Red River, N.M. — After the opening day of the Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational, the top four teams are within 34 points of each other. It should make for an interesting day two.
The Lobos are currently second behind front-running University of Colorado in a very tight battle halfway through the Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational. Colorado has 286 points, 10 ahead of New Mexico at 276. Utah is third with 257 and Denver fourth with 252. Lurking behind them in fifth is Alaska-Anchorage at 223.
Colorado and New Mexico were solid throughout the day, which helped them to the top two spots. Utah hurt their cause with a disastrous turn in the women’s slalom, as they had four of their five skiers record DNFs. Utah salvaged 34 points as Ana Koval finished third. Denver’s entire women’s Nordic squad didn’t race today due to illness.
Utah jumped out in front with the opening event the women’s 10K Classical at Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski Area. Veronika Mayerhoffer won that event, her second classical win of the year, and second straight. Right behind her was the first of three Lobos in Emilie Cedervärn, who recorded UNM’s highest finish of the season with a second-place showing. Cedervärn now has two podiums in three events.
Jessica Gnüchtel recorded her first top-10 career finish, coming in ninth, and Eva Sever Rus participated in her first classical race of the season with an 11th place finish. Those results had the Lobos tied with Colorado for second behind Utah after the opening event.
In the men’s 10K classical, it was déjà vu all over again as Colorado’s Rune Oedegaard won the event and his teammate Mads Ström was second. Those teammates have finished 1-2 in all five races this year, with Oedegaard winning four of them.
They helped pace Colorado to 92 points in the event and the lead after two. Mats Resaland finished seventh for UNM, his third straight top-10. Aljaz Praznik finished eighth, his second top 10 in three classical races. Christian Otto was the other scorer with a 22nd place finish, and Kyle Beling had his best race of his young career finishing 26th.
In the men’s downhill, Denver’s Espen Lysdahl ran his first slalom of the season and won it as Denver dominated the event with five of the top seven being Pioneers. Denver picked up 108 points, and Westminster picked up 80, with New Mexico grabbing 75. Juho-Pekka Penttinen, Sean Horner and Carl-Johan Öster finished 8-9-10, giving the trio three top-10s as the men’s alpine team had its best showing of the season.
Denver swept the slalom individual titles and Monica Hübner won the slalom, her second straight slalom win after also winning last weekend in Colorado. Mateja Robnik picked up UNM’s only top-10, finishing 10th, with Sara Ottesson right behind in 11th. Taylor Grauer had her first counter of the year, finishing 20th. Courtney Altringer was 24th and Sydney Staples missed a gate but finished the race after going back up the hill, coming in 35th.
Remaining Schedule of Events
Saturday, January 31:
Nordic Freestyle 5K women’s, 10K men’s
Men’s 9:00 a.m.
Women’s 10:15 a.m.
Slalom
Men’s First Run 9:15 a.m./Second Run 12:45 p.m.
Women’s First Run 10:45 a.m./Second Run 2:00 p.m.
SCORING: For the second season, the RMISA has the same scoring system utilized by the NCAA. Each school can designate six potential scoring skiers with the top three counting toward the team score. Points are awarded as follows for a maximum of 30 skiers: 40-37-34-31-29-27-25-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Any finisher from a school that has already scored three skiers do not receive team point credit, with the next placement assigned to the next finisher from a school who has not yet utilized all three scoring spots.
Notes: The Lobos got some bad news as All-American Karoline Søvik Myklebust, who had DNFed in the GS qualifier on Tuesday, will miss the remainder of the season with a broken ankle … Grauer’s 20th place finish was her best of the season … Miller’s DNF occurred at the very end of the second run … Anni Nord and several other women’s Nordics skipped the 10K race due to illness, but many will race tomorrow in the shorter 5K freestyle.