UW Men’s Nordic Ski Team Wins National Title; Cowgirls Finish Second

There is something about Mount Bachelor near Bend, Ore., that brings out the best in the University of Wyoming men’s Nordic ski team. Add in the Cowgirls’ squad as well.

The Cowboys went wire-to-wire in winning the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) Collegiate Championships’ title over the weekend. The Cowgirls team also was impressive in taking national runner-up honors in the women’s competition.

The Pokes secured their first national championship title since 2017 and eighth overall -- and, interestingly enough, it was the last time the event was held at Mount Bachelor that the UW’s men brought home the big trophy.

The Cowgirls just missed adding another national title, which would have been the team’s seventh overall.

“Going in, we knew that if every skier did what they needed to do, the men would win,” co-head Coach Rachel Watson says. “It was crazy to watch the entire year of training manifest so perfectly. Watching them put everything together was beautiful.”

The women exceeded expectations in every way, Watson adds.

“While the men executed the plan, the women blew the roof off,” Watson adds. “We took a team with one athlete, Sammy Veauthier, who had never been All-American; two sophomores who had skied well last year but nothing to this level; and a brand-new freshman. We really shocked people. Even the teams we competed with all winter were surprised by their determination and results.”

Having secured their impressive standings on the national stage at the end of the third race last Friday, all that was left to accomplish was to finish high in the final team relay Saturday, which features a mix of men’s and women’s skiers from the same school making up the squad.

However, meet officials deemed the roads up to Mount Bachelor’s ski trails too dangerous, and the final competition was canceled.

“We would have liked to finish the last race, but we really couldn’t be prouder of our teams,” Watson says.

The Pokes claimed the national title over conference rival Colorado Mesa University by a comfortable 20-point margin: 60 point to 80. Paul Smith’s College (PSC) and St. Olaf College (SOC) split third place with 82 each; and fifth went to Western Colorado University (WCU) with 121 points.

The SOC team dominated the women’s competition, scoring in single digits all three races. The Oles scored a team-low 21 points, compared to the runner-up Cowgirls’ 76. WCU had 138; the University of Wisconsin-Madison scored 149; and PSC tallied 156 points to round out the top five.

In addition to team honors, the Cowboys and Cowgirls each had four team members who earned All-American for individual accomplishments. The results from all three individual races determine All-American status, and this is the highest individual honor, UW co-head Coach Christi Boggs says.

Earning accolades for the Cowboys were Kaleb Simonson and Diego Labatos, both of Lander, who were fourth and fifth, respectively, in overall individual points earned in all three races. Laramie’s Austin Quillinan placed ninth, and in 15th place was Jack Jendro, of Minneapolis, Minn.

Sammy Veauthier and Lander’s Shayla Babits were the Cowgirls’ top skiers, finishing sixth and seventh, respectively. Eleanor Veauthier, of Casper, placed 13th; and teammate Wren Hybertson, of Boulder, Colo., tied for 14th.

Boggs adds that the Cowgirls also had 10 individual All-American finishes during the national competition, while the men had 10 of their own.

UW’s Nordic skiing, an academic program within UW’s Division of Kinesiology and Health, competes on the national level in the USCSA, which is composed of many collegiate teams from across the U.S. This year’s competition featured a record-breaking 685 athletes, representing 75 universities across six regions in all of the association’s skiing competitions.