PARK CITY & SOLDIER HOLLOW, UTAH — Despite being shorthanded in the Nordic freestyle events, UNM picked up enough points there and in the slalom to stay in fourth place at the University of Utah Invitational. Juho-Pekka Penttinen, Karoline Myklebust and Sara Ottesson all finished in the top-10 in the slalom.
The Lobos are without two key returners in the Nordic events (Two-time All-America and NCAA champion Eva Sever Rus and All-America and U.S. Open champion Aku Nikander) and two newcomers (Carl-Johan Oster, alpine and Emilie Cedervarn, Nordic).
In the first slalom event of the season, the women’s alpine squad posted five top-20 marks, including Karoline Myklebust’s seventh place finish. The finish was the ninth-career top-10 for Myklebust in her 10 finishes. Also finishing in the top-10 was rookie Sara Ottesson, who recorded her first top-10 finish. Ottesson was 11th after the first run but she had the fourth-fastest run of the second run to catapult herself into eighth place.
Rounding out UNM’s top-20 finishes were Mateja Robnik in 13th place, Courtney Altringer in 14th place, and Sydney Staples in 19th place. Taylor Grauer rounded out UNM’s alpine squad in 32nd place.
On the men’s side, Juho-Pekka Penttinen returned to the top-10 with a sixth place finish. Last season Ponde, as he is called by his friends and teammates, had four top-10 finishes in the slalom in six tries, compared to just one top-10 in the GS. Penttinen was second after the opening run, just 0.03 off the lead, but he had a harrowing adventure in the second run, escaping a DNF but coming in just 26th. Still, he had built enough of a gap with his wonderous opening run for sixth.
Teammate Sean Horner tied for 14th, and Patrick Brachner was 26th. Mark Miller recorded a DNF in his opening run and didn’t place.
With the alpine over at the University of Utah Invitational, UNM’s shorthanded Nordic squads took their turn down the road in Soldier Hollow, and the results weren’t up to UNM’s usual standards, although head coach Fredrick Landstedt expected that. “We had a below-standard performance, but we are without a few key students right now,” he said. “Eva just isn’t 100% right now and we are going to be very cautious with her. We will get better in all areas as the season moves forward.”
On the women’s side, without Sever Rus, who had 10 podium finishes in 12 races last year, and without Cedervarn, the Lobos went with just three racers. UNM was led by newcomer Jessica Gnuechtel in her first official race, coming in 12th at 12:12.7 over the 5K race. Anni Nord was 17th overall and Heleene Tambet was 19th. Tambet joined the squad last year in midseason, and was a key member of UNM’s NCAA third place women’s cross country team.
On the men’s side, the Lobos had two skiers in Aljaz Praznik and Mats Resaland in the top 10 through three legs, but they fell out of the top 10 and finished 12th and 14th. A big return for UNM was the 18th place finish by senior Christian Otto, who missed all of last season with an injury. Newcomers Kyle Beling was 27th and Alec Wiltz was 38th.
The team was hurt without Nikander and Sever Rus, as Nikander was the defending Utah Invitational freestyle champion, and Sever Rus was third last year.
The final two events, the Nordic classical races, will take place at Soldier Hollow on Monday morning.
NOTES: UNM is 44.5 points ahead of Alaska Anchorage in the battle for fourth place.
Utah Invitational
Jan. 12 – Men’s 15-km freestyle (9:30 a.m. start); women’s 10-km freestyle (10:45 start)