Boee Sweeps Regional Races, Buffs Finish Second

MIDWAY, Utah – Sophomore Magnus Boee earned a regional championship sweep by winning the freestyle race Saturday as the Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team finished in second place at the 72nd Annual RMISA Championships, hosted by Utah here at Solider Hollow.

Boee became the 17th skier and this is the 19th time in CU history a Buff has swept races at the RMISA Championships, and Boee thus won his second Individual Regional Championship in two days after also winning the classic race on Friday. Boee now has eight wins on the season, matching the CU record for a men's Nordic skier set by Mads Stroem in 2016, and he won his fourth freestyle race of the season, also matching the CU record.

Boee had quite a battle with Utah's Sam Hendry for the individual championship. Hendry is the only skeir to beat Boee this season, as he has won the only other two races that Boee hasn't this season. Hendry got out to a lead after the first lap of 17.0 seconds and then Boee slowly chipped away. Sitting in fourth after the first lap, Boee had the fastest second through fifth laps in the field, and he moved up to second after the second lap and caught Hendry on the fourth lap. Hendry beat Boee by five seconds on the final lap, but by then Boee had opened up a 23.9 second lead to take the 17.9 second win.

Freshman Oyvind Haugan also had a solid race, finishing fourth. He was sitting in seventh after the fourth lap but then had the third-best time on the final two laps, moving up to sixth after the fifth lap and then moving up two more spots on the final lap to earn the top five finish. Freshman Will Koch finished 11th as the third Buffs scorer with senior Ryan Jackson taking 13th, junior Wyatt Gebhardt 18th and senior Tyler Terranova 25th.

The women's team rebounded from a subpar day on Friday to put three skiers in the top 10, which has been the norm this season. Sophomore Anna-Maria Dietze and junior Ezra Smith battled it out. After the second lap, Dietze was seventh and Smith eighth, but Smith passed Dietze on the third lap and held that position until the final lap when Dietze passed her to take seventh with Smith finishing eighth. Freshman Weronika Kaleta finished 10th to close out the team scoring while senior Quinn Lehmkuhl finished 18th and freshman Ivy Eski 23rd.

WHAT IT MEANS: The Buffs again proved they are a solid team, finishing second for the fourth time in five meets this season, and in comfortable fashion. They did close the gap on Utah and will put together a team that will compete for an NCAA Championship in two weeks in New Hampshire. Utah will not be able to travel several skiers who posted high finishes on the season and while the Buffs depth is also solid and several Buffs that deserve to ski at the NCAA Championships will not be able to, it will still hurt Utah more than the Buffs. All teams are due to the NCAA early in the week and will be announced shortly after. Unfortunately, the season is done now for more than half the team, as only 12 Buffs will travel to Jackson and Francona, N.H., to compete for the Buffs at the NCAA Championships.

UP NEXT: The Buffs now await the NCAA Championships, set for March 10-13, 2021, in Francona and Jackson, N.H., with alpine events taking place at Cannon Mountain and Nordic in Jackson. Giant Slalom races will kick off the championship on Wednesday followed by Nordic classic races on Thursday, slalom races on Friday and the championship will close out with freestyle races on Saturday.

TEAM NOTES:

The Buffs won the men's race, 92-91, over Utah, who were both well ahead of third place Denver's total of 65 points. UAA had 63, UAF 59, MSU 51 and Wyoming 33.
The Buffs were third in the women's race with 70 points, just two behind UAF (72) as Utah dominated with three of the top four and 106 points. Behind the Buffs were MSU with 56 while both Denver and UAA had 52, and Wyoming 36.
The Buffs finished the meet with 596 points, 84 behind Utah's total of 580, and 74 points ahead of third place Montana State. Denver was fourth with 464 points and Alaska Anchorage fifth with 455, the five teams that compete in both alpine and Nordic events.
Scoring for the Buffs Saturday were Boee (40), Haugan (31) and Koch (21) on the men's side and Dietze (25), Smith (23) and Kaleta (22) on the women's side.

MEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

Magnus Boee won his eight race of the season and 11th of his career.
- Boee's sweep of the Individual Regional Championships is CU's 19th in history, and the Buffs have eight more sweeps than both Utah and Denver's total of 11. He's the first skier to do it since Stroem in 2016 and he's the sixth Men's Nordic skier and this is the eighth time a men's Nordic skier has swept the races.
- Boee's win is the 659th in CU history and 137th at the RMISA Championships, pushing the Buffs lead to six more wins than Denver's total of 131 while Utah is third with 113.
- Boee's eight wins matches the CU record for most by a men's Nordic skier in a season, matching Mads Stroem's total from 2016, and he ties Stroem for fifth most in a season, and second most by a men's skier overall, behind Dave Butts total of 10 in 1960. Line Selnes in 1998 and Maria Grevsgaard in 2008 hold the CU record with 11 wins and Joanne Reid is fourth behind Butts with nine in 2013.
- Boee's 11 career wins gives him the most by any active skeir in the RMISA, and moves him into the top 10 in CU history, into a seven-way tie for eighth. He's tied for sixth for men's skiers and alone in fourth place for men's Nordic skiers. Only Rune Oedegaard (19), Stroem (14) and Per Kare Kajobsen (13) have won more races at CU on the men's Nordic side.
- Boee now has five career freestyle wins, tied for fifth in CU history with Bjorn Svensson behind Stroem (8), Oedegaard (7) and Jakobsen (6).
- Boee now has four freestyle wins this season, matching the CU record set by Jakobsen in 1989 and Stroem in 2016.
- Boee's four classic wins this season also match the CU record set by Ove Erik Tronvoll in 1999 and Stroem in 2016.
- Boee now has more wins (11) than all other results combined (10) in his career, and he has 14 career podium finishes, 17 career top five finishes and 20 top 10 in 21 career races. This season he has eight wins in 10 races with nine podiums and 10 top five finishes, his lowest finish being fourth in the second race of the season.
Oyvind Haugan finished fourth, rebounding from his lowest finish of the season Friday when he took 11th in the classic race. He now has six top five finishes in eight career races and this is the fourth top four finish of the season.
Will Koch finished 11th as the Buffs third team scorer. He has finished in the top 13 in all eight races he's participated in this season.
Ryan Jackson finished 13th and has now finished in the top 20 in all 10 races this season with eigh of those 10 finishes in the top 14, and he now has 17 top 20 finishes in 19 career races finished.
Wyatt Gebhardt finished 19th and returned to the top 20 for the first time in the series of races in Utah. He now has five top 20 finishes this season and 19 in his career.
Tyler Terranova raced in his 40th career race Saturday, 10th of 2021, and finished 25th, his seventh top 25 finish of the season.

WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

Anna-Maria Dietze finished seventh, her seventh top 10 in 10 races this season and 12th career top 10 finish in 21 career races. She's finished in the top 15 in all 10 races this season and in the top 11 in nine of 10 races.
Ezra Smith competed in her 30th career race and 10th race this season, taking eighth. She now has six top 10 finishes this season has finished in the top 14 in all 10 races. In her career, she has 14 top 10 and 25 top 20 performances in her 30 finishes.
Weronika Kaleta finished 10th, giving her seven top 10 finishes in nine finishes this season.
Quinn Lehmkuhl raced in her 38th career race Saturday, and got her 15th career top 20 finish, taking 18th. She has finished in the top 20 in each of the last eight races and has eight top 20s this season. She had seven in her first 30 races and eight in a row in her senior season.
Ivy Eski finished 23rd and has finished in the top 25 in all 10 races this season with six in the top 20.

RMISA CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM STANDINGS (FINAL): 1. Utah 680; 2. Colorado 596; 3. Montana State 522; 4. Denver 464; 5. Alaska Anchorage 455; 6. Westminster 320; 7. Alaska Fairbanks 270; 8. Colorado Mountain 146; 9. Wyoming 138.

MEN'S 20K FREESTYLE (32 collegiate finishers)—1. Magnus Boee, CU, 48:59.1; 2. Sam Hendry, 49:17.0; 3. Bernhard Flaschberger, DU, 49:58.2; 4. Oyvind Haugan, CU, 50:26.6; 5. Bjorn Riksaasen, UU, 50:28.0; 6. Sigurd Roenning, UAA, 50:35.4; 7. Luke Jager, UU, 50:40.4; 8. Christopher Kalev, UAF, 51:44.7; 9. Ola Jordhiem, 51:44.7; 10. Magnus Noroey, UAA, 52:03.4. Other CU Finishers: 11. Will Koch, 52:24.9; 13. Ryan Jackson, 52:59.8; 19. Wyatt Gebhardt, CU, 54:52.2; 25. Tyler Terranova, 55:53.7.

WOMEN'S 15K FREESTYLE (29 collegiate finishers)—1. Novie McCabe, UU, 42:43.6; 2. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU, 43:18.7; 3. Astrid Staf, UAA, 44:00.1; 4. Mariel Pulles, UAF, 44:47.3; 5. Mariah Bredal, UU, 44:50.4; 6. Kendall Kramer, UAF, 45:28.9; 7. Anna-Maria Dietze, CU, 45:36.0; 8. Ezra Smith, 45:47.1; 9. Karianne Moe, UU, 46:06.8; 10. Weronika Kaleta, CU, 46:47.9. Other CU Finishers: 18. Quinn Lehmkuhl, 48:53.0; 25. 23. Ivy Eski, 52:05.4.

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Players Mentioned

Magnus Boee

Anna-Maria Dietze

Ivy Eski

Wyatt Gebhardt

Oyvind Haugan

Ryan Jackson

Weronika Kaleta

Will Koch

Quinn Lehmkuhl

Ezra Smith

Tyler Terranova