Midway, Utah — The University of New Mexico ski team got several great runs in both the slalom and Nordic as the Lobos sit in third place after day one of the Pat Miller Invitational, hosted by the University of Utah and being held in conjunction with the U.S. nationals.
Host Utah has a pretty solid hold on first place with 362.5 points, and Denver is in second place with 291. UNM is safely in third at 264.5, 26.5 points ahead of Alaska Anchorage, and Colorado is in fifth. All five of those schools are members of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association.
Day one of the season opener consisted of the men’s giant slalom and the women’s slalom, along with the women’s 10k and the men’s 15k in Nordic (cross country). In the men’s giant slalom, Armin Triendl led the Lobos with a seventh place run, good for 27 points (the meet used a 40-point scoring system). Triendl was one of seven racers to clock in under two minutes, coming in at 1:59.25, a solid showing for his opening race of the collegiate season.
Juho-Pekka Penttinen clocked in at 2:00.67, coming in 12th despite missing out on eight place by less then half a second.
On the women’s slalom side of things, Karoline Myklebust made her oficial debut one to remember as the freshman from Nordfjordeid, Norway finished fourth overall, grabbing a team-high 31 points with a 1:49.08 time. Mateja Robnik tied for ninth, racking up 21.5 points, and Spokane’s Courtney Altringer was 13th, grabbing 20 points as the women’s slalom scored 72.5 points, UNM’s high of the four events.
In the men’s Nordic, Mats Resaland and Aku Nikander finished sixth and eighth respectively, picking up 50 points, with Resaland grabbing 27. Anni Nord and Andrea Lee finished eighth and ninth on the women’s side.
Overall, head coach Fredrik Landstedt was satisfied with the day one results, knowing full well what lies ahead.
“I thought we had a decent day for the Nordics,” said Landstedt. “Mats (Resaland) did not have his best day but still finished 6th. We are dealing with some injury issues and other things. Caleb Krueger had back problems and did not finish. Eva Severrus has not recovered yet from her travel and finished further back. I was glad to see Anni finished 8th followed by Andrea Lee in 9th.”
“Our goal is to get better and better as the season goes on and to peak at the NCAA Championships in March.”
The Pat Miller Invitational continues tomorrow with the women’s giant slalom, the men’s slalom, the men’s 30k Freestyle cross country, and the women’s 20k free style cross country.
UNM Point scorers
Men’s Giant Slalom
7th Armin Triendl 1:59.25 27 pts
12th Juho-Pekka Penttinen 2:00.67 20 pts
24th Sean Horner 2:04.26 14 pts
Women’s Slalom
4th Karoline Mykelbust 1:49.08 31 pts
T9th Mateja Robnik 1:49.97 21.5 pts
13th Courtney Altringer 1:50.36 20 pts
Women’s 10k Nordic
8th Anni Nord 33:46.7 23 pts
9th Andrea Lee 33:51.8 22 pts
16th Eva Severrus 34:22.8 17 pts
Men’s 15k Nordic
6th Mats Resaland 41:38.9 27 pts
8th Aku Nikander 42:03.6 23 pts
14th Aljaz Praznik 43:35.4 19 pts