The Utah Utes have won their third consecutive NCAA skiing national championship.
Heading into the final day of competition Saturday at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, the Utes held a comfortable lead of 27.5 points over Vermont, but they put an exclamation point on things in the two freestyle competitions and cruised to the win, finishing the week with 578 points to Vermont’s 511.5.
This marks the continuation of an incredible run for the Utes, who also won the title in 2019 and 2021. Additionally, they were leading the competition in 2020 before it was stopped partway through at the beginning of the pandemic.
It is the program’s 15th national title overall.
On Saturday in the final race of the championships — the women’s 15K freestyle — the Utes dominated as Sophia Laukli took first and Novie McCabe was second.
Laukli’s win gave the Utes 40 points and McCabe’s runner-up finish provided 37, giving the team the convincing win.
It was the only time all week that one team had the top two finishers in a race (Sydney Palmer-Leger took eighth to add to the finish for the Utes).
Earlier in the day in the men’s 20K freestyle, Samuel Hendry took second for the Utes to help them get off to a good start on the day.
For the week, the Utes got at least one top three finish in six of eight races, and Olympians Laukli and McCabe accounted for the two instances when Utah had two in the top three, as McCabe won the women’s 5K classical on Thursday and Laukli took third.