Olympian JC Schoonmaker capped his career at UAA on Saturday with a third-place finish in the 20-kilometer freestyle race at the NCAA National Championships in Park City, Utah.
Schoonmaker, who finished 15th in the men’s freestyle sprint in Beijing, finished third behind Ben Ogden of Vermont and Samuel Henry of Utah, with a time of 43 minutes, 13 seconds. Schoonmaker and Ogden, who finished in 43:00, were teammates for the United States in Beijing in the team sprint relay.
Teammate Espen Persen earned his second All-American honor of the week finishing eighth in 43:35.
UAA’s Astrid Stav earned All-American honors with a ninth-place finish in the women’s 15K, finishing the race in 38:58.
Pascale Paradis just missed All-American honors finishing 11th in 39:33.
The results helped propel the Seawolves to a 5th place overall finish in the team standings.
“This team battled from start to finish this year,” UAA head coach Sparky Anderson said in a release from the school. “It was a wild week with points coming from all four components. We absolutely needed everyone. Men. Women. Alpine. Nordic. We are one team. Finishing fifth is never our goal, but we beat a lot of great teams this year. Five All-Americans and JC on the podium. Incredible. So proud of our team. Fifth in the country is no joke. We’re for real.”
UAF finished in 7th with freshman Joe Davies taking sixth in the 20K freestyle.
“We are ecstatic,” UAF head coach Eliska Albrigtsen said in a release from the school. “Everything just went perfect today. We started the day with finding a good glide to our skis and then the men showed their true fearlessness, especially Joe Davies, just going for it in the front group straight from the gun. What a brave move as a freshman! It definitely paid off.”
2022 NCAA Ski Championships
1. Utah 578 points; 2. Vermont 511.5 points; 3. Denver 436.5 points; 4. Colorado 435 points; 5. UAA 269 points; 6. New Hampshire 241 points; 7. UAF 239 points; 8. Westminster 231 points; 9. Montana State 213 points; 10. Middlebury 209.5 points