BOULDER—Utah's Julia Richter swept the RMISA Women's Nordic MVP honors, picking up the award for both Classic and Freestyle for the 2021 season Friday.
The award is given to the skier who earns the most NCAA Qualification points in the regular season, which in 2021 consisted of four meets. New in 2021 is the separation of disciplines, normally just one MVP was awarded for women's Nordic, but this season it was split into two awards.
That didn't matter for Richter, who won both. She picked up the Classic MVP honor with one race win, one runner-up finish, and a fourth and eighth place finish. She edged out teammate Mariah Bredal by just five points. Denver's Vera Norli finished third. All results count for the award, which left teammates Novie McCabe and Sydney Palmer-Leger, along with Alaska Anchorage's Astrid Stav, out of the running. They all missed the Colorado Invitational.
She won the Freestyle MVP award by picking up a win, one runner-up and a fifth and seventh place finish. She beat out McCabe, who won the other three races but missed the Colorado Invitational, by 11 points. Bredal was third on the list followed by Colorado's Anna-Maria Dietze and Ezra Smith in the top five.
Richter keeps Utah's strength in the MVP awards strong. Since 2015, the Utes have won the Women's Nordic MVP honor ?? times, with Veronika Mayerhofer winning in 2015 and 2016, and Guro Jordheim winning in 2018 and last season.