecutive skiers in the top 10, all within 30 seconds of one another.

Sam Hendry led the Ute pack in sixth place (21:45.2), while Ola Jordheim was seventh (21:58.2), Bjorn Riksaasen was eighth (22:06.2) and Luke Jager was ninth (22:15.2).

Montana State's Zanden McMullen (21:36.7) and Denver's Bernhard Flaschberger (21:41.8) rounded out the top five in the individual men's competition.

Following two of eight events at the RMISA Invitational, host Utah (186) leads with a 16-point advantage over Alaska Anchorage (170), while Colorado is in third place (153) and Montana State is in fourth (126).

The Nordic skiers hit the Soldier Hollow course again on Monday with a pair of long-distance classic races with the women's 15K and the men's 20K to close out the cross country portion of this RMISA Invitational.

RMISA Invitational Team Results (through 2 of 8 events): 1. Utah (186), 2. Alaska Anchorage (170), 3. Colorado (153), 4. Montana State (126), 5. Alaska Fairbanks (107), 6. Denver (100)

Women's 5K Top 10 Individual Results: 1. Novie McCabe, UU, 12:14.3; 2. Julia Richter, UU, 12:38.7; 3. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU, 12:40.6; 4. Mariah Bredal, UU, 12:42.4; 5. Astrid Stav, UAA, 12:51.4; 6. Anna-Maria Dietze, CU, 12:55.1; 7. Abigail Jarzin, UU, 13:05.1; 8. Tuva Bygrave, UAA, 13:07.3; 9. Weronika Kaleta, CU, 13:08.6; T10. Karianne Moe, UU, 13:17.6; T10. Pascale Paradis, UAA, 13:17.6

Women's 5K Team Results: 1. Utah (111), 2. Alaska Anchorage (81), 3. Colorado (76), 4. Alaska Fairbanks (56), 5. Montana State (53), 6. Denver (44)

Men's 10K Top 10 Individual Results: 1. Magnus Boee, CU, 21:24.3; 2. J.C. Schoonmaker, UAA, 21:31.0; 3. Sigurd Roenning, UAA, 21:33.0; 4. Zanden McMullen, MSU, 21:36.7; 5. Bernhard Flaschberger, DU, 21.41.8; 6. Sam Hendry, UU, 21:45.2; 7. Ola Jordheim, UU, 21:58.2; 8. Bjorn Riksaasen, UU, 22:06.2; 9. Luke Jager, UU, 22:15.2; 10. Ti Donaldson, MSU, 22:16.4

Men's 10K Team Results: 1. Alaska Anchorage (89), 2. Colorado (77), 3. Utah (75), 4. Montana State (73), 5. Denver (56), 6. Alaska Fairbanks (51)

Team Notes: Utah swept the podium in the women's 5K, with Novie McCabe leading the Utes by winning in her debut ... It was the fourth podium sweep by a school in the last three years ... The Utah men's Nordic swept the classic race at 2020 CU Invitational, Denver women's slalom garnered each of the top three spots at the 2021 RMISA Championships and CU took all three stands in the men's classic race at the 2019 New Mexico Invitational ... Alaska Anchorage's win in the men's 10K freestyle marked its first team win of the RMISA season ... Utah, Alaska Anchorage and Colorado each finished in the top three in both the men's and women's competition ... Four schools are within 60 points after two-of-eight events at the meet ... Utah finished with 10 combined skiers in the top 10 in the two competitions (out of 20 spots) ... UAA placed three skiers in the top 10 in the women's 5K.

Women's Individual Notes: Utah's Julia Richter picked up her eighth career podium after finishing second in the women's 5K ... Sydney Palmer-Leger of Utah was making her college debut and picked up her first podium after placing third ... Finishing fourth, Maria Bredal was just 1.8 seconds behind her three Utah teammates on the podium ... It was Bredal's seventh career top-five finish and she now has 14 straight top-10 results dating back to the 2019 RMISA Championships ... Alaska Anchorage's Astrid Stav made here college debut ... Kendall Kramer was the highest-placed finisher for Alaska Fairbanks in 13th in the women's 5K, while Vera Norli led the Denver Pioneers in the event in 21s place.

Men's Individual Notes: Magnus Boee of CU claimed his sixth career podium, fourth overall win and second in the freestyle discipline ... Alaska Anchorage's J.C. Schoonmaker's second-place finish was a new career best and his second career podium (third place in classic sprint at 2019 UAA Invitational) ... Schoonmaker's previous best freestyle finish was 10th at the 2020 NCAA Championships ... The reigning RMISA Nordic MVP, Sigurd Roenning's third-place result for UAA marked his 11th career podium ... In 2020, Roenning finished inside the top 10 in each of his races and had five podiums and one win ... Montana State's Zanden McMullen finished fourth for his second career top-five result in a freestyle race, and it matches a career best after finishing fourth in the 2020 Denver Invitational classic race ... McMullen now has four career top-five finishes across both Nordic disciplines ... Sam Hendry was making his sixth career start for Utah and has never finished lower than sixth in any of his races.