Dahria Beatty is off to a strong start at her final FIS U-23 World Ski Championships.

The 22-year-old cross-country skier finished 12th in the classic sprint races at Soldier Hollow, Utah, yesterday, making the semifinals and posting her best-ever individual result at an U-23 world championships.

“U23 World Champs sprint in the books. Happy to have qualified in a strong 8th. Finished the day in 12th. #utah2017 @cccski @WorldCupAcademy,” Beatty tweeted after the race.

Beatty had qualified for the knock-out rounds in 8th yesterday morning, posting a time only three seconds back from the leader. Third in her quarter-final, she advanced to the semifinal round as a lucky loser thanks to her speedy time.

Without much time to rest, Beatty skied in the semifinal with three Norwegians and two Germans, starting in the outside lane.

She fought for position along the course, but was boxed out by the other women.

Staying in contact with the group, she kept fighting on the course, but was bumped from contention on the last climb.

“Overall it was great to be in the semifinals and I learned a lot about tactics and where my weaknesses lie,” Beatty told FasterSkier.com. “I just didn’t have enough in the tank today to contend for the final but I am happy to have race[d] my first international semifinal and am looking forward to the 10K skate Thursday.”

Beatty has already had a standout season on the World Cup tour in Europe before Christmas. She posted two top-30 performances to earn points towards qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympic cross-country team.

Many of the women racing at worlds are familiar faces from the European circuit.

“I’m really looking forward to these races,” she said earlier this week. “There’s a lot of women who have been just as successful as me this season. There’s some very strong competitors.”

Beatty raced for the first time at Soldier Hollow, which was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics, this January. At the US Nationals, she won the free sprint on the same course she raced Tuesday.

The course in Utah is challenging. It lies between 1,600 and 1,800 feet, said Beatty, which is at the high-end of the legal altitude race limit. Canmore, Alta., where Beatty lives and trains rests at 1,300 feet.

She said that for sprint racing, the altitude doesn’t make a huge difference, but for distance races it is noticeable.

“If you put yourself over that red line, that threshold that your body can maintain, there’s really no rebounding from it,” she said. “If you go over that line, you’re kind of hooped for the rest of the race.

“It’s quite tactical in that sense. You have to really be aware and pick your spots to race really hard.”

As Beatty ages out of the U-23 category after this year, it will be her final U-23 world championships, before entering the senior category, which she already races in on the World Cup circuit.

“It’s exciting, but it’s also a little bit scary,” she said.

She’ll try and improve on her results from the last U-23 world championships she attended in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2015. There she placed 20th in the classic sprint, 30th in the 10K and didn’t finish the skiathlon.

Natalie Hynes, the other Yukon skier competing in Solider Hollow, finished the junior classic sprints in 42nd. She races again on Friday.

Beatty’s next race will be the 10K free Thursday.