MIDWAY, Utah—The week of racing at the 2024 U.S. Cross Country National Championships at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center wrapped up on Sunday with classical sprints as part of a RMISA Nordic Qualifier.
While part of this year's U.S. Nationals schedule, Sunday's events weren't considered a national championship race but the results did count toward the U.S. SuperTour standing. While no team scores were given, the results of the RMISA schools were pulled separately to serve as an extra race for the student-athletes to qualify for the NCAA Championships in March. Utah, which holds the lead after the first two days of the Westminster Invitational, was well represented at the top of the leaderboard in both classical sprints. The Utes' Tom Mancini was the top RMISA finisher, while UU's Karianne Dengerud picked up her second victory of the season on the women's side after winning the Westminster Invite's freestyle sprints on Thursday. Overall, UU had six athletes in the top 10 between the two RMISA races. On the men's side, Utah, Colorado and Denver all had three skiers in the top 10. Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Fairbanks and Montana State all had two skiers in the women's top 10, while the Utes led the field had three. Sydney Palmer-Leger joined here teammate Dengerud on the post-race stage in third place, and Utah's Celine Mayer also was near the top in fifth. CU's Weronika Kaleta earned the silver in second. Denver's Florian Knopf placed second behind Mancini in the men's classical sprints, and the Buffaloes' Magnus Boee came in third. Alaska Anchorage's Peter Hinds finished fourth. The RMISA circuit stays in Utah for another week, as the teams begin the Utah Invitational next weekend at Soldier Hollow. The meet begins with the 7.5K freestyle interval start on Friday, Jan. 12 before the 10K classic pursuit on Saturday, Jan. 13. The alpine squads begin their 2024 season by wrapping up the Westminster and Utah Invitationals on Jan. 17-20 at Olympic Park in Park City. MEN'S RMISA QUALIFIER CLASSIC SPRINTS TOP 10 (34 finishers): 1. Tom Mancini, UU: 2. Florian Knopf, DU; 3. Magnus Boee, CU; 4. Peter Hinds UAA; 5. Walker Hall, UU; 6. Hugo Hinckfuss, CU; 7. Andreas Kirkeng, DU; 8. Brian Bushey, UU; 9. Will Koch, CU; 10. Elijah Weenig, DU. WOMEN'S RMISA QUALIFIER CLASSIC SPRINTS TOP 10 (38 finishers): 1. Karianne Dengerud, UU; 2. Weronika Kaleta, CU; 3. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU; 4. Mariel Pulles, UAF; 5. Celine Mayer, UU; 6. Tilde Baangman, MSU; 7. Astrid Stav, UAA; 8. Beth Granstrom; UAA; 9. Emma Albrecht, MSU; 10. Kendall Kramer, UAF.