Boee Takes Fourth In Classic; Buffs Remain In Third At RMISA Meet

Monday, January 18

Midway, Utah

All Day

Colorado

15/20K Classic

Boee Takes Fourth In Classic; Buffs Remain In Third At RMISA Meet

January 18, 2021 | Skiing

Results (PDF)

By: Curtis Snyder, Assistant AD/Sports Information

MIDWAY, Utah – Sophomore Magnus Boee finished fourth in the men's 20K classic race to lead the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team once again as the Buffs remained in third place at the RMISA Invitational at Utah with Nordic events hosted here Monday at Soldier Hollow.

Overall, the Buffs did struggle a bit on Monday compared to Sunday's freestyle races where Boee won and three Buffs earned top 10 finishes. On Monday, Boee's finish was the only top 10 for either race, but several Buffs were knocking on the door. In the women's race, the Buffs finished 11th (Anna-Maria Dietze), 12th (Weronika Kaleta) and 13th (Ezra Smith) and on the men's side the Buffs took 12th (Will Koch) and 16th (Ryan Jackson) to give the Buffs three scorers in the top 16 on both sides.

That depth more than anything kept the Buffs in third place in the meet standings. The men's team scored 69 points and the women 66 to give the Buffs 135 points on the day and 288 at the conclusion of the Nordic competition in the meet. Utah was dominant again with five of the top six in the women's race and three of the top five in the men's race to lead the meet with 394 points, 75 points ahead of Alaska Anchorage's total of 319, which is another 31 points ahead of the Buffs' total of 288. Behind CU is Montana State (262), Alaska Fairbanks (218) and Denver (203).

In the women's race, the CU trio not only finished together in 11th, 12th, and 13th place, but they also finished within nine seconds of each other after nearly 45 minutes of racing with Dietze's time of 43:52.0 just ahead of Kaleta's 43:53.3 while Smith finished in 43:58.9. CU's other two skiers also finished together and close in time with Quinn Lehmkuhl finishing 23rd in 47:27.6 and Ivy Eski 24th in 47:28.6, just one second apart. Utah's Sydney Palmer-Leger won the race in a time of 40:53.3.

On the men's side, Boee was seemingly on his own among the college skiers in the race with his time of 53:23.2 about a minute behind the lead pack that included Utah's Sam Hendry and his winning time of 52:26.9. Behind Boee the fifth place time for the Utes' Luke Jager was 54:10.2, some 47 seconds back. CU's Wyatt Gebhardt finished 24th and Tyler Terranova 25th behind Koch and Jackson.

WHAT IT MEANS: Boee picked up another top five finish but in a rare occurrence, he was the only one in the top 10 for the Buffs. The last time the women's team was shut out of the top 10 in a regular season race was early in the 2016 campaign. The good news is that was the only time that season it happened. A silver lining to Utah's dominance is that in terms of team scoring, the Buffs did pick up the points for eighth, ninth and 10th, but along with that is the realization that all six of Utah's skiers finished ahead of every CU skier. If the Buffs intend to compete with the Utes, the bar has been set. Still, top 15 finishes are what Weinberger expects and are still a great accomplishment,, so Dietze, Kaleta and Smith have proven early in the season they pick up high finishes and score valuable team points. On the men's side, the same can be said for Koch, a newcomer to college racing, and Jackson, who is still getting back to 100 percent after offseason injuries.

UP NEXT: With the conclusion of the Nordic races in this meet, the RMISA is in the unique position of being halfway done with three regular season meets simultaneously, believed to be a first in the history of the league. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alpine and Nordic teams needed to figure out the best locations and venues independently of each other and this is a side-effect of that decision. The Nordic teams will remedy that situation shortly as teams will travel directly from Soldier Hollow to the Vail area to close out the DU Invitational on Friday and Saturday at Maloit Park and then remain in Colorado to close out the CU Invitational Feb. 5-6 in Aspen. The alpine teams return to action in February and will close out the remaining two regular season meets and compete in the RMISA Championships in the span of 12 days from Feb. 8-19. Nordic teams will then close out the final regular season meet and the RMISA Championships the week of Feb. 22-27. The NCAA Championships will take place in New Hampshire March 10-13.

TEAM NOTES:

Similar to Sunday, the two teams scored close to the same number of points, 69 for the men and 66 for the women, but did so in different fashions with Boee picking up just under half the men's points (31) with his fourth place finish, showing how much the weighted scores for the top skiers does make a difference.
As a team, despite the Buffs picking up just one top 10 and one top five finish, they did have six in the top 16, just one less than Sunday's seven in the top 20.
Individual score breakdowns were Boee (31), Koch (20) and Jackson (18) for the men and Dietze (23), Kaleta (22) and Smith (21) for the women.

MEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

Boee continues to rack up top five finishes for the Buffs. In 13 career races, he now has nine career top five finishes, a number that includes six podium appearances and four race wins, including Sunday's freestyle race.
Koch was knocking on the door of the top 10 for the second straight race, finishing 12th about 21 seconds outside the top 10 on Monday after finishing 11th and just three seconds outside the top 10 in his first collegiate race Sunday.
Jackson improved four spots to 16th from his 20th place finish Sunday. He now has nine career top 20 finishes in 13 career races. He was at his best near the end of last season, finishing ninth and second at the RMISA Championships and is hopeful for a repeat ascension through the season as he gets back into shape after missing some training time due to injury in the offseason.
Gebhardt finished 24th and Terranova 25th for the Buffs.

WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

Dietze finished 11th for the Buffs Monday after taking sixth place on Sunday. She has finished outside the top 20 just once in 13 career races.
Kaleta was 12th after finishing ninth in the freestyle race, giving her a pair of finishes in the top dozen to open her career.
Smith's 13th place finish is the 17th top 20 finish of her career, which includes 16 finishes in the top 15.
Lehmkuhl and Eski finished 23rd and 24th, respectively, for the Buffs.

TEAM STANDINGS (Thru 4 of 8 events): 1. Utah 394; 2. Alaska Anchorage 319; 3. Colorado 288; 4. Montana State 262; 5. Alaska Fairbanks 218; 6. Denver 203.

WOMEN'S 15K CLASSIC (29 collegiate finishers)—1. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU, 40:53.3; 2. Astrid Stav, UAA, 41:01.1; 3. Novie McCabe, UU, 41:11.0; 4. Julie Richter, UU, 41:32.2; 5. Maria Bredal, UU, 41:52.0; 6. Karianna Moe, UU, 42:23.0; 7. Sophia Mazzoni, MSU, 42:24.6; 8. Vera Norli, DU, 42:32.8; 9. Mariel Pulles, UAF, 42:48.8; 10. Abigail Jarzin, UU, 43:39.3. CU Finishers: 11. Anna-Maria Dietze, 43:52.0; 12. Weronika Kaleta, 43:53.3; 13. Ezra Smith, 43:58.9; 23. Quinn Lehmkuhl, 47:27.6; 24. Ivy Eski, 47:28.6.

MEN'S 20K CLASSIC (26 collegiate finishers)—1. Sam Hendry, UU, 52:26.9; 2. Zandem McMullen, MSU, 52:27.9; 3. Ola Jordheim, UU, 52:38.1; 4. Magnus Boee, CU, 53:23.2; 5. Luke Jager, UU, 54:10.2; 6. Sigurd Roenning, UAA, 54:31.5; 7. J.C. Schoonmaker, UAA, 54:52.0; 8. Bjorn Riksaasen, UU, 55:09.2; 9. Espen Persen, UAA, 55:12.6; 10. Eli Hermanson, MSU, 55:14.8. Other CU Finishers: 12. Will Koch, 55:35.8; 16. Ryan Jackson, 57:02.6; 24. Wyatt Gebhardt, 1:02:12.4; 25. Tyler Terranova, 1:04:05.5.