Kaleta, Koch Pick Up Top 10s In Nordic Qualifiers

HOUGHTON, Mich.—The Colorado Buffaloes Ski Team got off to a successful start of the 2023 season, highlighted by the efforts of Weronika Kaleta and Will Koch, who both picked up top 10 performances here Monday at the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships, which are doubling as an RMISA Qualifier for the NCAA Championships.

"I would say it was just an average day," CU Nordic Coach Jana Weinberger said. "People are coming back from break, getting used to racing again. We should do better as the week progresses."

Kaleta and the women started the day and she finished ninth among RMISA skiers, just beating the 30 minute barrier in 29:59.1 for the 10K freestyle race. Freshman Elena Grissom finished 20th for a top 20 in her collegiate debut and sophomore Kili Lehmkuhl rounded out the women's racers in 23rd place.

"Weronika hasn't done a ton of distance training, so that wasn't a bad result for her," Weinberger said. "If we had Hanna (Abrahamsson) and Anna-Maria (Dietze) we likely would've had a few others near the top. With Wednesday's sprint races, I wouldn't be surprised to see Weronika in the thick of it."

On the men's side, the Buffs were led by junior Will Koch, whose two-lap time came in 26:04.6, good for 10th place among the RMISA Skiers in the 10K freestyle race. Freshman Luka Riley was the second CU finisher in 16th and then the rest were clumped together with sophomore Fredrik Nilsen taking 19th, senior Magnus Boee 20th, freshman Hugo Hinckfuss 21st and freshman Alexander Maurer 22nd.

"I thought Luka had a good college debut," Weinberger said. "But the rest of the guys looked a little flat. It's good to get the first races out of the way and I think we'll be better for the next races."

The Buffs were a little short-handed, especially on the women's side, with Abrahamsson, Dietze and Karolina Kaleta all still back in Europe competing and training. On the men's side, the Buffs were down one skier with junior Oyvind Haugan missing the week of racing.

WHAT IT MEANS: It's extremely early in the season and many of the Buffs were not training to be at peak physical condition for these races despite them being part of the U.S. Championships. With these races only counting as an extra qualifier and not being team scored coupled with the fact that the NCAA Championships are still over two months away, many are viewing these races as a good training opportunity.

UP NEXT: The U.S. Championships consist of four races over the next six days, but only the next race will be counted as an extra qualifier for the NCAA Championships. After a training day Tuesday, the Classic Sprint races will commence on Wednesday. The men's qualifier will start at 8:30 a.m. MT with the women's qualifier following at 9:35 a.m. Quarterfinals will then begin at 11 a.m. with semifinals at Noon and the finals at 12:30 p.m.

WOMEN'S NORDIC NOTES:

Kaleta skied in her 19th college race Monday and picked up her 12th career top 10 finish. She has finished 18 of those 19 races in the top 20.
Grissom picked up a top 20 finish in her first collegiate race.
Lehmkuhl finished in 23rd place and has now finished all 11 of her career races between 14th and 24th places.

MEN'S NORDIC NOTES:

Koch competed in his 20th collegiate race and picked up his 13th career top 10 performance. He has finished 19 of those 20 races in the top 20.
Riley finished 16th in his first collegiate race.
Nilsen picked up where he left off last season and now in 13 career starts, he has finished in the top 20 in 12 of those 13 races.
Boee has now skied in 36 career races and missed a top 10 finish for just the third time. He has finished in the top 20 in 35 of those 36 races.
Hinckfuss finished 21st in his first collegiate race.
Maurer finished 22nd, giving the Buffs six of the top 22 in the final race standings.

WOMEN'S 10K FREESTYLE (31 collegiate finishers): 1. Novie McCabe, UU, 27:51.0; 2. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU, 28:01.2; 3. Tilde Baangman, MSU, 29:16.0; 4. Kendall Kramer, UAF, 29:18.0; 5. Mariel Pulles, UAF, 29:18.2; 6. Karianne Dengerud, UU, 29:23.4; 7. Astrid Stav, UAA, 29:53.7; 8. Tuva Bygrave, UAA, 29:54.4; 9. Weronika Kaleta, CU, 29:59.1; 10. Hanna Ray, DU, 30:05.9. Other CU Finishers: 20. Elena Grissom, 31:50.3; 23. Kili Lehmkuhl, 32:27.1.

MEN'S 10K FREESTYLE (42 collegiate finishers): 1. Andreas Kirkeng, DU, 24:27.0; 2. Mike Ophoff, UAF, 25:12.4; 3. Joe Davies, UAF, 25:13.0; 4. Florian Winker, MSU, 25:23.9; 5. Bernhard Flaschberger, DU, 25:31.2; 6. Brian Bushey, UU, 25:43.3; 7. Reed Godfrey, MSU, 25:44.5; 8. Philipp Moosmayer, UAF, 25:58.7; 9. Christopher Kalev, UAF, 26:01.4; 10. Will Koch, CU, 26:04.6. Other CU Finishers: 16. Luka Riley, 26:41.0; 19. Fredrik Nilsen, 26:51.1; 20. Magnus Boee, 26:59.6; 21. Hugo Hinckfuss, 27:00.5; 22. Alexander Maurer, 27:06.4.

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Players Mentioned

Magnus Boee

Elena Grissom

Oyvind Haugan

Hugo Hinckfuss

Karolina Kaleta

Weronika Kaleta

Will Koch

Kili Lehmkuhl

Alexander Maurer

Fredrik Nilsen

Luka Riley