UW Nordic Ski Teams Win Three of Four Team Races at Colorado State University Invitational

The University of Wyoming Nordic ski team continued its winning ways, capturing three of four team races at the Colorado State University (CSU) Invitational, which took place Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 22-23, at the Tennessee Pass Nordic Center in Leadville, Colo.

The women captured both the 6km classic race Feb. 22 and the skate team sprint, a relay-style race with each team having three skiers compete, Feb 23.  The men also took the 6km classic race, and its “A” team placed second in the skate team sprint.

“The conditions and the course were very tough. We were working with very low snow and steep up-and-down hills,” UW co-coach Christine Boggs says of the 6km classic races. “Despite the conditions, our skiers gave it everything they had. The men put seven in the top eight in total domination, and Austin (Quillinan) was only 4 seconds out of the win. The women also skied incredible, with five in the top 10. This team skiing gave both teams the team win for the day and increased their lead in the season standings.”

Quillinan, a junior from Laramie, finished a close second in the individual standings. He was followed by Kaleb Simonsen, a Lander sophomore, in third; Diego Labatos, another Lander sophomore, placed fourth; Drew Crouch, a freshman from Salt Lake City, Utah, took fifth; Ben Clough, a freshman from New London, N.H., finished seventh; and William Blair, a Casper freshman, came home in eighth place.

Other Cowboy finishers were Jack Jendro, a sophomore from Andover, Minn., in 12th place; Eliot Kramer, a junior from Duluth, Minn., was 13th; John Zhang, a graduate student from Nanjing China, took 31st; and Jason Zanghuan, a graduate student from Shanghai, China, was 32nd.

The UW men had the low and winning team score of nine points, well ahead of Colorado Mesa University (CMU), which had 28 points. They were followed by Western Colorado University (WCU), the Air Force Academy, Colorado State University and Colorado College (CC).

Eleanor Veauthier, a Casper sophomore, led the way in the 6km classic for the winning Cowgirls, finishing third overall. She was followed by teammate Shayla Babits, a Lander junior, in fourth; Leah Ines, a freshman from Holderness, N.H., was fifth; Morgan Gelwicks, a freshman from Laramie, finished sixth; and Gigi Mahood, a freshman from Jackson, took 10th.

Other Cowgirl finishers were Stella Ordahl, a junior from Hillman, Minn., in 20th place; Kiana Henny, a graduate student from Whidbey Island, Wash., was right behind in 21st; Mia Yu, a graduate student from Qingdao, China, finished 22nd; Kelly Xu, a senior from Chuxiong, China, was 23rd; Danielle Taylor, a graduate student from Vail, Colo., took 25th; and Freya Zhang, a graduate student from Hefei, China, ended up 26th.

After UW’s winning low score of 12 points, CMU was runner-up with 25 points.  The remaining order of finish was CSU, the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU), WCU, CC and Air Force.

Cowgirls win ski relay race

The UW Cowgirls completed their team sweep by taking the skate team sprint Feb 23. In the format, each team has three skiers. Each skier does one lap, alternating until all three team members have each completed three full laps for a team total of nine laps.

Veauthier, Innes and Babits completed the race in 36:38.7, well ahead of runner-up CMU, which posted a time of 38:01.4. The Cowgirls’ “B” team of Mahood and Gelwicks, along with CMU skier Jan Malouf, finished third in 39:59.5.

“The women’s ‘A’ team was in a pack on the first set of laps, but slowly pulled away to dominate on the day,” Boggs says. “A mixed team of UW women and one CMU woman fought off all the other teams to place third.”

On the men’s side, the team of Kramer, Quillinan and Lobatos posted a time of 29:38.1 to finish second behind WCU, which won with a time of 29:19.8. CMU placed third in 30:21.2 and the UW “B” team of Blair, Clough and Crouch took fourth place in 30:41.3.

“The men’s ‘A’ team fought hard into a second-place finish and the ‘B’ team pulled into fourth, despite having a rough fall on one of the handoffs,” Boggs says.