MIDWAY, Utah – The University of Denver ski team wrapped up the 2024 U.S. Cross Country National Championships at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center on Sunday with classical sprints and finished the four days of competition as the men's college cup winner.
While part of this year's nationals schedule, Sunday's events weren't considered a national championship race but the results did count toward the U.S. SuperTour standing. The collegiate results of the western schools were also pulled separately for a RMISA Nordic Qualifier, giving the student-athletes another chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships in March despite no team scores being recorded.
The Pioneers had three men place in the top 10 in the RMISA Nordic Qualifier, led by graduate student
Florian Knopf in second place and fourth overall. Junior
Andreas Kirkeng was the only other DU skier to advance to the semifinals and finished seventh in the conference race and 10th overall.
Junior
Elijah Weenig came in 10th in the RMISA race and joined Knopf and Kirkeng in progressing to the quarterfinals from the qualifying round. Freshman
Krystof Zatloukal was 19th and junior
Jonah Steinberg came in 27th.
On the women's side, senior
Hanna Ray and freshman
Maja Moland advanced out of qualifying but weren't able to secure a spot in semifinals. Ray ended up 12th in the RMISA race, while Moland came in 14th.
Graduate student
Henriette Saeterdal Semb and sophomore
Selma Andersen were 17th and 18th, respectively, and junior
Sidney Barbier ended up 31st.
Utah had two individuals on the women's podium with Karianne Dengerud in first and Sydney Palmer-Leger in third. Colorado's Weronika Kaleta finished second.
Tom Mancini of UU won the men's RMISA Qualifier, while CU's Magnus Boee placed behind Knopf in third place.
The Denver men earned the U.S. Nationals college cup title with the help of six top-10 results in the four races, which featured the 10K classic on Tuesday, freestyle sprints on Thursday, 20K freestyle on Friday and Sunday's classic sprints.
UP NEXT: The Nordic Pioneers will stay in Utah for another week, as they open the Utah Invitational next weekend at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center. The meet begins with the 7.5K freestyle interval start on Friday, Jan. 12 before the 10K classic pursuit the next day. The alpine squads begin their 2024 season by wrapping up the Westminster and Utah Invitationals on Jan. 17-20 at Olympic Park in Park City.
DENVER MEN RMISA QUALIFIER INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
2.
Florian Knopf, 3:55.50 QFT, 3:53.54 QF, 3:53.63 SF, 3:52.31 F
7.
Andreas Kirkeng, 4:03.24 QFT, 3:50.94 QF, 4:01.02 SF
10.
Elijah Weenig, 4:07.31 QFT, 3:56.08 QF
19.
Krystof Zatloukal, 4:15.45 QFT
27.
Jonah Steinberg, 4:25.05 QFT
DENVER WOMEN RMISA QUALIFIER INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
12.
Hanna Ray, 4:52.55 QFT, 4:54.39 QF
14.
Maja Moland, 4:56.58 QFT, 4:49.94 QF
17.
Henriette Saeterdal Semb, 5:01.27 QFT
18.
Selma Andersen, 5:01.72 QFT
31.
Sidney Barbier, 5:24.98 QFT
MEN'S RMISA QUALIFIER CLASSIC SPRINTS TOP 10 (34 finishers): 1. Tom Mancini, UU:
2. Florian Knopf, DU; 3. Magnus Boee, CU; 4. Peter Hinds UAA; 5. Walker Hall, UU; 6. Hugo Hinckfuss, CU;
7. Andreas Kirkeng, DU; 8. Brian Bushey, UU; 9. Will Koch, CU;
10. Elijah Weenig, DU.
WOMEN'S RMISA QUALIFIER CLASSIC SPRINTS TOP 10 (38 finishers): 1. Karianne Dengerud, UU; 2. Weronika Kaleta, CU; 3. Sydney Palmer-Leger, UU; 4. Mariel Pulles, UAF; 5. Celine Mayer, UU; 6. Tilde Baangman, MSU; 7. Astrid Stav, UAA; 8. Beth Granstrom; UAA; 9. Emma Albrecht, MSU; 10. Kendall Kramer, UAF.
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