Lavén wins 20K freestyle, seniors Norbye and Normannseth podium in slalom
GIRDWOOD, Alaska and ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Utah Ski Team won the 2025 RMISA Championship meet on Saturday as events concluded with a 20K freestyle mass start at Kincaid Park, along with slalom at Alyeska Resort.
Erica Lavén came away with a women's 20K classic victory while seniors Kaja Norbye and Wilhelm Normannseth each had podium results in slalom. All told, the meet and West Region championship is the first for Utah since 2023 and fourth in the last five seasons.
In the team standings, Utah registered 683 points during the RMISA Championships. Colorado had 606 points to finish second and Denver (548) was third of the nine teams.
Nordic Recap Lavén Wins Women's 20K Freestyle Erica Lavén secured her seventh individual victory of the season and first career regional win after another battle with Kendall Kramer of Alaska Fairbanks. It was Lavén across the line first with a time of 55:27.9—four-tenths of a second ahead of Kramer. For the men, Zachary Jayne finished sixth (51:08.7) to lead Utah.
Director of skiing Fredrik Landstedt said, "Today was another very good day on the Nordic trails. Erica won a well-deserved individual championship by outsprinting Kendall Kramer. Those two broke away early and built a big gap. In the group behind them, Selma and Celine skied very well to finish in the top-10.
"Brian was not feeling well and skied easy so as not to make it worse. Zach had another great race and Lucas moved up during the race for his best finish. The team is looking good going into the week before NCAAs. We now have to make the fine adjustments and make sure everyone stays healthy!"
Jayne was in second place at the 10K split as less than three seconds separated the packed top-10 skiers at the halfway point. His final time was just half a second from the top-five behind Colorado's Johannes Flaaten.
Lucas Wilmot placed seventh (51:12.3) for his top result as a member of the Utah Ski Team. Brian Bushey added a 14th place result (51:50.5).
All of Utah's women's scoring came from the top-eight after Selma Nevin took seventh (57:23.5) and Celine Mayer followed her in eighth (57:39.1). Neve Gerard placed in the top-10 and Nina Schamberger placed 12th for a Utah team that won the women's race with 94 points.
Alpine Recap Senior Podiums Cap Off Four Days of Racing
It was fitting that on a day where the senior skiers donned special bibs, that Utah had two seniors record podium results and its entire women's scoring came from seniors. Helped by a winning first run, Kaja Norbye took the women's silver medal and Wilhelm Normannseth finished second as well in the men's competition.
The Utes had four straight days of alpine racing this past week as the team not only raced in regionals, but also completed the alpine portion of the UAA Invitational.
"We had a great team meeting last night," said head alpine coach JJ Johnson. "We wanted to finish off the meet instead of skiing just to finish. Everyone went back to the full team mode. Everyone was very supportive of each other. They skied for each other and for themselves. It was a fun way to end the week."
Norbye was just three-hundredths of a second behind race winner Sara Rask of Denver. Norbye won the first run in 49.44 seconds and was second in the afternoon, coming down the hill in 48.24 seconds.
With its men's slalom scoring coming from the top-12, Utah's 83 points was tied with Denver for the event win. Behind Normannseth (1:30.04), Raphael Lessard (1:30.66) continued his steady climb up the results, placing sixth and Sindre Myklebust (1:31.19) scored with a 12th place finish. Simen Strand was in the top-15 and Oliver Parazette placed 21st.
Normannseth used a top-three opening run on the way to the podium. Johs Braathen Herland was in second place at the flip but was unable to finish the second run.
Johnson added about the seniors, "Everyone has ups and downs both in skiing and personally. And our seniors really dug in this year and found ways to give back to the young ones. They have meant to much to this program and what they've taught the young ones has been great. Claire, Kaja and Willy in particular feel like they've been here the whole time I've been here."
Members of the Nordic team following Saturday's freestyle races.
Next Up | Full Schedule
Today's races were the final events on Utah's schedule before heading to New England for the 2025 NCAA Ski Championships, hosted by Dartmouth College. The national meet is scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday, March 5-8. Alpine races will take place at the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme Center, New Hampshire, with Nordic competitions going down at Oak Hill in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Utah will announce its lineup for NCAAs next week.
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