The men’s and women’s Nordic ski teams dominated the Rocky Mountain Conference this season, with scores of 62 and 136 respectively.
“Our men’s team is incredibly strong and has won basically every race this year in the conference,” Co-head coach Christi Boggs said.
Behind the men’s team was Western Colorado University (WCU) with 206 points and the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) with 352 points.
The women’s team edged out USAFA who finished with 190 points while WCU ended with 201.
Both teams have high hopes for the Collegiate Ski and Snowboard National Championships, which will take place on March 8-12 in Lake Placid, New York, the site of the 1980 winter Olympics.
“Our men have a really good shot at competing for the national championship overall I think that they should be able to compete for that extremely well.”
This year, the 8 men qualified for the national championship, including the returning individual titleholder John Henry Paluszek, from Farmington, N.H.
Other team members competing at nationals include Spencer Canen of Laramie, Silas Goetz of Lander, Nathan Kessler of Buffalo, Jamison Peacock and Matthew Williams of Jackson, Ben Romanjenko of Story, and Kaj Taylor of Palmer, Alaska.
The Cowboys will be battling the reigning champions of Castleton University for the title. The last time the Cowboys won a national title was in 2017.
“We had a really strong competition in our conference from Western Colorado University- I would not be surprised if they end up on the podium as well.”
The women’s team is rebuilding this year after several strong team members left. In the regular season, the women did well, qualifying 5 members for the national championships.
The national qualifiers include Krisanna Andrews of Laramie, Kailee Behunin of Lander, Isabella Brown and Samantha Veauthier of Casper, and Annie Miller of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“We’re really excited that they were able to take the conference win at the end of the year and go into nationals with some momentum and with some excited young skiers,” Boggs said.
The women’s team took the runner-up finish at nationals in 2020.
Both the men’s and women’s teams have dealt with injuries, illness and Covid throughout the season, but were finally able to compete with all members of their teams in their home meet in Happy Jack on Feb. 19.
At the home meet, the men were led by Pauluszek, who took first and led the conference overall with individual points scored. He was followed in the meet by teammates Taylor, who took third, Willoughby in fourth, and Goetz and Kessler placing sixth and seventh respectively.
Andrews led the Cowgirls in the conference standings, finishing 3rd overall in the conference.
At the home meet, Mills led the Cowgirls by placing second while Veauthier place 4th and Andrews claimed 5th.
