Joe Davies of the Alaska Nanooks left no doubt he’s an NCAA Ski Champion.
Davies, earned the third NCAA championship in UAF Nordic skiing history, winning the 10-kilometer interval-start race on Thursday morning in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Davies’ dominating time of 22 minutes, 33 seconds bested runner-up John Hagenbuch of Dartmouth by 25 seconds in a sport where podium spots are often determined by fractions of a second.
Davies, who also led handily at the halfway split on the two-lap course, was all smiles at the finish, where he proudly pointed to the Nanooks logo on his blue-and-white racing suit.
Davies, a 22-year-old sophomore from Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada, joins Marius Korthauer (2008) and Sigrid Aas (double champion in 2004) as UAF NCAA ski champions.
Screenshot from NCAA.com livestream
Davies has gained valuable racing experience this season by representing Great Britain at the World Cup in Norway and at the recent World Championships in Slovenia, where he placed 30th in the 15-kilometer freestyle event.
Davies’ UAF teammate, Mike Ophoff from the Czech Republic, also earned First-Team All-American honors on Lake Placid’s Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic trails by placing fifth in 23:39.0. Anchorage native Luke Jager, representing the University of Utah, followed a hare behind in sixth (23:39.1).
The UAF women also had two 2nd Team All-Americans. Mariel Pulles of Estonia took sixth while Fairbanks native Kendall Kramer placed seventh. Rosie Fordham of Australia ranked 17th. Utah’s Novie McCabe, a 2022 Olympian, won the race.
UAF’s Christopher Kalev was 16th while the University of Alaska Anchorage had three finishers: Ari Endestad (a Fairbanks native) in 23rd, Magnus Noroey in 25th, and Anchorage’s Peter Hinds in 27th of 40 racers.
Screenshot from NCAA.com livestream
Bouyed by its four All-American results, UAF sits in fifth place of 22 in the team standings with 150 points after two of four events. However, that position will be difficult to maintain because UAF, unlike the teams ahead of it, does not field an Alpine team. In just the unofficial Nordic standings, UAF leads all teams with the University of Utah — and its three Olympians — two points behind.
The NCAA Skiing Championships continue with slalom races on Friday and conclude with the Nordic 20-kilometer classic-technique mass starts for men and women on Saturday.