UAF's Kramer Sweeps Women's Race, Utah's Davies Takes Men's Gold

Saturday, January 13, 2024 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

MIDWAY, Utah—The Utah Utes extended the lead in their own invitational here at Soldier Hollow Saturday with the running of the 10K classic pursuit races.

The Utah men scored 104 points, a season high for any race this year, first time the Utes hit triple digits and second time any team has. Joe Davies began the race in fourth place but finished with the win and fastest classic time to edge out teammate Brian Bushey, who won the freestyle race Friday. DU's Andreas Kirkeng also hit the podium in third place.

Behind Utah's 104 points, Denver scored 88 and Colorado 74.

In the women's race, Alaska Fairbanks' Kendall Kramer took her second straight victory, sweeping the races, and doing so in impressive fashion by turning a 15 second lead into a 35.3 second win with the fastest classic race. She was joined on the podium by Utah's Sydney Palmer-Leger and Montana State's Tilde Baangman.

Utah edged out Alaska Fairbanks, 91-82, in the race while Colorado took third with 72 points.

In the overall team and final Nordic standings, the Utes were dominant and hold a 93 point advantage at the midpoint of the meet with 382 points. Colorado moved up from fourth to second with 289 points but Denver (280) is very much in the team standings and UAF, which doesn't have an alpine team, had a respectable 275 points.

The Nordic team is now finished with the first two meets of the year and the racing in Utah after approximately two weeks. The next Nordic race isn't until Feb. 1 at the CU Invitational in Steamboat Springs.

The alpine teams will take center stage and next week complete both the Westminster and Utah Invitationals with four days of racing from Jan. 17-20. The first two days will be slalom races, first for the Griffins' meet then the Utes, followed by two days of giant slalom in the same meet order.

TEAM STANDINGS (Through 4 of 8 Races): 1. Utah 382; 2. Colorado 289; 3. Denver 280; 4. Alaska Fairbanks 275; 5. Alaska Anchorage 240; 6. Montana State 218; 7. Wyoming 112.

WOMEN'S 10K CLASSIC (35 collegiate finishers): 1. Kendall Kramer, UAF, 51:24.7; 2. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU, 52:00.0; 3. Tilde Baangman, MSU, 52:19.1; 4. Karianne Dengerud, UU, 53:03.2; 5. Weronika Kaleta, CU, 53:06.9.

MEN'S 10K CLASSIC (40 collegiate finishers): 1. Joe Davies, UU, 44:15.8; 2. Brian Bushey, UU, 44:33.5; 3. Andreas Kirkeng, DU, 44:49.7; 4. Florian Knopf, DU, 44:50.4; 5. Will Koch, CU, 44:52.8.