'Cats Ski To Second-Place Finish at EISA Championships

Saturday, February 26

Alpine- SL, Mittersill / Nordic- Men's 10K Classic / Women's 5K Classic - Jackson XC

9:30 AM

University of New Hampshire

EISA Championships

Top-10 Alpine Finishes Will Bruneau-Bouchard, Lisa Olsson & Marius Solbakken (Photo by UNH Insider Allen Lessels)

Photo by: Allen Lessels

2/26/2022 8:50:00 PM | Skiing

UNH posts best-ever result in NCAA East Regionals/UNH Carnival

JACKSON & FRANCONIA, N.H. – The UNH ski team made program history Saturday by finishing in second place at the EISA Championships/NCAA East Regional Championships/UNH Carnival for the first time ever. Marius Solbakken (Bekkestua, Norway), Will Bruneau-Bouchard (Quebec City, Quebec) and Lisa Olsson (Stockholm, Sweden) tallied Top-10 alpine results at Mittersill, and Nordic skiers Scott Schulz (Lake Placid, N.Y.) and Lisa Nystedt (Stockholm, Sweden) each registered their second Top-10 result of the weekend at Jackson XC to lead the Wildcats to 728 points, just ahead of Middlebury (724) and behind EISA champion Vermont (981).

"We are excited to place second at NCAA Regionals," Nordic head coach Cory Schwartz said. "I am proud of the team and how they performed all year."

EISA Championships | NCAA East Regionals | UNH Carnival
Feb. 25-26, 2022 | Alpine – Mittersill | Nordic – Jackson XC
Full Results

At Mittersill, Solbakken was the fastest men's Wildcat in the giant slalom and finished seventh. The junior recorded a two-run time of 2 minutes, 11.55 seconds for 35 points. Bruneau-Bouchard was on his heels for eighth place (2:11.66) and 33 points, while fellow graduate student Corey McConville (London, Ontario) finished in 12^th place (2:13.17) for 29 points.

Olsson set the pace for UNH in the women's GS; the junior placed ninth in 2:17.19 for 31 points.

"It's so much fun to end the season like this with everyone cheering each other on," Olsson said. "It's good sportsmanship between all the teams. We know each other pretty well. We're cheering on our teammates, obviously, and we're cheering for the other teams as well. The last weekend of the year is the best one, celebrating all the seniors. It's a little emotional, but it's real fun."

Olsson was complemented by freshman Gaia Palamara's (Verona, Italy) 22^nd-place time of 2:18.89 (21 points), and junior McKenna Wilson (Bristol, N.H.) clocked in at 2:21.37 to tie for 30^th place (14 points).

"It was a really good weekend, especially considering we got a foot of snow yesterday," alpine head coach Brian Blank said. "Yesterday's race went off well and today was a good one also."

At Jackson, Schulz followed up Friday's runner-up result in the men's 20K freestyle with a sixth-place showing in Saturday's 10K classic at Jackson. The junior topped the Wildcat skiers with 39 points by completing the course in 27 minutes, 4.3 seconds. Freshman Roger Anderson (Golden Valley, Minn.) posted a Top-10 in his own right by taking ninth in 27:29.9 for 33 points, and sophomore Seth Wyatt (Bozeman, Mont.) chalked up 28 points by finishing 14^th (27:44.5).

Nystedt, a freshman, placed ninth in the women's 5K classic, which resulted in 31 points (15:46.1). Sophomore Alice House (Madison, Wis.) raced to 16^th place in 16:05.0 for 26 points, and sophomore Lea Stabeak Wenaas (Oslo, Norway) posted a 19th-place finish for 24 points (16:09.2).

"Cannon Mountain and Jackson XC did a great job putting on the races with the weather that came in Thursday," Schwartz added. "Now it's onto Utah and the NCAA Ski Championships!"

NEXT UP
•This week the Wildcats will announce which skiers qualified for the 2022 NCAA Ski Championships, which are scheduled for March 9-12 at Park City Mountain Resort and Soldier Hollow Resort in Utah.

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