Koch Wins Freestyle Sprint US National Championship

Thursday, January 4

Midway, Utah

Qualifiers M-9 AM/W 10:15 AM - Heats Start 12:15 PM

Colorado

Freestyle Sprints

January 04, 2024 | Skiing

Results

By: Curtis Snyder, Associate AD/Athletic Communications

MIDWAY, Utah – Senior Will Koch won his first collegiate race in style, taking the U.S. National Championship in the men's freestyle sprint race here Thursday at Soldier Hollow. The race at the U.S. Cross Country Ski National Championships is doubling as the freestyle race for the Westminster Invitational.

The CU men won the men's race with 101 points as a team with freshman Trey Jones getting his first college podium in third place in his second college race, and fifth-year Magnus Boee finishing sixth, and combined with Koch's win the trio moved the Buffs from sixth place after the first day of racing Tuesday into third place, a position that held despite the women's team continuing to be short-handed here in Utah.

Senior Weronika Kaleta led the women's team as the only CU skier to advance to the heats stage of the sprint championships with the second-fastest qualifying time out of the RMISA and seventh-fastest in the entire field. Once in the quarterfinals, however, she unfortunately lost her pole early in her heat and finished sixth and did not advance to the semifinals. In the end she took 10th place for the Buffs in the RMISA results. Junior Hanna Abrahamsson finished in 19th place and Kili Lehmkuhl (26th) was the third team scorer just ahead of Sophie Spalding (27th) and Elena Grissom (29th).

The men's team had five skiers in the top 11 with sophomore Hugo Hinckfuss taking 10th and freshman Johannes Flaaten 11th. After the qualifier race, it was Hinckfuss and Flaaten just behind Koch at the top as that trio not only had the top three qualifying times out of the RMISA, but in the entire National Championship race. Jones had the fifth-fastest qualifying time from RMISA skiers and Boee the eighth as CU was the only team with five skiers advanced to the heats.

Koch won each of the four races he took part in on the day, taking the best qualifying time by over 1.3 seconds over the entire field, setting up his dominant day. His quarterfinal heat was then one of the slower heats but he advanced by winning it, and then it moved back again as his semifinal heat was the fastest. He won that and then the final heat to take the race victory.

Jones won his quarterfinal heat and then finished fourth in his semifinal heat, barely missing the finals. Only two RMISA skiers advanced to the six-skier final heat, and Jones high qualifying time put him into third place officially. Boee took third in his semifinal heat and it looked like he may advance to the semifinals as a lucky loser until the fifth and final quarterfinal heat took place, which was just about a second faster overall.

UP NEXT
Teams will continue to compete at the US National Championships the next few days. Friday will be a mass start freestyle race but will not be counted as an RMISA Qualifier race. Sunday the US Championships will conclude with a Supertour Classic Sprint race that will count as an RMISA Qualifier. The Nordic teams will stay in Utah for the Utah Invitational Jan. 12-13 with a 7.5K freestyle race on Friday and a 10K classic race on Saturday. Alpine teams then have four days of racing in Utah for these two meets Jan. 17-20.

WHAT IT MEANS
On Tuesday, Weinberger said she expected a better day and for the most part that came true. The men's Nordic team continues to impress early and after two podiums, three in the top six and five in the top 11, prove it can be one of the nation's best. The women's team has had some bad luck with broken polls, illness and injury, but proved last season they can compete with any team out there and should regain that form as the season progresses.

TEAM NOTES

The Buffs had an impressive day, moving up three spots from sixth to third on the strength of 101 points from the men's team, the first 100-point race in the league this season. Koch scored 40 points for his win, Jones 34 for third place and Boee 27 for sixth. DU was second in the men's race with 91 points as the Pioneers placed three in the top six, and Utah had three in the top nine as those three schools had the top 11 finishers. The women's team scored 48 points with Kaleta's 10th place finish earning 21 points and Hanna Abrahamsson finished 19th and scored 14 points and Kili Lehmkuhl scored 13 points in 26th place.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Koch's victory is his first career win in a college race and fifth career podium performance, the previous four being third place finishes with one last year and three his sophomore season. It's the 684th race win in CU history and he's the 186th skier to win a race. It's the first men's freestyle win since Boee won the individual NCAA Championships in the 20K freestyle race on March 21, 2021. It's the first sprint race win for the Buffs since Boee won the Classic Sprint exactly one year ago on Jan. 4, 2022 at the US Championships in a qualifier race.

Jones picked up his first career podium in his second career race.

Boee just missed out on his 35th top five finish but did pick up his 43rd career top 10 finish to extend his CU record for men's Nordic skiers. He is now is sole possession of fifth place in CU history for all skiers, breaking a tie with Norris Durham (1957-59) and Lucie Zikova (2005-08). He needs three more to tie Maria Grevsgaard for third place and most for either men's or women's Nordic races. Frank Brown (71, 1957-59) and Dave Butts (51, 1958-60) hold the top two spots from the four-way era when skiers competed in all events.

Flaaten finished 11th for the second straight race and both were notable. Tuesday he moved through the field, passing 50-60 skiers to take 11th place and Thursday he broke his pole and fell to 11th after posting the third fastest qualifying time in the field.

Hinckfuss finished 10th for his fifth career top 10 finish early in his sophomore season. He now has eight top 20 finishes in 10 career finished races.

Kaleta finished 10th for her 18th career top 10 finish despite a broken pole that likely hindered her from a possible podium appearance.

TEAM STANDINGS (through 4 of 8 races): 1. Utah 353; 2. Denver 309; 3. Colorado 265; 4. Alaska Fairbanks 260; 5. Montana State 259; 6. Alaska Anchorage 236; 7. Wyoming 134.

MEN'S FREESTYLE SPRINTS (39 RMISA finishers): 1. Will Koch, CU, 1st In Finals Heat); 2. Florian Knopf (Fifth In Finals Heat); 3. Trey Jones (4th In Semifinals Heat); 4. Tom Mancini, UU (4th in Semifinals Heat); 5. Andreas Kirkeng, DU (6th in Semifinals Heat). Other CU Finishers: 6. Magnus Boee (3rd In Quarterfinals Heat); 10. Hugo Hinckfuss (5th In Quarterfinals Heat); 11. Johannes Flaaten (5th In Semifinals Heat); 19. Alexander Maurer (19th in Qualifier). Did not Start: Luka Riley.

WOMEN'S FREESTYLE SPRINTS (42 RMISA finishers): 1. Karianne Dengerud, UU (First In Finals Heat); 2. Tilde Baangman, MSU (Fifth In Finals Heat); 3. Mariel Pulles, UAA (Sixth In Finals Heat); 4. Kate Oldham, MSU (Fourth In Quarterfinals Heat); 5. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU (Fourth In Quarterfinals Heat). CU Finishers: 10. Weronika Kaleta (Sixth In Quarterfinals Heat); 19. Hanna Abrahamsson (19th In Qualifier); 26. Kili Lehmkuhl (26th In Qualifier); 27. Sophie Spalding (27th In Qualifier); 29. Elena Grissom (29th In Qualifier).