The University of New Hampshire’s Scott Schulz of Lake Placid competes in the NCAA Skiing National Championship at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Thursday, March 9. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — Joe Davies, of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, says he’s used to having to travel all over for competitions.

And it’s probably safe to say that you should be if you compete for the UAF Nanooks, who had to take a roughly 13 hours flight just to get to Lake Placid for the NCAA Skiing National Championships.

While Davies didn’t travel from Alaska like the rest of his team, he did travel from Slovenia after competing in the World Championships.

“Honestly, coming from Europe, it was almost the same amount of travel as the rest of the team coming from Fairbanks,” he said.

But despite the long flight over to the United States — along with potentially getting jet lag — Davies proved that he’s one of the best Nordic collegiate skiers in the nation on Thursday.

Utah’s Novie McCabe lays down after competing in the women’s 5K individual freestyle race at the NCAA Skiing National Championships on Thursday, March 9 in Lake Placid. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Racing at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Thursday, March 9, Davies won the men’s 10K individual freestyle race in a time of 22 minutes, 33.2 seconds.

“I was a little unsure of how it would go,” Davies said. “I felt good with a lot of race prep (on Wednesday) and was feeling good. I knew that if everything worked out today it was going to be a good day.”

Davies edged out Dartmouth’s John Steel Hagenbuch, who won a gold and a bronze medal in Lake Placid in January during the FISU Winter World University Games. Hagenbuch, a sophomore at Dartmouth, finished with a time of 22:58.2. The University of Denver’s Bernhard Flaschberger was third overall in 23:03.5.

For Davies, it was his first time in Lake Placid and so far it’s been a pretty good trip.

“There was a couple (of people) on our team that were here for the University Games, but I haven’t skied here before,” Davies said. “But as soon as I got here I knew these trails are great and the course suits me quite well.”

The University of Alaska-Fairbanks’ Joe Davies flies down the hill during the NCAA men’s 10K freestyle Nordic ski race on Thursday, March 9. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Unlike Davies, Scott Schulz, a Lake Placid native, knows the area pretty well.

The University of New Hampshire skier, who graduated from Lake Placid High School in 2018, said he used to compete in a lot of competitions at Mount Van Hoevenberg when he was younger.

“Once they put in the new trails a couple of years ago it has turned into a whole other beast,” Schulz said. “It’s absolutely World Cup-level. It’s hard. It’s really hard.”

In his fourth career NCAA skiing championship appearance, Schulz placed 12th overall out of a 40-skier field. He finished the 10K course in a time of 24:08.0.

“I’m pretty excited about that,” Schulz said. “It’s a really stacked field out there. It’s a lot of decorated skiers from all over, it’s pretty sweet.”

Schulz, a senior at the University of New Hampshire, is slated to wrap up his collegiate-skiing career on Saturday in the men’s 20K mass start. He said his collegiate career has been a ride and it’s gone by really quickly.

“It’s definitely going to be tough to not get emotional after the last one,” Schulz said. “It’s really amazing because this is where it all started. To come back here racing is monumental.”

As the lone UNH Wildcat competing in the men’s Nordic ski race, Schulz’s finish earned 19 points for his team, which finished the day in seventh place overall with 122 points.

The University of Alaska-Fairbanks is fifth overall out of the 22 collegiate teams, despite not having an Alpine ski team. The school currently has 150 points.

“The team this year has been just doing so well so it’s really cool to continue that at the championships,” Davies said. “I think we’re going to do even better as a team on Saturday. I’m just excited to see what we can do.”

After the second day of the NCAA skiing championships, Colorado remains in the lead with 279.5 points, while Utah is in second with 263 and Denver is third with 230.5.

On March 8, Utah — the reigning back-to-back national champion, finished the day in third place overall in the team standings, but on March 9, the Utes jumped up one spot thanks to Novie McCabe’s first-place finish in the women’s 5K freestyle classic race.

“It’s an amazing team, so to be able to do that as part of this team is pretty special for sure,” McCabe said.

McCabe finished the race in a time of 12:46.3, edging out the University of New Hampshire’s Jasmine Lyons (12:59.2) by nearly 13 seconds. Colorado’s Anna-Maria Dietze rounded out the top-three finishers in the women’s race in 13:01.6.

McCabe said the win meant a lot to her, especially since she was nervous going into the event.

“It always feels like a bit more pressure when you are trying to do well for the team, so it was a bit more stressful,” McCabe said. “I was just pretty nervous about it and being able to pull off a good one was something I’m for sure proud of.”

McCabe, a 2022 Olympian, said this was her first time competing on the Mount Van Hoevenberg course. She said it was a very difficult course.

“Maybe one of the hardest 5Ks I’ve ever done,” she said.

The NCAA skiing championships continued on March 10 with the men’s and women’s slalom at Whiteface Mountain.