JACKSON, N.H. — Two days into the NCAA skiing championships, the Colorado Buffaloes have crowned two champions.
On Thursday, CU’s Magnus Boee won the men’s 10K classic Nordic race at Jackson Nordic Center, helping the Buffaloes move up a spot in the team standings.
At the midpoint of the nationals, the Buffaloes are in second place, with 252.5 points. Utah, which won the last team title in 2019, is in first with 319 points. Montana State (213.5), Alaska Anchorage (200) and Denver (193) round out the top five.
A sophomore from Oslo, Norway, Boee finished the 10K course in 26 minutes, 17.7 seconds – 12.8 seconds ahead of Utah’s Luke Jager. CU’s Will Koch (seventh, 26:51.2) and Oyvind Haugan (eighth, 27:13.4) joined Boee in earning All-American honors.
Boee won for the ninth time in 11 races this season and won his fifth consecutive classic race. He established new CU records for overall men’s Nordic wins in a season (nine) and men’s classic wins in a season (five).
Boee, who was a second-team All-American in the freestyle race a year ago, has already moved into a tie for seventh in CU for career wins (12) in any discipline.
In the women’s 5K classic race, the Buffs were led by Weronika Kaleta’s 13th-place finish (17:09.7). Ezra Smith finished 14th (17:15.9), while Anna-Maria Dietze was tied for 20th (17:37.1).
Despite a solid day on the course, the Buffs couldn’t overcome favored Utah. The Utes, fourth coming into the day, scored 211 points in Thursday’s races to surge to the top of the standings. CU had 133.5 points on the day.
Utah finished 1-2-3 in the women’s classic race, led by national champion Sydney Palmer-Leger.
The nationals resume Friday with the alpine skiers in the slalom. The Nordic freestyle races will take place on Saturday.
