UW Men Three

A perfect finish for a perfect week.

That’s what the University of Wyoming men’s Nordic ski team accomplished Saturday afternoon, winning a third straight United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) national championship.

The Cowboys dominated the USCSA championships from start to finish during their historic run at the competition at Mount Bachelor, Ore.

“Our men have completed the perfect trifecta,” says UW co-head Coach Christi Boggs.

The win marked the seventh for the UW men’s program, while the Cowgirls have won six national titles in Boggs’ and co-head Coach Rachel Watson’s 18 years leading the university’s program.

UW’s men won each of the four styles of Nordic skiing in posting a team-low 40 points, to outdistance runner-up Western State Colorado University (Gunnison, Colo.) by 54 points. Third went to Clarkson College (Postdam, N.Y.), which scored 138 points.

The Pokes finished the week strong with a commanding lead in the final team sprint relay over second-place Western State with a time of 33:04.4, while the team’s conference rival posted a time of 33:49.6. Third place went to Clarkson College with a time of 33:50.1.

In celebration, the UW men did a victory lap on the final relay of the event, Boggs says.

The sprint relay was the final race for two of UW’s most-decorated Nordic skiers: seniors Sam Wiswell, Jackson, and Will Timmons, from Anchorage, Alaska, who clinched his second individual overall national championship Friday afternoon.

“They won every team event and the overall national championship for three straight years,” Boggs says. “This is a historic feat in USCSA and UW history.”

Mason Vincent, a Laramie junior, was the third member of the UW sprint relay team.

Going into Saturday’s final race, the Cowboys held a commanding 33-point lead over the runner-up club, Western State, in the overall team standings. St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.) was nearly 50 points behind the Cowboys in third place.

The UW women came up in threes on Saturday.

The Cowgirls finished their USCSA run with third place in the final team sprint relay to place third in the overall team standings.

National champion Clarkson University won the final team relay in a time of 40:01.0; St. Olaf (Northfield, Minn.) placed second in 40:52.0; and the Cowgirls were timed in 41:56.8 for third place.

“The women also had a fantastic race. They pressured St. Olaf the entire race but were in a comfortable third at the finish,” Boggs says.

On the team were Laramie’s Meghan Kent and Yara Thomas, of Jackson, both seniors; and Leann Bentley, a Laramie sophomore.

Clarkson University won the national team title with 60 points; St. Olaf was second at 75; and the Cowgirls scored 105 points in four events.

The national championships had more than 500 collegiate athletes competing in alpine, Nordic, snowboard and free ski events.