Utah Skiing Wins 14th National Championship In Program History
Mar 13, 2021, 6:49 PM | Updated: 7:19 pm
Sydney Palmer-Leger of the Utah Utes during the Women's Freestyle Nordic race at the Division I Mens and Womens Skiing Championships held at the Jackson Ski Touring Center on March 13, 2021 in Franconia, New Hampshire. Palmer-Leger placed first to win the national title. (Photo by Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
(Photo by Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Utes Skiing Team won their 14th National Championship in program history on Saturday, March 13 in Franconia, New Hampshire.
Last year, Utah Skiing had the national championship event canceled halfway through due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, they get to bring the hardware back to Salt Lake City and the University of Utah.
“It’s a great feeling of course, especially after last season being canceled when we were winning it after two days,” Director of Skiing Fredrik Landstedt. “It’s been a long year and quite a struggle to get where we are today. It’s been tough to get the whole season off with all the testing we’ve been doing, but it’s also been just an incredible year for us. It’s just a great way to finish it off and win the championship.”
It’s the 28th team national championship in Utah history and the third title for the Utes Ski team in the past four years, dating back to 2017.
NATIONAL CHAMPS‼️
For the 14th time in program history, we are your NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! pic.twitter.com/BZLNiSNaEI
— Utah Ski Team (@utahskiteam) March 13, 2021
The team had 16 All-Americans, with nine finishes and two individual wins. The individual wins came from Sydney Palmer-Leger, winning the 5K Classic and won the 15K Freestyle by 24 seconds.
“I didn’t know what was possible going into today,” Palmer-Leger said. “My goal was to ski well and try to get some points for the team so we could get the championship. It feels amazing to be part of this team. All the work was done because we had been working so hard all season as a team so it was fun to just give it everything. I would not be able to win today without the team. They are constantly pushing me to be better at skiing. I am also so appreciative to have amazing support from Utah. Having everyone out there today and this week makes these wins so much bigger.”
The @utahskiteam has done it again! They won their 14th national championship! It's also the U's 28th team national championship for the school.#GoUtes l @KSLSports pic.twitter.com/B2GBT7NYCG
— Sam Farnsworth (@Samsworth_KSL) March 14, 2021
When the week of events ended, Utah finished with 554, which was 31.5 more than second place Colorado.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.
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